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budget mmo cpu upgrade

lichfield

lichfield

lichfield

Associate
Joined
30 Oct 2011
Posts
93
Hi guys,
My friend needs to update his aging dual core Athlon rig.He mainly plays guildwars 2 now or wow or future mmo's.We where thinking of going the i3 route as he is on a tight budget,but having seen the piledriver reviews/benches I wonder if the quad core or hex core would be a better option? As guild wars utilizes more then 2 cores?

i5 is too expensive,he is still using his trusty 5770 as he only games at 720p and tbh I think his cpu holds that back still.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Here are some reviews of the FX6300:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6396/the-vishera-review-amd-fx8350-fx8320-fx6300-and-fx4300-tested
http://www.techspot.com/review/586-amd-fx-8350-fx-6300/
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Proces...FX-6300-Processor-Review-Vishera-Breaks-Cover
http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/3314/amd-fx-8350--8320--6300-vishera-review-finally-good-enough

It is compared against the Core i3 3220 in all of them,and Anandtech considers the FX6300 be faster overall in Skyrim and Diablo 3 under Windows 8 using a GTX680. Skyrim and Diablo 3 are lightly threaded games AFAIK. Maybe,as more reviews are released we will see more benchmarks for other lightly threaded games.
 
His budget is kinda tight,he would like to roughly spend 160 quid.so basically he needs a new mobo ram and cpu...so we are talking cheapest options,tbh I would help him out with a few quid if it was worth spending the extra.thanks for those links CAT.
Ahh I also think he might be getting windows 8,as he lost the win 7 key he had and reinstalled it without finding the key first...
 
Yeah but he does not have his windows keyI'd imagine you need a legit key to be able to upgrade to win8? I have no idea why he wiped his pc without reclaiming his key first.
 
If he's playing single core heavy then an i3 would be the best option unless you buy a Piledriver and put a stupid overclock on it ;)
 
That's what I told him bacon,but as he mainly plays guild wars I just thought it could be a alternative,I think the i3 could be the safer option.
 
lichfield said:
His budget is kinda tight,he would like to roughly spend 160 quid.so basically he needs a new mobo ram and cpu...so we are talking cheapest options,tbh I would help him out with a few quid if it was worth spending the extra.thanks for those links CAT.
Ahh I also think he might be getting windows 8,as he lost the win 7 key he had and reinstalled it without finding the key first...
Click to expand...

I tend to prefer motherboards with 4 RAM slots as they should give you better expansion possibilities in the future. However,remember the FX6300 is slightly faster in Diablo3 and Skyrim, according to Anandtech, and these use two to three threads at most.

Intel

Core i3 3220

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-430-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=567

8GB DDR3

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-133-CR&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

B75 motherboard

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-086-AK&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2307

Has 4 RAM slots and has USB3.0 and SATA3.0 ports too.

The total comes to around £172.

However,there seems to be loads of this B-Grade Z68 based motherboard in stock:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-252-GI&groupid=595&catid=689&subcat=

That would bring the total down to around £152.

AMD

FX6300

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-338-AM&groupid=701&catid=1967&subcat=1825

8GB DDR3

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-133-CR&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

780G based motherboard

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-415-GI&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=1481

Has 4 RAM slots and USB3.0 ports.

The total comes to around £170.
 
Last edited:
Cheers cat,that's exactly what I'd point him towards.4 ram slots is a must ,as is the 8gig of ram or future proofing him a bit.as he loves pc gaming due to mmo's.I can easily help him out with twenty quid towards it.his kids come first due to the tight budget.

Thanks for all your help guys
 
Wait... if he has an AM3/AM2+ board just whack a 955BE in it, they're on offer right now. Set volts to 1.4 and multiplier to 3.7GHz and you're good to go.
 
Guild Wars 2 only use up to 3 cores max. If budget is an issue, I'd probably still consider a 2nd hand i5 2500K as an option, as 3 cores of the PD would most likely struggle to hold 50-60fps.
 
lichfield said:
I think he is on a am2 board, using a dual core Athlon at 2.7ghz can't remember the name.he got it a good few years ago
Click to expand...

There are DDR2 memory controllers in the Phenom II CPUs. One of the newer £100 CPUs are quicker,but if you are on a tight budget,that would extend the life of the rig somewhat for £60.

Then your mate could save some more money up and get something more powerful in another year or so?? Maybe even a Haswell based rig and a new graphics card??
 
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