Best CPU under $100 for playing Beam and multitasking?

Oops. What I meant was, the FX 6300 was suggested as a good option above and I did not agree with that. I am not commenting on lyndon123's computer or build choices.

On topic: You seem to have run up against a similar wall I did when building my computer. If you buy the k-series processor, you should buy an overclocking board. But if you buy an overclocking board, you often end up over budget. In this situation since you don't care about the overclock I would drop the k and go with the normal i5-3570. It is for the most part the same thing, but lacks the overclocking support.

As for a cooler, I really love my Cryorig H7. I keep my i5-6600k overclocked fairly aggressively, and the H7 never fails to keep my temps nice and low (high 40s and low 50s). I bought mine new for about $35, but prices have shot up to around $50. Still, you can find quality ones on ebay for less, maybe even $25. I do not recommend the Hyper 212 Evo. It is tall, and has trouble fitting in many cases.

EDIT: As always, scan your listings carefully. Used computer parts are always a risk. A used k-series processor, for example, could have been overclocked halfway to hell for years.

 

Point is, if it can run Beam at over 50 at max settings, it's hardly terrible. Still, when compared to the 3570(non-K), the i5 will destroy it in most gaming scenarios (largely because the user in question won't overclock).
The FX would be better at multitasking and would likely beat it at higher car counts in Beam, but yeah, I'd go with the i5, especially at prices like these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Core-...5.m1851&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIM.MBE&ao%

 

With that cooler and the massive fan on top of my case, I think cooling won't be much of an issue.

 

If you're also buying a new cooler, I'd suggest the Intel variant of the previously mentioned A32, the Arctic Freezer i32!
Compared to the H7, it's cheaper, cools better and makes less noise, completely shutting off the fan when the temps are low enough, like when web browsing and such.
Even with sub-par case flow, it (well, the AMD variant, but they're identical cooling-wise) keeps my 4.3GHz 6100 under 50°C while running Prime95

 

I just found an intel cooler lying around so I might just use that.
--- Post updated ---
Alright, I just went for the 3570 and a cheap Intel board. I already have everything else I need, so I just need to wait for those to come in. Should be here by next Monday. Thanks for your suggestions, guys! Only cost me $115.

 

my board does support overclocking and yeah the fps does drop at the 6th vehicle

 

I would strongly recommend a good high quality cooler. Again, I push the Cryorig H7. EvilMcSheep said the Freexer i32 is better; it's quieter, cheaper, and cools better.

He is right about it being cheaper, assuming you buy new. Expect around a $5-8 savings. Used will be around the same for both.

As shown in the graph attached, the Cryorig H7 cools significantly better.

In terms of sound, the H7 is 1.5dB louder but cools almost 10% more effectively.

I don't think sound is an issue, I can't even hear my H7 through my case. But even if it matters to you it's a small difference for a big benefit.

If you want to overclock and keep your temps stable I wholeheartedly recommend the Cryorig H7.

 

Get a Core i9-7980XE: 18 cores/36 threads? http://www.pcworld.com/article/3199...-prices-specs-release-date-features-faqs.html

It costs $1,999.

 

A little out of my price range, lol.
If only I had that kind of money lying around...

 

Oh, you actually found a direct comparison, nice!
I couldn't, so I found a chart comparing the i32 to a more popular cooler (a slightly worse one) and then found a chart comparing that one to the H7, where the "slightly worse" one was shown to be better and therefore came to the conclusion that the i32 should be better as well.

Again, the i32 doesn't spin the fan at all on low loads, like web browsing and very light gaming, so the dB difference is quite a bit bigger a lot of the time but then again, these 120mm coolers don't make that much noise in the first place.

Since he's not overclocking, I'd still say that the i32 is the overall better choice, the 3570 won't make anywhere near as much heat as my overclocked FX, which, again, the A32 keeps at below 50 even with Prime95 running, and at that point, the temp difference would be very minimal. Also, it comes with 6 year warranty and if at any point during those 6 years, it can't keep up with any CPU upgrades, he can just use the 5 bucks that he saved and slap a 2nd fan on there

 

BONK BUMPITY BUMP BUMP!
The Ryzen 1200/1300X series is released for 109$/129$ respectively, quad core, and is a good replacement for an i5 with similar processing power for half the cost. It's quite worth it, for anyone who still is reading this thread, and can't quite pony up for the Ryzen 7 that stands 10% better than a 6800k i7 cpu on X99 clock-for-clock with fast ram in Beamng.drive.

 

The FX-8350 is a good CPU for $100 but it isn't best for BeamNG (AMD chips generally perform worse than their Intel counterparts in CPU-intensive games). I have it and I play BeamNG at max settings, but I don't get steady framerate (around 25-45 FPS average on one car...50 FPS on GridMap) and UI gets unresponsive after loading 4 cars and crashes when trying to load a 7th car. This is before enabling ReShade which takes away 10-20% of the framerate.

Not to mention that I over-payed for mine in November (US$160 for it)...I've been looking at an i5-7600K with a Z270 Carbon mobo.

 

Yeah, I ended up with an i5 3570 and an Intel DB75EN Mobo. (Turns out it CAN overclock. Oh well, too late now )
Performs so much better than the i5 750 I had before.

