Hardware The Best Sub-£100 CPU

We've tested nine of the latest sub-£100 CPUs to see which makes the best option for a budget PC.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2011/10/31/the-best-100-processor/1

 

what about for say HTPC work, will the likes of the Pentium cope with playing blurrys and other HD video...

 

Lol, I read that as "bluhrees" first time round. Thought I'd missed out on some funky new media technology!

 

Force of habit... calling Blu-Rays 'Blurrys'

 

I really like the way this article was presented, especially the last page.

Like most I assume, I skipped to the 'What to Buy' and read the 4 handy use-cases. Saw the processor that suits the build I'm planning (2D applications only) and then flipped back to the relevant previous pages.

I think a lot of sites fear having such a concise 'TL;DR' thinking people then won't read the article, but honestly, it's the opposite. Very few people are going to read every single word from each page anyway, most (myself included) just want to find the information they need with the least confusion possible.

More like this please.

 

I missed these reviews...

 

What he said.

 

Still probably between the A8-350 and the i3-2100.

One thing the sandybridge graphics wont do correctly is 23.976FPS playback, while the AMD graphics will.

The i3-2100 does tend to have lower power consumption, but the at load figure is slightly misleading for HTPC use, as for HD playback you will find the AMD chip has a lower power draw ( http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-a8-3800_21.html#sect0 )

 

Nice roundup.

Can I just make one minor request, in that you stop swapping the Value, Speed & Features score positions around? It's not a big deal, but it is irritating.

Thanks

Spreadie

 

Amazing how efficient the Intel CPU's are :O

 

I wonder if the Bit-Tech crew panicked when they realised they had to reccomend an AMD cpu.. not on form for this site at all!

 

how come you didnt include the bulldozer fx-4 ? its under a 100 quid.

 

Any reason for the recommendation of the A8 over pheonem 955 for gaming with a discrete GPU?
The 955 a faster and cheaper processor mainly due to socket F1 boards being pricey for a budget line.

Also shouldn't motherboard socket price be a factor?

Doing something for the more normal computing needs is great though.

 

Great article.
At least it shows that its not really the CPU holding back in gaming nowadays but mostly the GPU

Good work !

 

Me? The Phenom 955 as there's an upgrade path... and it's over clockable, that's a no brainer isn't it?

 

Excellent article, loved it - thanks!

What I reckon may also be a good idea for an article, if you can stand suggestions, would be something along the lines of a Top Gear style challenge: All you guys have a fixed budget of say £400, (or whatever) and have to get a MoBo, CPU & HSF, GPU & Memory, (with the Case, PSU, HDD etc standard).

You can all get whatever gear you like within the confines of the budget and see who can build the best rig possible for a set range of challenges.

I don't know if that'd be possible, but I think it would make a pretty fantastic read - and would offer the chance for serious bragging rights...

 

AM3+ boards might be cheaper but we probably wouldn't want to use them for 24/7 overclocking - we'd still prefer a decent 990FX board such as the Sabertooth. The cheaper ones aren't really built for it. [/QUOTE]

...wut? The 990FX is an AM3+ board...I get what you meant, but the wording was a little off. That aside, isn't that the case generally, no matter the platform? I'd like to think we all know better than to think we'll get good, lasting results out of OCing a Biostar board, disregarding what socket it's on. I know it happens, but I wouldn't count on it from a cheapie board.

I have to agree with John_T - total platform cost should definitely weigh in here. Even take it the other way - build (and justify) the best PC for the lowest price on a given platform. If you built an FM1 but used 1600 MHz RAM, give me the numbers that the bump in FPS wasn't worth the higher price. Or that you can squeeze more out of a Phenom II, but you may not want to skyrocket the power consumption. Naturally, it's not perfect - prices fluctuate almost every day, and a particular part won't necessarily overclock the same as another of the same model, but the CPU price alone is one of 3 major components that will make the biggest difference in price. Of course, there are many more mobos than there are processors for a given socket, same with RAM, but give us a range here. Lay out at least an estimate of how much it will cost to build a decent system on a given platform. Processor alone doesn't give a complete-enough picture, imo.

 

Hopefully it wasnt a different site that tried that, but I seem to recall reading a similar article to that at one point. They all had a budget, 1 guy tried to buy second hand, one guy tried to just buy a prebuilt, another tried to build his own.

 

Wasn't it custom PC?