Higher core or GHz?

[CSgone]

I'm thinking of building a pc but I'm a noob (cue hurling of rotten fruit). Should I get an i3 with higher GHz or an i7 with lower GHz? Thanks.

 

[cliffordcooley]

What do you use the machine for?

For the mass majority an i3 will be plenty.
For those needed more processing power an i5 would likely be sufficient.
For those that spend hours encoding and decoding video anything less than an i7 would be intolerant.

 

[CSgone]

I don't know what I'd use it for yet, but I'm used to console frame rates (easily impressed) but I also want to use Unity.

 

[HardReset]

Every i3 suck, way too expensive. If you are really OK with two cores, then Pentium G4560 is way to go. Only maor difference between i3 and Pentium G4560 is missing AVX support in Pentium. If you want at least 4 cores, then Ryzen 3 or Ryzen 5 are best choices. Exact model depends on budget.

 

[cliffordcooley]

@CSgone, if you have no interest in AMD ignore HardReset. He really can't help himself when it comes to a chance at selling AMD. However with that said, if you don't mind considering AMD, he is right. I myself though am not quite sold on AMD just yet.

 

[Strawman]

Depends on what exactly it is that you are doing. Intel right now only has 2 CPU's worth buying the g4560 and the i7 7700k. For any other price point go for a Ryzen

Do you actually want the PC for gaming? What titles and what card do you plan on using?

 

[CSgone]

An R9 270X (probably) in the gpu department, and Fortnite is probably the newest title

 

[Strawman]

A g4560 will handle it just fine but I think you really need a better GPU, although frankly with the prices spiking nowadays, good luck with that.

 

[CSgone]

It's €70 in CEX, that's why I'm getting it

 

[CSgone]

Ok, here's where it's at. It's probably either an i3 3220 or an i7 920. Which one?

 

[Strawman]

The i7 is obviously better but..why? These are all very old cpus. Did you find motherboards? How much will that setup cost you?

 

[CSgone]

It's cos they're under €50 in cex

 

[Strawman]

50€ for both mobo and cpu or just the cpu? If it's just the CPU I'm not sure it's worth it. You are getting something that is used with a motherboard that's probably about to die, and then good luck finding another one.

 

[CSgone]

Just the CPU. I am looking into Phenoms and APUs now though.

P.S. Would you recommend getting components from Alibaba?

 

[Strawman]

Why bother then, go for g4560. I don't know about alibaba though, never bought from them

 

[DelJo63]

BTW: Multiple CPUs is not the same as Multiple Cores.

To effectively use either - - the applications must be written as an multi-threaded application and then, have more than one application running at a time.

Running a non-threaded application (like your favorite game) and nothing else will show no benefit at all.

The i3 is a very respected general compromise when the system is 64bit and loaded with memory, so go for the highest GHZ you can get.

 

[PalD2]

If you want to go the used route, I would recommend the xeon x3460. They cost about $30US or equivalent. Along with that, the motherboards (lga 1156) cost about $50 or equivalent. The x3460 performs comparably to the g4560 and has 4 cores/8 threads.