I have an R7 370 2GB for graphics but oddly enough it cannot run BeamNG at higher settings in most maps even though it should be perfectly capable. But normal settings is enough for me as I don't really play it for good graphics anyways.

 

Several options
- i7 970 60$ Canadian (If you manage to get a good 1366 motherboard for 100$)
- i5 750 40$ Canadian (A good 1156 motherboard can be picked up for 100$)
- Pentium G4400 100$ brand new (only joking)
- Avoid not Ryzen AMD chips like the plaque

 

That's the CPU I upgraded from. The UI is slow as molasses and you can't have more than two cars without the FPS dipping below 30fps.
It also takes around 15 seconds to switch individual parts on a car. But if you can tolerate the slow menus and only 1-2 vehicles look no further. It's a great CPU. Also, you can get a cheap Dell board for $30 USD on ebay. Got mine in recently because the board on my old PC died. (I am reusing my old specs for a Hackintosh project)

 

BS, I used to have a 750 at 4GHZ and I was able to get 5 cars at 30 fps on East Coast USA at high settings 1080p. (60 FPS would be possible if you have a better video card than my GTX 570

 

Mine was never OCed.
I bet it's great overclocked to 4ghz, but I could never figure out how to get it OCed.
But with stock clock speeds at 2.6ghz it's a horrible experience. Or it could just be that mine was a lemon and just wasn't performing like it should. It was getting proper cooling and was running at good temps.

 

Beamng ran much better than what you said unoverclocked and I checked your signature and you put your old PC specs, you had a gt 610 which cannot game and a OEM Dell board which cannot overclock.

 

It used to have the R7 370 that is in my current system. Still performed horribly. Must be a lemon. Still works great for non-BeamNG tasks so I keep it as a spare.
I got a non-overclockable board since I had no idea that it could be overclocked.

I just swapped the 610 in there because I had it lying around collecting dust.

 

If buying new, Ryzen 1200 is just fine and comes with a capable cooler. It's 99~109$ depending on the store.
Get decent memory and look up on the compatibility lists to make sure it'll run it's rated OC speeds, and an entry-level B350 board that will allow you to set higher ram speeds and a slight overclock. These are from 79$ to 140$ depending on features, layout etc.

If you have an existing machine, that's still functional but with a slow processor and it's an X58 socket 1366 motherboard, there are four and six core xeons, that can be fitted to the board using it's newest bios. You can pick these chips up for sometimes less than 40~60$ (though the motherboards are few and far between unless you want to use ebay!), and can be found readily. They will run the game smoothly but only one car per core!

If you have a socket 775 machine, a pentium D, or an Athlon 1 or II machine, it's time to retire it. Xeon 771 chips can be fitted to socket 775 sockets with an interposer, but it's fraught with risk unless you *REALLY* are a techie, and the xeons for it are pennies-on-the-dollar. Not every board is supported, and there's a lot of different bus-speed limitations to these boards especially the early 775 boards.

If you have an APU (A-series) machine, retire it, these don't run Beamng.drive fairly well. You may be able to upgrade the cpu to make it playable (find one of amazon or ebay, but don't pay a lot for it), but it will *just* be playable.

If it's a laptop donate it to charity and get a desktop computer that is gaming-oriented. ANY RYZEN MACHINE will run this game well provided it has some sort of half-decent video card.

Upgrading CPU's is not for the faint of heart. It's easy to mess up and there's lots of little pins to bend and break, maybe you'd feel better having someone else do it. You don't want to throw a lot of money at an older machine only to have it not work or blow up in a few months, leaving you with an expensive paper-weight.
There's also the fact, that to upgrade the cpu successfully you NEED the latest bios, and need to know how to flash it (you could brick the motherboard and computer if you do it wrong).
Don't forget to have some decent-quality thermal paste handy. It's worth spending a FEW extra $ if you are overclocking to buy the good stuff, just be careful as some of the high-end paste is conductive and will blow up the pc if you get it on the wrong spots.

Or, you could skip most of the work and worry, and just buy that Ryzen 1200 processor with fan, a B350 motherboard, and 16gb of RAM (8gb is minimum today!). If you're running lesser than Windows 10, you should upgrade or the OS will chastise you. If you have OEM windows 10, you may need to buy a new license when you install the new hardware as Windows is locked to the motherboard it's first installed upon, unless it's the retail version. I am aware that some OEM versions of Windows 10 sold on USB drives, contains the ability to upgrade your motherboard in the future, it's worth looking into, on that note, to save a future headache.

Ryzen processor 1700X running at the same speed as intel 6900k processor (same amount of cores and threads, same clock speed) will BEAT the intel processor by 10% in beam calculations in Bananabench. Ryzen ram was 2933mhz dual channel, Intel ram was 2400mhz quad channel - faster - but the Ryzen is newer and a better processor especially when heavily loaded! Even though an intel chip can clock higher, and gaming performance may seem better - it's a lot more money, and Ryzen is better for Beamng.drive.

A quick high-clocked pentium, celeron, or i3 will also do, but I would highly recommend against it as lots of games use 4 cores (or more!) now.