From i3 530 intel platform to AMD A6-3650 platform?

[Ulti]

Hey Hexites,

I just wondered if I were to move from the system I have now to the AsRock FM1-ITX with an A6-3650, would I notice any performance hits or gains? I'm guessing heavily threaded programs such as 7zip there'll be gains but will I lose much in single threaded performance?

I can't seem to find many benchmarks comparing the two.

Also, if I were to underclock/volt the A6-3650, what sort of power consumption figure would I be looking at? And would the graphics chip lose much power if I did that?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You should be considering the 65W A8-3800. AFAIK,it will be around £100 to £110. It has a nominal frequency of around 2.4GHZ with Turbo Core upto 2.7GHZ althought the GPU runs at the same time clockspeed as the A8-3850. The A6 IGP is much slower than the one in the A8.

Here is a comparison of a Core i3 530 and A6-3650:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/403?vs=118

[Ulti]

If it hovers around £100 I may consider it but the A6-3650 is only ~£85 and the IGP will be enough for me, from what I have seen the difference isn't that big.

Thanks for the comparison, just what I was looking for! Seems the benchmarks aren't too far away, as I guessed the i3 530 is still faster in most things but I guess I won't notice this in real life.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If it hovers around £100 I may consider it but the A6-3650 is only ~£85 and the IGP will be enough for me, from what I have seen the difference isn't that big.

Thanks for the comparison, just what I was looking for! Seems the benchmarks aren't too far away, as I guessed the i3 530 is still faster in most things but I guess I won't notice this in real life.

The A6-3650 still has a 100W TDP and TBH the 100W A8-3850 is simply better value for money for around £100:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/399?vs=403

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/399?vs=118

The A8-3850 would probably be an overall upgrade over a Core i3 530. It also a mcuh faster IGP than either the A6-3650 or Core i3 530.

If CPU performance is not that important,I would look at the 65W A6-3500 triple core:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-a...che-65w-retail

It has a 2.1GHZ nominal frequency and has Turbo Core upto 2.4GHZ and has the same 320 shader IGP as the A6-3650.

[Ulti]

Well I guess I may have to wait till my student loans then as even finding an extra £20 is hard right now haha.

Will probably go for an A8-3800 along with the AsRock FM1 A75M-ITX in an Antec ISK-100. I received my Antec ISK-100 today but whilst trying to sleeve the power cables I pulled off the wire from the connector. :/ Guess I'll be using my ISK-310 for now... I wonder if ScanSure would have covered that. I doubt it though.

I'm guessing the A8-3800 will be more expensive than the A8-3850 though, what stops me from buying the A8-3850 and underclocking and undervolting it to an A8-3800?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The A8-3800 has Turbo Core which the A8-3850 has disabled. TBH,you could also undervolt the A8-3800 too.

[Ulti]

Well CAT I've decided I'm going to switch to Llano using an Antec ISK-100 (80W PicoPSU built in).

I'll mostly just be streaming and web browsing (I've noticed that using my i3 530, on integrated graphics, when I watch a video and web browse it lags slightly) and occasionally fire up Excel/Access/Maple14 and other mathematical packages for uni work (studying actuarial science - basically stats with a name) and I won't be gaming at all.

Which processor would be best suited for me?

A6-3650 @ £81.56
A6-3600 @ £84.99
A8-3850 @ £98.42
A8-3800 @ £100.79
A6-3500 @ £69.98

Personally I feel it's between the A6-3600, A8-3800 or the A6-3500. A6-3600 costs £15 more (over 20% more) than the A6-3500 and the A8-3800 another £15 more (over 40% more than base).

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It wouldn't surprise me if the packages you mentioned will run better on an Intel CPU. However,I cannot be certain for sure. A Core i3 2100 or i3 2105 might be worth considering as the newer Intel IGPs are better. The A8-3800 is probably the best performing of the AMD CPUs you mentioned.

However,the main factor is the 80W PSU. I would say a 35W part like the Core i3 2100T is more suited for it.

You could get an i3 2100 or AMD Llano CPU and undervolt but it could quite possible that the first startup could damage or overload the PSU.

[Ulti]

Problem is the intel processors are so expensive that I would then have to get a really low budget ITX board such as the MSI one.

Personally I'm not worried about the power at all.

EDIT: Perhaps I can go for the Pentium G620 from DDY at £35, seems quite cheap, will need to buy a motherboard for about £80 (Asus P8H67-I or Gigabyte H67N-USB3)

Doesn't look too bad here when compared to the i3 530, seems to be roughly the same. http://hardware-review24.com/load/cp...eview/1-1-0-60

Looks a bit weak compared with the latest i3s and AMD APUs though: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1665/17/

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Problem is the intel processors are so expensive that I would then have to get a really low budget ITX board such as the MSI one.

Personally I'm not worried about the power at all.

EDIT: Perhaps I can go for the Pentium G620 from DDY at £35, seems quite cheap, will need to buy a motherboard for about £80 (Asus P8H67-I or Gigabyte H67N-USB3)

Doesn't look too bad here when compared to the i3 530, seems to be roughly the same. http://hardware-review24.com/load/cp...eview/1-1-0-60

Looks a bit weak compared with the latest i3s and AMD APUs though: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1665/17/

Another factor is that the stock AMD heatsink is not low profile. I am not sure if the 65W CPUs have a smaller heatsink though. The Intel stock heatsink for 65W CPUs is low profile.

AMD have launched the A4 dual cores. The A4-3400 is probably around the same speed as an Athlon II X2 240 but has an HD6450 level IGP with UVD3 meaning media decoding should be fine. It will cost around £55 to £60. OTH,the A6-3500 triple core does not look too bad value for around £70.

[sikander293]

ALL of the a6-a8 series are being hailed as the best value (price/performance) cpu's EVER. EVER.

the a8 have a lot more features than the a6 - my favourite being better gfx, but the higher a8 (3850) has better features not just a higher clock so definitely recomment 3850!

[Ulti]

If I do go the SB route, what would be the cheapest board with a SATA3 port, UEFI BIOS and a DVI port (don't want to use those big fat chunky adapters)

The cheapest I've found is the AsRock H67M-ITX for £70, anything more than £5 cheaper?