Here you are partly wrong. I personally have an AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0 GHz (stock speed), and I could OC if I wanted to easily with my Hyper 212 EVO. The only reason I don't is because it's a pain in the @$$, and my board chipset (970) doesn't handle it well. I tried before, but failed, so reset it back to clock speeds. Also, the 8350 OC'ed is just as fast as the 3770k not OC'ed, which is quite fast. W/o an OC on the 8350 it still performs perfectly.

illinifan I would personally go with AMD, as I said, I have one and have no regrets. It's cheaper than the high end i5 series, and just as fast. In your case I'd go with the x4 965 as you have, or an FX 6xxx and put an after market cooler on it (My old stock heatsink was extremely loud, idled at 4000 RPM :|). Also looking at your second build, the only problem with it I see is your case. It's a great case, but it's overkill. If this is really a low budget build you'd be better off buying a $50 case and using the $40-$45 you save on a GPU. I'd recommend a 660 ti, it's extremely fast (handles many recent games @ 1080p, high settings). Hope all this helped :)


Michael

 

I've read the benchmarks of AMD's processor 5 GHz designed to compete with the intel i7 EE. It ha some mixed reviews and ran slightly slower than the i7 and had heat problems. I also had an AMD computer, but it is a bit slow (budget AMD) The 8350 is the exception to the rule. It goes like 20 FPS faster in the ocean of ECC than my i3 3240 and I've heard some good things. I'm not saying that AMD is terrible, never use it. I just prefer intel core series for any future builds I do.

 

As for the AMD intel debate, that will go on forever xD
Mac vs windows
blah blah

 

About that, it's only a matter of preference, unless you're going for extreme speeds. Then i7 Extreme Editions are needed :p

 

That's complete bull. I run my 8350 and Radeon 7850 w/ a 600W PSU, and I still have room to expand. I'm pretty sure you could even run a 780 ti on a 600W.

 

Both chips are rated about the same with the i3 a bit better, but $40 more. The AMD build has a very expensive graphics card and if you want, you can get an AMD 10 APU to combine graphics and CPU or get an intel core series with Intel Iris graphics. Both have pretty good gaming capability.

 

If you plan on taking a graphic design class and using lots of CAD or photoshop/video editing, make sure you have a good graphics card ;)
You can even get an $100 graphics card and buy a better processor like an i7, i5, or 8350+

 

I don't think that those are very graphic or processor intensive, I may be wrong though, but I believe that a balance of both would work. MC mainly relies on processor from what I've heard and Farm simulator shouldn't take up more than 50% of your CPU. You should be pretty good, but buy an SSD, you will thank yourself down the road if it's like 500 mbps data read rate

 

You don't need a 750W PSU, as I said before, unless you plan on upgrading a lot. With your 7790 and 6300 you should only need a 500W max.