£300 - Intel or AMD?

[Korky]

Hi, this isnt a spec me thread as such I just want to know wether to go AMD or Intel with my budget.
The entire amount is for CPU + MOBO + RAM + GPU only.
I splashed out in December on a ip35pro + e8400 + 4gb ddr2 + ati 4850 but due to financial reasons had to sell it within a month so I am now completely without a PC. I was quite happy with the intel setup but 8 months on I would like to know if I am better going down the AMD route or going back with intel with this budget... purely for gaming and I would also like to know if I should go DDR3 or if the gains are not worth the extra cash.

I was thinkining...

AMD x3 720 BE - £90
AM2 or AM3 mobo (ddr2 or ddr3?) - £70
4870 1gb - £100
4gb DDR2/DDR3 £40

prices are rough estimates...

[Pob255]

You're prices are a little off

4870 1gb is around £120
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1Gb-S...MHz-PCIE-2xDVI
(although I'd consider the Sapphire Vapor-X a better cooler but £130
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-S...DMI-D-Sub-HDCP

AM3 vs AM2+
AM2+ slightly cheaper, cheaper memory (ddr2 only)
AM3 slightly more, but should support future cpu's, faster memory but more expensive (ddr3 only)

motherboard look for 770 with sb710 (AM3 £70)
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/GIGAB...770T-UD3P-MOBO

Gigabyte MA770-UD3 (rev2) am2+ £54
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...D3-Motherboard

Then we get to memory (I'm still not 100% as to which memory with what when it comes to amd & overclocking)
my base guess is
Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2 PC2-8500 £57
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-(...S-5-6-6-18-EPP
vs
Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC3-12800 £80
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-(...S-9-9-9-24-XMP

If you're happy to drop down to PC2-6800 then
4gb Corsair value select £51
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-C...Unbuffered-CL5
Or hunt around 2nd hand for 4x1gb sticks (I got my OCZ reaper 4x1gb this way for £35)
ALthough this may limit Overclocking

EDIT: Almost forgot
AMD x3 720 BE - £90 bang on and a great value cpu

[Blaineoliver]

Look at overclockers for prices, 2x2gb ddr3 for £50 ish.

[DeludedGuy]

Surely the X4 620 and X4 630 should be considered over the X3 720.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-A...MHz-95W-Retail

[scaryjim]

First - a £300 build now should definitely be AMD. You have a choice of Phenom II X2 or X3 and Athlon II X4 between £60 and £90.

770 + sb710 is definitely the chipset to go for in this space: ebuyer are your friends here with an AM3 MSI 770-C45 @ £50. You can pair this with 4GB Crucial DDR3-1333 @ £56. If you're going for a 1GB 4870 (also from MSI!) @ £109 that only leaves you ~ £85, so you'll have to choose between the Phenom II X2 550 BE or the Athlon II X4 620 to be below budget, or stretch it upwards for a Phenom II X3 (ebuyer have the 720BE @ > £100, so buy that from somewhere else!).

If you choose to stay within budget, I'd personally go for the Phenom II X2 as (currently) more games benefit from clock speed and cache than benefit from extra cores. Obviously, if you can afford the stretch to the Phenom II X3 I'd go for that.

[DeludedGuy]

X4 630 > X4 620 > X3 720

At stock, the X3 720 would be better for most games due the higher clock speed, but the X4 630 beats the X3 720 in every other respect, plus it overclocks really well, over 1.1ghz on air.

Check the review. http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1073/3/

Keep in mind future games will certainly be utilizing 4 cores.