Gaming HTPC recommendation

[mooncancook]

My current gaming htpc is an e8400 and it's getting long in the tooth and struggling with some games. Main use is play all my pc games, watch streaming and video files. Gaming will be 1080p since I won't be upgrading to 4k TV anytime soon. I want the upgrade to last me a couple of years or more.

For my usage scenario, should I upgrade to a latest i5, or should I just get an A8-6600k (on sale at fry's for $100) and use the saving towards a better video card or SSD?

 

[Durvelle27]

what's your budget and what games will you be playing

 

[mooncancook]

Budget is kind of flexible but I don't want to be wasteful, and money saved is always a plus. Originally I plan to get an i5 and a 7950/7970 but after reading the Anand gaming CPU article, it seems an A8 is good enough for 1080p gaming with a single video card. i5 may be overkill, and A8 will save me $100 on the CPU alone. Then again I don't want to feel crippled by the CPU after 2 years. Having some kind of easy future upgrade path without replacing the m/b would be a plus too.

As for games, I play Skyrim, WoT, BF3, Bioshock, NBA2k13, XCOM:EU, Crysis series, Witcher2, Sims3, racing games, and many more, all at 1080p only. I want to be able to turn on as much eye-candy options as possible.

P.S. I always use an ATX htpc case with ATX motherboard, and I will probably not OC since htpc case limits the size of the coolers I can use.

 

[AtenRa]

As for games, I play Skyrim, WoT, BF3, Bioshock, NBA2k13, XCOM:EU, Crysis series, Witcher2, Sims3, racing games, and many more, all at 1080p only. I want to be able to turn on as much eye-candy options as possible.

P.S. I always use an ATX htpc case with ATX motherboard, and I will probably not OC since htpc case limits the size of the coolers I can use.

Except of BF3, the A8 Quad core will be fine. For BF3 MP I would get the FX8320 and OC to 4/4.2GHz + Noctua NH-L12 CPU Heat-Sink Fan.

 

[beginner99]

but after reading the Anand gaming CPU article, it seems an A8 is good enough for 1080p gaming with a single video card.

That review was done in single-player mode and as was already mentioned especially BF3 requires much faster CPU in 64 player maps. In fact even i5s can be CPU limited! So if you play BF3 multilayer, i5 is the way to go.

Except of BF3, the A8 Quad core will be fine. For BF3 MP I would get the FX8320 and OC to 4/4.2GHz + Noctua NH-L12 CPU Heat-Sink Fan.

Sorry but and FX8320 uses much more power and creates more heat. This means you need more and louder fans and that just plain sucks in a HTPC.

 

[laputan machine]

Are you using a htpc case or just a regular midi tower one? An i5, sandy or better sounds like it'd be ideal, you can easily stick that into a smaller case later if you have a midi tower and feel like getting something which looks better by the tv.

 

[AtenRa]

Sorry but and FX8320 uses much more power and creates more heat. This means you need more and louder fans and that just plain sucks in a HTPC.

You missed the part that hes using a ATX case for his HTPC, thats why I recommended the FX8320 paired with the NOCTUA NH-L12 that has a very quite 120mm Fan and a maximum height of just 98mm including the fan or 66mm height with the 90mm fan (installed underneath).

http://www.noctua.at/inc/imageviewer.php?item=46&pnr=0

The 8-core FX is much better than Intel Quad for BF3 MP.

 

[mooncancook]

Thanks for the replies. FX8320 sounds good, the only thing that I don't like is its 125W TDP. Right now I can get the FX8320 for $159, or an i5-4430 for $169. How would the i5-4430 perform compare to the FX8320 on most games? If it is virtually a tie then I think I would get the i5 due to its 84W TDP, otherwise I'm going with the FX8320.

 

[Jimzz]

I would also go with a i5 if you do not have a board yet.

 

[SPBHM]

the 4430 is faster for the vast majority of games, but it's completely locked, so you can't OC... so perhaps if the game is really optimized for 8 threads and the FX is overclocked things could get more interesting, but the good thing about no overclocking is, you can save money on cooling (use the Intel HSF) and on the motherboard ($60 B85 MSI should work fine), that's money you can direct to the VGA or something.

 

[mooncancook]

It's a htpc built so I don't plan on OCing, or at most very mild OC. I would have to get a new m/b and pretty much everything else for sure. I would move the current e8400 components to replace my really old Athlon X2 desktop.

 

[mooncancook]

Ended up getting an i5-4670 and MSI Z87-G45 combo deal from Frys for 308 before tax. Always ended up spending a little more than planned, but that was a pretty good deal I think. Now time to shop for other components.

 

[Yuriman]

I think you'll be very happy with your new Haswell system.