Long story short, the motherboard of my 7 year old PC died and I'll need a new one. I plan to use it mainly for gaming (Elder Scrolls series, Fallout series, League of Legends, Crusader Kings, ...) with potentially getting into a bit of programming or video editing down the line.
I'll be reusing the case, mouse, keyboard, monitor, and probably also the GPU of my old computer. The plan being that upgrading the GPU becomes my first major upgrade in the coming months.
I'm happy to run my games at 30 fps, but I'd like that to also be true for the games I'll be playing 3 years from now.
The main issue is that I'd like a computer that will last at least 4 years (preferably longer), but my budget is only around €500-600 ($550-660) and I'm concerned that won't be enough for what I want. So price is a very serious concern for me.
The first order of business is choosing the CPU. I decided I want a quad core because supposedly that will be needed to run Fallout 4, but all I know about processors is that quad core is better than dual core and that unlike 15 years ago the processing speed is no longer the sole thing that determines how good a CPU is.
I should probably also mention that I don't plan to play Fallout 4 on release, but instead pick it up during a Steam sale in a year or two. However, since I plan my PC to last longer than 2 years and it can't run without a CPU, I still want the CPU I get now to be good enough for it.
Questions:
AMD or Intel? I'm more interested in cost efficiency than peak performance.
I want to get something better than the bare minimum required to run FO4 in order for my PC to be somewhat future proof, but I'm not sure how far over the bare minimum I should go, considering my budget restrictions. The minimum requirements I found online are Intel Core i5-2300 2.8GHz or AMD Phenom II X4 945. Recommended processors for FO4 are Intel Core i7 4790 3.6 GHz or AMD FX-9590 4.7 GHz.
Beyond the number of cores and frequency, what other properties are really important in a processor? In the sense of what should someone who knows virtually nothing about processors be careful about when chosing one.
I just found out about the new Skylake processors that Intel released a couple of months ago. If I decide to go for Intel, would you recommend me to get one of these? My gut feeling is to go for the new thing because it will last longer, but is it really worth the price?
Links:
I live in Slovenia and have been looking at this website for components and prices: