Sometimes, getting the best system is
about spending smart, not spending lots. Here, James finds the best value
components money can buy
Whether you’re looking to buy upgrades or
pricing up an entire system, the final say usually comes courtesy of your
wallet. Unless you’re part of the small percentage of society who can buy
things without having to worry about their price, you’re always going to reach
a point where you have to trade off the performance of hardware against its
cost.
However, making that compromise isn’t
necessarily a bad thing. There’s still plenty of opportunity to spend your
money wisely, meaning that you can get the best performance for the best
prices, rather than the best performance overall. All you have to do is look
for hardware that has reached the ‘sweet spot’ a point where, in pound for performance
terms, it’s essentially the best on the market.
Usually, these products are in the middle
of their life cycles - old enough to have shed their high introductory prices,
but new enough that you can feel comfortable investing in them as products with
a fairly hefty lifespan ahead of them. It’s quite simply the smartest place to
spend your money.
Of course, with the holiday sales about to
hit, there’s never been a better time to know which hardware is worth keeping
an eye on for even further discounts. That’s why in this guide, we’ll show you
which high-performance hardware has reached its financial sweet spot.
Buying this hardware doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily
end up with the best nor that you’ll end up with the cheapest hardware on the
market. However, you will know you’ve got the absolute most for your money -
and ultimately, that’s a feeling that can’t be bought.
CPUs
CPUs are often the most expensive
components in a PC, so it’s quite probably the most important place to make
sure that your money gets stretched the furthest. Determining the “best”
processor depends on several factors, but benchmarking is reasonably sane way
to do it if nothing else, it’s hard to compare most processors in terms of raw
specs, especially between manufacturers.
CPUs
are often the most expensive components in a PC
Because CPUs are also dependent on
compatibility with your motherboard, we’ve divided our CPUs category into
several different sections - one for those with an Intel Socket 1155
motherboard, and two more for those with AMD FM2 or AM3+ motherboards. We’ve
calculated how good value each chip is by dividing its PassMark benchmark score
by its price so that we can compare how much power you get for every pound you
spend, and thus determine which is the best value. Although, where relevant,
we’ve considered other factors before coming to our final conclusion.
AMD Socket FM2 Chip
AMD’s fusion architecture is designed to
house a gaming-capable GPU as well as a formidable CPU. They get it at least
half-right, because while the processors are consistently outperformed by
Intel’s mid and high-range Core line, they’re typically more capable of gaming
than lower-priced Intel chips are - and recent price reductions mean that
they’re actually slightly better value, too.
AMD
A8-5500
The release of AMD’s Trinity chips has
caused the FM1 socket to reach the end of its lifespan, so if you’re building
an AMD system from scratch and have the liberty of basing your motherboard
purchase on the processor you want, we have to recommend the AMD A8-5500, which
is a socket FM2 model. The eight-core, 3.2GHz chip has Radeon HD 7560D
graphics, making it a good choice for gamers, although sadly it has a locked
multiplier, meaning it can’t really be overclocked if you’re into that.
At the moment it retails around $128.
PassMark scores it only a sliver beneath the Ivy Bridge Core i3-3220, which is
$32 more expensive, and a reasonable amount above the Sandy Bridge Core
i3-2130, which is $40 more expensive. The next FM2 chip up, the AMD A10-5700,
is also worse value in terms of price-to-performance, and the next AMD chip
down, the FM1 based A8-3850, is roughly as good value as the A8-5500, but it’s
also running on an older socket and is slower in absolute terms, so if you buy
that, you’re buying into a product line with a shorter life ahead of it.
FINAL RECOMMENDATION: AMD A8-5500
AMD Socket AM3+ Chip
If you want to upgrade your existing AMD
system with a new chip, it’s a safe bet you’re currently running on an AM3+
compatible motherboard. Naturally, it doesn’t make much sense to tell you that
the best way to save money is to buy a new chip and motherboard and get an
A8-5500, so instead, let’s assume you want to upgrade your computer without
replacing 50% of it. Which chip should you buy then?
AMD
FX-8320
In our view, it’s the AMD FX-8320, an
eight-core socket AM3+ chip that runs at 3.5GHz. It’s expensive for an AMD
chip, priced at $224, but it’s one of the few high-end CPUs the company has
that’ll compete with Intel’s Core line in anything approaching a convincing
way.
PassMark benches it at 8,297, compared to
the Ivy Bridge Core i5-3570K’s 7,139. While the latter chip performs better in
games and can be hugely overclocked, it also costs $280. It’s also better value
than its own line mates - the slightly better AMD FX-8350, and the
slightly-worse AMD FX-8150, so if you’re looking for a high-end chip to upgrade
your current AMD system, there’s no question that the FX-8320 is the one to go
for.
FINAL RECOMMENDATION: AMD FX-8320
