Core i3 530 vs E8400 (G0 Stepping)
Hiya folks,
I'm got a weird one I'd say, more like side stepping possibly as the Core i3 530 seems to be clocked at 2.93 GHz whilst you all know that the E8400 is at 3GHz.
So my question is, I have one lying around due to go into a HTPC rebuild, however, I don't have a mATX board as of yet so was wondering would the Core i3 530 be as good or better than the E8400? Paper wise they look evenly specced?
This would allow me to upgrade to LGA1156 come January for essentially minimal cost as I would expect to get at least £75 for the E8400, so it would boil down to pretty much the cost of the motherboard as I already have some PC3-15000? CEX seem to be giving £60 cash for the CPU!
However, there doesn't seem to be much in the offering of decent (for HTPC gaming) mATX boards for either P45 or P55?
Thanks, appreciate picking your brains!
Re: Core i3 530 vs E8400 (G0 Stepping)
For p45 matx gaming there is the dfi p45-t2rs. i have one and it is a very good board. and is very good at overclocking dual cores.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/DFI-J...SATA-RAID-uATX
for p55 matx gaming you have the a choice of the following
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asroc...rboard-LGA1156 @ £79
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/MSI-P...rboard-LGA1156 @ £91
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...rboard-LGA1156 @ £155
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Intel...Gb-s-RAID-MATX @ £157
personally i would get the Msi board as i always feel asrock boards can be a bit questionable.
Re: Core i3 530 vs E8400 (G0 Stepping)
The Core i3 integrates an IGP onto the CPU itself and hence I believe there could be potential compatibility issues with P55 based motherboards. IIRC THE H55 chipset is what is required for the Core i3. I would definitely research this beforehand!
Re: Core i3 530 vs E8400 (G0 Stepping)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CAT-THE-FIFTH
The Core i3 integrates an IGP onto the CPU itself and hence I believe there could be potential compatibility issues with P55 based motherboards. IIRC THE H55 chipset is what is required for the Core i3. I would definitely research this beforehand!
I was definitely thinking that the boards would have to be a different chipset but wasn't sure but still on the socket 1156 right?
In terms of performance, the E8400 or Core i3 530?
Re: Core i3 530 vs E8400 (G0 Stepping)
AFAIK they still use socket 1156. The Core i3 should be better due to its newer architecture and I believe it may also have HT enabled too.
Of course you could always sell your E8400, get an X2 545 for around the same price and a mATX based AM3 motherboard for around £50 to £60!! :p
Perhaps you could unlock it to quad too!! :)
Re: Core i3 530 vs E8400 (G0 Stepping)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CAT-THE-FIFTH
AFAIK they still use socket 1156. The Core i3 should be better due to its newer architecture and I believe it may also have HT enabled too.
Of course you could always sell your E8400, get an X2 545 for around the same price and a mATX based AM3 motherboard for around £50 to £60!! :p
Perhaps you could unlock it to quad too!! :)
Thanks, am tempted now, if only the boards wouldn't be ridiculously priced!
Didn't know you could get an AMD X2 545 & mATX board for £60! :O_o1: How does the X2 545 at stock compare to the E8400?
Thanks, CAT!
Re: Core i3 530 vs E8400 (G0 Stepping)
E8400 is faster, but no noticably in games really.
Re: Core i3 530 vs E8400 (G0 Stepping)
Yes AFAIK the i3 will still be socket 1156 but it's a new chipset, you cannot use it in a "p" motherboard you have to use it in the "h" motherboard.
as to what it's priceing will be . . . still unknown
Re: Core i3 530 vs E8400 (G0 Stepping)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
UseItNow
Thanks, am tempted now, if only the boards wouldn't be ridiculously priced!
Didn't know you could get an AMD X2 545 & mATX board for £60! :O_o1: How does the X2 545 at stock compare to the E8400?
Thanks, CAT!
No, I meant you can get an X2 545 for around the same price you can sell your E8400 for and get an AM3 DDR3 motherboard for £50 to £60 and use the DDR3 you had. Sorry if there was a misunderstanding.
Here are some reviews for the 100mhz clocked higher X2 550BE:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/athlon...0-be-review/15
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Ha.../pii550/7.html
Of course you can get OEM Athlon II X3 processors quite cheaply too from Yoyotech for under £45:
http://www.yoyotech.co.uk/athlon-soc...p-2950165.html
http://www.yoyotech.co.uk/athlon-soc...p-2954882.html
Re: Core i3 530 vs E8400 (G0 Stepping)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CAT-THE-FIFTH
I was thinking that I might have got the wrong end of the stick, thanks.
I don't know if want to upgrade at the moment but still the AMD setup is very tempting at a cost/performance ratio! However, that said, I'm still tempted by the Core i3 for some reason, maybe to do with the supposed graphics improvement, who knows, maybe I've become an Intel fanboi?
Re: Core i3 530 vs E8400 (G0 Stepping)
The IGP in the Core i3 probably won't be any better than a 785G TBH especially if the latter has sideport memory!!
Anyway you could always muck around with unlocking the processor as you could be lucky!! Even the cheapo sub £40 DDR2 785G based motherboard I made a post about a few days ago could unlock the Phenom II X2 processors!!
Edit!!
Just realised that you said you can get £75 for your E8400. You can get an X2 550BE for that price. Also supposedly there is a faster 3.2ghz X2 555 in the works.