So yes, I'm going to tackle a touchy subject. AMD vs INTEL. Before everyone starts getting up in arms, "there simply is no competition for intel." I know. You're right. Sort of. For the most demanding gamers, who are pushing the newest games to their max resolution intel IS, without question, the leader in single threaded CPU speeds. But what about the rest of us? What about the casual gamer, the computer hobbyist, and the internet zombies? The answer is AMD. I'm a long time Intel user. Up until 2013 every PC I bought or build was Intel. But last year a friend came to me and said, "I want to build the baddest, fastest PC we can for UNDER $400."
I set out to look for sales on Intel core processors, last years models, aging chipsets of all varieties. I was at work one day and a co-worker stopped by my desk and saw I was searching component prices and asked what I was building, I explained the challenge, and he laughed and said "You? Mr. anti Apple fanboy can't see past intel? Give AMD a shot." I decided he was right. If I could bash apple, I could at least consider AMD. But I knew nothing about them. I had ignored them so long, I was ignorant to their product line. Here's the Basics:
First at the top, you have the FX line. They are 4-8 cores, and have no onboard GPU. The run on the AM3+ socket and push speeds of up to 5GHZ stock. Overclockers push these chips to insane speeds. The highlight in my opinion of this line is the 4350. It's 4.2GHZ stock core speed, 4 cores, and overclocking potential for under $100 are damn hard to beat. If you're lucky enough to live near a microcenter, you can get this bundled with a motherboard for about $10 more. You'll have a hard time finding work this chip can't handle. When building with the FX series, you'll need a discreet GPU, unless your chipset has onboard graphics (limited number of mATX). BUt lets be honest, if you're building anything to game on, you're getting a gpu right? Maybe, AMD has a different idea for that.
Next down the line of AMD we have the A-Series. These chips are complicated line up, but in a good way. They have up to 12 cores each, however what you get in a 12 core chip, is 4 CPU cores, and 8 GPU cores. Yeah, they did that, they put the GPU on die with the CPU. These chips are known as APU's. These chips run on the FM2 and FM2+ socket, and have speeds up to 4.0GHZ. The most expensive A10 chip can be had for around $110. The A series has the A10's, A8's and A6's. Each a step down in speed and cost. All viable options for some light gaming on a budget. You'll have to keep the setting lows, but this will be an acceptable entry level gaming PC.
I'd go further down the line with AMD model lines, but there really isn't a point, the sockets are dead and the chips are aging. You can still game on a Phenom or Athlon II if you have one, but I don't suggest you seek them out to build with. That said, you can grab a $10 AMD Sempron 145, find a AM3+ motherboard with a SB710 Southbridge, unlock the second core, overclock it and have the beginnings of a decent HTPC build with tons of room to upgrade.
I'm going to do a little breakdown.
We all know you can easily speed well over $1000 building a top tier gaming PC. But I'm not always concerned with top tier anything, and here's 3 ways to do it. First we'll list out an INTEL i3, then an equal rig by AMD and then a budget friendly A10 rigand for ease of viewing, I used PCPartPicker website. You can easily shave a quick $50 off these prices across the board by shopping around. Especially if you have a microcenter near by. So without further ado...
INTEL i3 Budget PC
[PCPartPicker part list]
CPU | [Intel Core i3-4370 3.8GHz Dual-Core Processor]| $139.99 @ Micro Center
Motherboard | [ASRock Z97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard] | $74.99 @ Newegg
Memory | [Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory] | $61.99 @ Adorama
Storage | [Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive] | $48.99 @ NCIX US
Storage | [Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive] | $51.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card | [EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card] | $124.99 @ NCIX US
Case | [Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case] | $19.99 @ Micro
Center Power Supply | [Antec 450W ATX Power Supply] | $24.99 @ Newegg
Prices include shipping, taxes
| Total | $617.82
AMD FX4350 Build
[PCPartPicker part list]
CPU| [AMD FX-4350 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor] | $99.99 @ Micro Center
Motherboard | [Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard] | $50.98 @ Newegg
Memory | [Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory] | $61.99 @ Adorama
Storage | [Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive] | $48.99 @ NCIX US
Storage | [Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive] | $51.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card | [EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card] | $124.99 @ NCIX US
Case | [Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case] | $19.99 @ Micro Center
Power Supply | [Antec 450W ATX Power Supply] | $24.99 @ Newegg
Prices include shipping, taxes
| Total | $542.80
AMD A10 Build
[PCPartPicker part list]
CPU | [AMD A10-7850K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor] | $139.95 @ NCIX US
Motherboard| [Asus A78M-E Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard] | $47.95 @ SuperBiiz
Memory | [Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory] | $61.99 @ Adorama
Storage| [Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive] | $48.99 @ NCIX US
Storage | [Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive] | $51.89 @ OutletPC
Case | [Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case] | $19.99 @ Micro Center
Power Supply| [Antec 450W ATX Power Supply] | $24.99 @ Newegg
Prices include shipping, taxes
| Total | $440.75
The first 2 build are nearly equal in performance, if I had to give it to one, I'd say the AMD offers a bit more in the way of overclocking, and for that much cheaper it's hard to pass. The A10 build is a bit lower power, but much nicer on a budget. and no need for a video card.
Well I hope you've learned something about the little guy, and while I have to admit, my personal gaming machine is an Intel, 3 of the others are AMD. I
