• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

i3-7100 or something else

nheather

nheather

nheather

Associate
Joined
19 May 2004
Posts
942
Location
Horsham, West Sussex
Hi,

Helping my son upgrade his PC for Christmas. It is used predominantly for gaming - he mostly plays first person RPGs like Dark Souls, Elder Scrolls, Witcher etc.

The main aim is to improve the graphics - currently a HD 7950, looking at a GTX 1060 or a RX 780.

But he is keen to refresh his system and would like to move from AMD to Intel for the CPU.

Looking to keep the spend reasonable.

He currently has an AMD FX-6300 Black Edition (running stock) - that was a hand-me-down from me.

I'm quite out of touch, not having done any upgrades for 3-4 years. But reading up the i3-7100 seems to be recommended as a good bang for the buck for gaming.

So some questions

1) Is the i3-7100 good or should I he be looking at something else - not too much extra money though

2) Looking at performance the i3-7100 is better than FX-6300 but is it enough to make it worthwhile

Appreciate your help,

Cheers,

Nigel
 
I wouldn't go for the i3 7100 as it's only 2c4t hypertheaded, for the same money I'd look at an I3 8100 110 quid which is Coffee lake with 4 cores.
If you can afford it i'd look at the I3 8350k at 150 quid if you are willing to overclock.

Other alternatives would be the budget R3 1200 4core at 90 quid and a cheaper a320/b350 board, or just spend about the same as the intel but get the r5 1400 4c8T. The problem is the R5 1600 isn't a lot more and is 6c12t but then I'm not sure where your budget is, and Intel are really competitive with their pricing at the moment in the lower range.
 
Last edited:
i3 are the old i5's. 4core 4tbreads.
The i3's will be fantastic cpu's when cheaper motherboards turn up. But hear and now I would not be getting one.

The extra £40 for a ryzen 1400 could be saved on a b350 motherboard and it will be a better performer.
4cores 8threads on the 1400 plus overclocking make it a better choice over the i3.
 
My money would be on.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £232.48
(includes shipping: £10.50)
​


Although I have just seen the 1200 as gone down to 90... this is a good price.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £172.48
(includes shipping: £10.50)
​
 
nheather said:
1) Is the i3-7100 good or should I he be looking at something else - not too much extra money though

2) Looking at performance the i3-7100 is better than FX-6300 but is it enough to make it worthwhile

Appreciate your help,
Click to expand...

What would help to gauge if a CPU upgrade is the optimal course of action for improved performance would be information about what Graphics card that he currently has, and what resolution he plays his games at, also how much RAM does he currently have. Don't forget, you'll need RAM, motherboard and CPU, and that lot will set you back at least £250, for what might amount to 10% gains in performance.

If you can help answer the questions, then you'll figure out if it's worth it. :)

EDIT: Just realised that you said he has a 7950, and you are looking at a GTX 1060, are you doing the whole upgrade at the same time?
 
He as a fx6300 at stock the i3 or ryzen would not be 10% gains in performance.

The i3 8100 is the same power as last gen i5's @stock speeds and it's only £100. The i5's have been 20 to 30% over the 6300 for a long time. Right now the only problem is cost of motherboards if your could wait you could same £40 on cost of motherboard. This i3 last gen was called i5 and last gen for 200 you would have been call stupid not to buy an i5.....

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £230.48
(includes shipping: £10.50)

The i3 8100 or ryzen 1400 is the way to go. Matched with a gtx1080 for 1080p gaming it would be very good

If you want you can wait for the new Pentium or Celeron as they will have the same core count at last gen i3 but cheaper. The new Pentium or Celeron are 2core 4threads
​
 
Last edited:
Remember you're gona need to buy DDR4 RAM too, unless you have some lying around.

Also, i've been running a G4600 (Kabylake Pentium Dual Core with HT) while my 6700K is going through RMA, and it is good for some games (Dirt Rally, F1 2016) but struggles with others, so deffo go for a quad core or higher, the stuttering in DayZ and Arma 3 is pretty much unplayable for me, though some would bare with it.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the tip about the RAM. Assuming that wasn't going to be changed but just seen comments about needing DDR4.

That changes things, he currently has 8GB of DDR3.

So that would be more cost making the CPU upgrade looking less attractive - changes the CPU is fine, having to change the MoBo was expected but annoying as it is dead money, and having to change the RAM aswell is disappointing.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
nheather said:
Thanks for the tip about the RAM. Assuming that wasn't going to be changed but just seen comments about needing DDR4.

That changes things, he currently has 8GB of DDR3.

So that would be more cost making the CPU upgrade looking less attractive - changes the CPU is fine, having to change the MoBo was expected but annoying as it is dead money, and having to change the RAM aswell is disappointing.

Cheers,

Nigel
Click to expand...

You have get an 1150 board and i7 cpu use for around 220
 
Add a GTX 1060 and 8gb more ram, would be more economical than changing platform entirely, just the graphics card would be enough, but you can pickuo DDR3 cheaply enough used now to make it worth while.
 
nheather said:
Thanks for the tip about the RAM. Assuming that wasn't going to be changed but just seen comments about needing DDR4.

