New CPU Guide

[BluStorm]

My poor AMD Athlon X2 is in some serious need of rest, so I was looking to upgrade, but I'm looking for some advice on whether the Core I3/5/7 are really worth going for, or if the Pentium/Celeron are just as good.

Firstly, I know the I3/7 offer Hyper-Threading and that they have better power management, but in terms of real Average Joe usage, are they really worth the extra cost?

So what do I use my machine for...
1) Browsing
2) Watching Series etc
3) Playing WoW / Blizzard games
4) Occasional other games.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[simon]

What are those occasional other games?
Blizzard games tend to have very low requirements so a new cpu isn't a must for them.
A new cpu obviously means a new motherboard and possibly new memory as well.
Out of those the i3 would be the one to recommend. It is a cpu that should last a while for your type of needs. Worth the extra R500 or so.

 

[BluStorm]

Occasional other games would include:

League of Legends
Counter Strike GO
Civilization
and pretty much any other game that goes on special on Steam, and doesn't require a mega GPU (currently sporting an HD 4850).

I know I need a new rig, but sadly, the real world is full of far more important things....

 

[Glordit]

Occasional other games would include:

League of Legends
Counter Strike GO
Civilization
and pretty much any other game that goes on special on Steam, and doesn't require a mega GPU (currently sporting an HD 4850).

I know I need a new rig, but sadly, the real world is full of far more important things....

Well you can get away with a Pentium G 3240 that is as low as I would go for about R 750. Other than that pay and extra R 800 and you can get a i3-5130. How ever if you do take the Pentium G for the price of a i3 you could basically get a CPU+MOBO+RAM.

 

[BluStorm]

One other question. I seem to remember a while ago, that once you placed an LGA CPU, you couldn't replace it. Is this true, or was that an just speculation?

 

[Wesley]

So what do I use my machine for...
1) Browsing
2) Watching Series etc
3) Playing WoW / Blizzard games
4) Occasional other games.

Occasional other games would include:
League of Legends
Counter Strike GO
Civilization
and pretty much any other game that goes on special on Steam, and doesn't require a mega GPU (currently sporting an HD 4850).

I would follow Glordit's recommendation, which is a new board, RAM and an Intel Core i3-4130. Compared to your current build, it would blow the socks off it with relative ease.

Also, look at nabbing yourself a Geforce GT 730 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory, or a Radeon R7 250 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory. These cost about R900-ish depending on the brand and possible sales and they are way more capable and faster than your older card, plus they bring you up to date with new architectures and DX12 support. You wouldn't even have to change your power supply.

One other question. I seem to remember a while ago, that once you placed an LGA CPU, you couldn't replace it. Is this true, or was that an just speculation?

I don't know where you heard this, but the person who told you about it or where you read it from was probably referencing BGA, which is where the processor is soldered into the motherboard and can't be taken off without desoldering it first. LGA stands for Landing Grid Array, which is where the pins for the connection are on the motherboard, with the CPU fitting into a socket.

 

[Lothy]

Just keep in mind MMOs use more CPU then ur normal SP games. So either get a decent i5 or at least an i7