Desktop diy build processor question

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I'm looking at building my own desktop. I am having a hard time choosing a processor. Intel's i5 is 3.5ghz for 200 bucks while amd has 4ghz processors for the same price. My usage will be browsing the net and streaming netflix. Any suggestions?

Thanks!
 
the processor will not make a difference if all you are doing is browsing the net and watching netflix.

All of them will just work, and the cpu will be idling along at 15%.


if you are over the processors though, don't measure on the clock speed; go to a benchmark site or comparo site and plug in both cpus and it'll tell you in "points" which one has more computing power or if they are practically equivalent.
 
Where are you shopping at? Microcenter or Newegg, or something else?


This is what you can get at newegg in the 1150 socket for around 200 something.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116989

It's been my experience that Intel has been a much better processor since they came out with Core 2. My friends Old i5 3770k smashes my Quad core AMD 960T in pure gigaflops and most everything else. That is even with both overclocked to the same speed, he pulls roughly double the raw processing power. I have been with AMD since socket A, but if i ever get done with this AM3+ socket, i will go to Intel mostly likely.

With that being said, if you DON'T plan on upgrading your processor at a later time i would get the AMD chip, ala FX-8350, which has more power and a higher turbo speed at stock settings than the Intel in most benchmarks.

If you want to upgrade later in life when the 1150 chips come down in price, i would get the intel setup for now, the AM3+ doesn't have much room to grow.

A 4770k will drop in nicely to the proper board when prices come down next generation or two for a huge speed boost.

Also i forgot to ask, what is the computer being used for and what are the rest of the parts being used with the build? A spec sheet would help as well as budget!
 
Specs are as follows: 600w psu, 8gb ram, 256gb ssd drive, 1 gb graphics card.
It seems Intel has a bigger and cheaper variety of motherboards available.
Any websites in particular where I can compare specific cpu's?
 
Just get an i3. It will be more than sufficient for anything you are going to do. And what is the specific graphics card? "1GB" means nothing if it's a 6350 or GT 610.
 
While I'd agree that the i3 is a good choice, you may also want to consider the AMD APUs; they typically have a slower CPU than the i3, but faster integrated graphics, if you ever feel like doing some basic gaming.
 
Originally Posted By: FirstNissan
Specs are as follows: 600w psu, 8gb ram, 256gb ssd drive, 1 gb graphics card.
It seems Intel has a bigger and cheaper variety of motherboards available.
Any websites in particular where I can compare specific cpu's?


what speed ram? this also depends on the cpu
for which voltage to buy.

1gb video card is like saying I have 225 tires.. means almost nothing.

you may want to add a 1tb hdd for video/music etc later.

I'd get a 4590k and 1150 motherboard combo at microcenter if available.
Blows the doors off almost anything amd has and uses much less power/less heat etc.

you really dont want a 600w power supply.

get a medium/high quality 450/500w model

the cheapest I would get is the corsair CS450M gold.

an evga 500w 80+ bronze would be adequate as well.

a good PSU will reward you with years and years of trouble free service and not take out your computer if it dies.

my current psu is a corsair ax650, but I was planning on 2 400$ video cards when I initially built it.
 
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what I would build
4th Gen Intel® Core™ i5 4690K 3.5GHz LGA 1150
ASUS Z97-AR LGA 1150 Intel ATX

300$ at microcenter combo.

Alternatively the
4th Gen Intel® Core™ i3-4360 3.7 GHz LGA 1150
Processor bundle is 60$ cheaper
@240$
the i5 is very overclockable near 25% easily.
the I3 is not.

Powersupply budget about 70$ for a quality model
cheapest I would get is the near 50$ evga 500B model.
case

Case..is obviously to your taste.

If you are looking fairly budget
I've had good luck with these
Case at 40$ after mir

Memory -80$
Ram

ssd-- I'd prefer a samsung or crucial
110$ samsung 840evo are about 20$ more.
crucial mx100
Dvd/cd burner = 15-20$

Final note: If you cross shop newegg, and microcenter you can save a few bucks.. but I did that list in 5min.

usually microcenter blows the doors off everyone for processor/mobo bundle..
everything else can be slightly higher than newegg.
 
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I wish the edit window was longer.. just noticed when I edited I deleted the part where I mentioned

just using the onboard built into the processor video unless you are spending at least 100$ on a gforce 750 or better.
 
Originally Posted By: Rand
I wish the edit window was longer.. just noticed when I edited I deleted the part where I mentioned

just using the onboard built into the processor video unless you are spending at least 100$ on a gforce 750 or better.


I agree. I went with a i5 & Asus Mobo. The integrated video works perfectly fine for me - even using a two monitor setup. Put the graphics card money toward an SSD for your boot drive and you'll have a rig that'll work fine for your needs.
 
What power supply are you using? Same goes for the PSU, saying i am using a 600w power supply is like saying i want 16 inch tires but no other specs. Some manufactures are making extremely inferior units with low amperage on the 12 volt rail and inflating the 3.3/5v rails and calling them "600 watts" even though they only deliver enough 12 volt amperage to count as a 300 watt, when 12 volt rail is what matters.

Good rule of thumb when shopping for power supplies if you don't read reviews on dissections is go for 80 plus gold or better.
 
If you're not using a dedicated GPU, you really don't need much power. I have an i7 and GTX660 GPU, and that only takes about 200W from the wall when playing games.

A mid-range CPU with integrated graphics should work fine with a half-decent 300W PSU.
 
This is a good discussion, but all are way overpowered for the OP's stated intended use. The fastest machine we have in the house has an Intel Pentium G2030 processor (better than a Celeron, lower than a Core i3) and it streams ANY content off the internet just fine. Integrated graphics, and 4 GB total system RAM.

Heck, the computer in our garage has an AMD Athlon x2 2.3 GHz processor and it streams Netflix and YouTube like a champ. Any Celeron processor you buy today will stream anything you want to stream off the internet. You won't have as much future-proofing with a Celeron, but you certainly don't need an i5 to surf BITOG and watch Netflix.

Like Nick, I'd recommend the lowest priced i3 you can find and pair it with a decent motherboard with integrated graphics. That is truly more than you need to do what you want to do.

Edit: I just saw Rand's suggestion of that dual core Pentium/MOBO combo. That's a very appropriate recommendation for this application.
 
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Good suggestions above.

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
... Any Celeron processor you buy today will stream anything you want to stream off the internet. ....

I just wanted to add that while I am usually satisfied with lower end processors too, be wary that Intel has recently been using the Pentium and Celeron names on some of their Atom class (Bay Trail) processors. I would avoid those unless the lower power consumption is more important than the weak performance.

But a Haswell (Celeron or Pentium or i3) is good in my opinion. Most everyday applications have no need for four cores.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. From overall opinion, seems like i5 will be overkill, I'll skip the celeron just to future-proof myself just in case it decide on upgrading from win7 to another OS. I'll look for a decent i3 deal. Will integrated graphics cut it for streaming or should I go with a graphics card?
 
Originally Posted By: FirstNissan
Will integrated graphics cut it for streaming...?


Absolutely. Anything you get with a G-series Pentium or a Core i3 will stream HD video just fine. I routinely watch Netflix in 1080 HD on our computer, and it's a G2030 Ivy Bridge Pentium (so a few iterations old now) with Intel's standard integrated graphics. If you're buying a new Haswell i3, you should have more than what you need.
 
Originally Posted By: BearZDefect
Good suggestions above.

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
... Any Celeron processor you buy today will stream anything you want to stream off the internet. ....

I just wanted to add that while I am usually satisfied with lower end processors too, be wary that Intel has recently been using the Pentium and Celeron names on some of their Atom class (Bay Trail) processors. I would avoid those unless the lower power consumption is more important than the weak performance.

But a Haswell (Celeron or Pentium or i3) is good in my opinion. Most everyday applications have no need for four cores.


I am unaware of this, and I keep up pretty well with stuff. I have Celeron g1610, which is one of the lowest end ivy bridge chips sold, in my server. I'm fairly sure all bay trail chips are marketed as atom. I could be wrong but I haven't seen any examples of this.
 
Originally Posted By: Nick R

I am unaware of this, and I keep up pretty well with stuff. I have Celeron g1610, which is one of the lowest end ivy bridge chips sold, in my server. I'm fairly sure all bay trail chips are marketed as atom. I could be wrong but I haven't seen any examples of this.


The celeron J1800 and J1900 are both bay trail.

for example the j1800 is a dualcore that's about half as fast as the previous celeron 1037u
This started with haswell/baytrail.

previous celerons were actual"celerons" not atoms.

the j1900 is aprox as fast as the celeron 1037u but the j1900 quad core so slow on single threaded applications.

My celeron system(pfsense box) 1037u uses about 17w at idle. That's with a 2.5" hdd and intel dual gigabit nic.

if anyone wants to keep reading
the j1900 celeron benchmark (quad core)
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Celeron+J1900+%40+1.99GHz

1921 cpumark

j1800 benchmark
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Celeron+J1800+%40+2.41GHz

1021 cpumark



1037u celeron benchmark
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Celeron+1037U+%40+1.80GHz

1784 cpumark

so you see the per core performance is
900/core for ivybridge celerons

vs ~~500/core for baytrail celerons.

The baytrail chips do have a TDP of only 10watts including the quad core
vs 17w for the ivybridge celeron.


The celeron g1610



http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Celeron+G1610+%40+2.60GHz

2551 cpumark and 55w tdp.


The atom previous to baytrail... pineview

d2700 is 842 cpumark
and no 64 bit support.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Atom+D2700+%40+2.13GHz


Really the celeron 1037u is the slowest pc I would build for someone, and that 99$ pentium+mobo deal I linked is 2x+ as fast.

The J1800 or j1900 have much potential for purpose built boxes such as NAS, router, or mini server.
but aren't well supported by opensource software yet

Many are even available with dual built in nic

They use so little power you don't have a mini heater running 24/7 and also can go Fanless for low noise.
 
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