That changes things, he currently has 8GB of DDR3.

So that would be more cost making the CPU upgrade looking less attractive - changes the CPU is fine, having to change the MoBo was expected but annoying as it is dead money, and having to change the RAM aswell is disappointing.

Cheers,

Nigel
Click to expand...

My honest advice would be to buy the new graphics card, then see how you find the performance. It's not like there is anything stopping you getting the CPU/RAM/Mobo at a later date, then reusing the new card. :)
 
P4Clock said:
i3 are the old i5's. 4core 4tbreads.
The i3's will be fantastic cpu's when cheaper motherboards turn up. But hear and now I would not be getting one.

The extra £40 for a ryzen 1400 could be saved on a b350 motherboard and it will be a better performer.
4cores 8threads on the 1400 plus overclocking make it a better choice over the i3.
Click to expand...
I3 7100 is only 2 core 4 thread.
Andi.
 
First things first, budget.. how much are you willing to spend up to? Then people here have a better idea on how to help you out :)

Also, what is the exact spec of the RAM he currently has?
 
Hi,

The primary aim is to improve the screen refresh in games (predominantly first person RPG type games).

To be able to run on single HD monitor (1080P) with full settings at a decent frame rate.

I imagine that this is mostly down to the graphics card.

However, my son was interested in upgrading the CPU to improve the overall responsiveness.


Now I'm beginning to think, as Journey has suggested, to just get a new graphics card and see how it goes from there.

When we were thinking CPU + MoBo + GFX we were considering somewhere between £400 and £500


If we have to buy DDR4 memory that will push the budget up by another £80+

It's not so much the money (though that is a consideration) but fact that the MoBo and Memory would be best part of £200 and they feel like dead money - not giving him anything he doesn't have already (other than to support a new CPU) - the MoBO isn't to bad but the memory just feels like a waste - or is DDR4 much better than DDR3?

Cheers,

Nigel
 
If this were me i'd be looking at something like..

Core i3-8100 3.6GHz (Coffee Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/inte...ocket-lga1151-processor-retail-cp-63q-in.html £109.99


asrock
z370 pro4 intel z370 (socket 1151) ddr4 atx motherboard
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asro...cket-1151-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-15p-ak.html £109.99
Or..
msi
z370-a pro intel z370 (socket 1151) ddr4 atx motherboard
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-...cket-1151-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-32j-ms.html £109.99



team group
vulcan t-force 8gb (2x4gb) ddr4 pc4-19200c14 2400mhz dual channel kit - grey
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/team...l-channel-kit-grey-tlgd48g2400-my-08g-tg.html £68.99 < on offer until wednesday.

Thats under £290 for a Quad Core system/bundle on Intels latest platform and leaves a good chunk of change out of your spend to wait and see how GPU prices change coming up to christmas, in the meantime, use the 7950 which is still a good card (i still have one myself :) ) and try and sell off his older parts to put towards a GPU when the time comes :)

Alternatively, if he needs an SSD, theres some change for a Samsung 850 EVO there, but im sure he already has an SSD :p

Also if a CPU change is needed down the line for a 6 core upgrade, its there.. same with RAM too.

But what do i know :D
 
£500 can be done, if you can wait till December the lower end intel boards will be out and you could save £40 to £50 on a motherboard

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £519.06
(includes shipping: £11.10)
​

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £514.06
(includes shipping: £11.10)
​

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £454.06
(includes shipping: £11.10)
​
 
nheather said:
Hi,

To be able to run on single HD monitor (1080P) with full settings at a decent frame rate.

I imagine that this is mostly down to the graphics card.

It's not so much the money (though that is a consideration) but fact that the MoBo and Memory would be best part of £200 and they feel like dead money - not giving him anything he doesn't have already (other than to support a new CPU) - the MoBO isn't to bad but the memory just feels like a waste - or is DDR4 much better than DDR3?
Click to expand...

DDR4 is higher bandwidth with higher latencies than DDR3, so yes technically it is better, and faster, but it's a non-issue since you have no option but to go to DDR4 if you want one of the newer platforms.

I think that the sensible choice would be to wait for the cheaper B360/H370 motherboards that are due in January '18 and pair it with an i3 8100 CPU, and 8GB DDR4 RAM, but in the mean time grab the graphics card that you want. Or the AMD Ryzen CPU's are also very good, and you can get nice cheap boards already, ~£50+, and the CPU's start from around £90, so total platform cost is from about £230 inc. RAM. Again I'd argue there is no reason not to get the graphics card first,

You mention that he wants to run 1080p at a decent frame-rate, is it an older monitor? You could possibly look at the getting an AMD Radeon RX580 4GB/8GB which leaves the options of Adaptive sync, using Freesync as a real option, at a reasonable cost. If you are unfamiliar with Freesync, it allows the GPU and Mointor to talk to each other, and the screen refreshes at the FPS output of the card in real-time, so the whole game play feels much smoother even if say it's only hitting 40fps for example.

Oh, and why not stick a nice little overclock on the FX CPU, they usually have no problem hitting 4.0GHz+ with zero effort. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom