Looking for the best bang for the buck...

[vxspiritxv]

I'm lucky enough to have a Microcenter near a jobsite I goto...
http://www.microcenter.com/site/products/amd_bundles.aspx
Looks like a FX6300 with gigabyte board for $114.99 is the best deal.
Even over the intel systems: http://www.microcenter.com/site/brands/intel-processor-bundles.aspx

I will be installing a spare 8800gtx in this box. This box is for my GF she barely knows how to use a computer so she wont need any thing special, but I want it to be able to push the 8800 to its limits so gaming won't be an issue on the machine. Also hope it comes with a heatsink and doesn't run too hot/loud. I won't be overclocking it ether.

If there are good responses for or against this bundle, I'll post GOOD pic of said GF

Oh also, should I just wait a month or two to see what happens to prices after the new processors hit the street?

After talking to a friend looks like my 8800gtx will be slower than on board So much for spare parts.

 

[pgaster]

That is a great combo to get. Good performance and a low price. I say jump on that now before Microcenter changes their prices around or something. Microcenter just dropped the FX-6300 price by $10 so now is the time to act. Yes, yesterday morning it was $119 and now it's $109 for the cpu only.

I don't understand your friend's comment. The onboard video should not be better than the 8800GTX, but if not gaming you don't need the extra video card. Also the large video card may block a few of the SATA ports and other slots which would be annoying, and the 8800GTX is a power hog so I would just sell it somewhere. Onboard video will be fine, and in fact that cheap board has VGA and DVI. You can use them both at the same time I believe as long as the DVI is used as a digital out to a digital input on a monitor. No DVI to VGA adapter can be used on that port if the VGA out port is being used at the same time. I am pretty much going by memory on that. See the manual for exact details.

The FX-6300 cpu, and all desktop cpus from AMD now come with a heatsink. It's just a solid aluminum heatsink for that cpu now and it's not great, but will do the job fine at stock speeds. Just make sure to have a bit of decent airflow through the case and it will run fine. The stock heatsinks actually work good for those cheap motherboards because they move air down over the northbridge heatsink and back over the VRM area, which is not heatsinked so it needs the airflow. Some people get fancy with tower heatsinks and then have no airflow over the northbridge and VRM area and it leads to crashes and other instability issues. Stick with stock for the GF. It will be just fine.

 

[/dev/null]

I'm lucky enough to have a Microcenter near a jobsite I goto...
http://www.microcenter.com/site/products/amd_bundles.aspx
Looks like a FX6300 with gigabyte board for $114.99 is the best deal.
Even over the intel systems: http://www.microcenter.com/site/brands/intel-processor-bundles.aspx

I will be installing a spare 8800gtx in this box. This box is for my GF she barely knows how to use a computer so she wont need any thing special, but I want it to be able to push the 8800 to its limits so gaming won't be an issue on the machine. Also hope it comes with a heatsink and doesn't run too hot/loud. I won't be overclocking it ether.

If there are good responses for or against this bundle, I'll post GOOD pic of said GF

Oh also, should I just wait a month or two to see what happens to prices after the new processors hit the street?

After talking to a friend looks like my 8800gtx will be slower than on board So much for spare parts.

Why not do one of the APU bundles? What res/games does your gf want to play?

 

[vxspiritxv]

I'm going to pick up that system & try it with and without the GTX in a few games.

 

[DejaWiz]

I would also recommend an AMD APU bundle. A6-5400K or, if you feel like "spoiling" her, the A10-5800K.

 

[nads]

The APU bundle is an amazing bang-for-the-buck deal. I got an A10 and an MSI ITX board for my friend and she loves it.

 

[High_Boost]

so you guys dont think the jump to the 8320 is worth $30 more?
I guess the more expensive motherboards may be the deal killer

 

[DejaWiz]

so you guys dont think the jump to the 8320 is worth $30 more?
I guess the more expensive motherboards may be the deal killer

For the uses that this new system will be subjected to, no, not in my opinion. Simply because it's going to be used for light gaming, so the fairly stout IGP will be a better choice then an FX plus an old 8800GTX. And a newer GPU can always be purchased and installed in an APU-based system and still be a capable gaming system if/when the IGP doesn't cut it any more.

 

[pgaster]

Yesterday Microcenter showed the FX-6300 on the bundle page at $109, but when you clicked on the cpu it would take you to the FX-6300 specific page and it was $119. Now they changed the price on the bundle page to the higher $119. It must have been a mistake on their end. Since this price is back up to $119 I say check out the A10 combo. It's more expensive than the FX-6300 but if you sell your old 8800GTX the overall out of pocket expense should be about the same. The A10 combo would do just fine for you. The graphics that come on the cheap Gigabyte board with the FX-6300 combo is pretty weak for any gaming.