At my local Microcenter, the FX 8350 is $179 and the FX 8320 is $149. I'm going to be running a Corsair H60 cooler on it and I will be planning to OC.
We're on somewhat of a budget, so my question is this: is the performance difference (between the fx 8350 and the 8320) worth the extra $30 (including OC performance)?
Yes by all means
The 8350 and 8320 are the same chip, just different clocks, get the 8320
+1
If you OC the 8320, then you will get the same performance. If you plan to OC as much as possible (aiming for somewhere close to 5 ghz), then you are better off with the higher binner 8350.
As said before, there is a slight difference in binning between the two where as 8350's generally overclock better with less voltage than an 8320 does.
8350 overclocks better but 8350 costs so close to i5 that I would take i5 instead.
If you take 8320, you can easily overclock it to stock 8350 frequency. Probably to 4.5GHz without much problems.
BTW, I envy those prices. Where I live 8320 is $185 and 8350 is $230.
That's some skanky regional pricing crap. I would complain about it. Just about anywhere in the world has some form of regional marketing pricing crap that makes a product have a higher MSRP than anywhere else in the world.
Ah.
Yeah, I'm gunning more for 4.6-4.7 GHZ.
If you're patient and have the time, I would recommend hanging around on Ebay. Usually you can grab these processors for fairly cheap as well as the i5.
My vote goes to the FX 8320 if you buy new.
[Edit]
I just noticed you mentioned Microcenter. If you have to get a motherboard with your CPU, Microcenter usually offers the i5 3570k and the ASRock Z77 Extreme4 as a combo. Not sure if this is still going on with the release of Haswell. But I figured I would mention it anyways. Keep your eyes peeled.
Pot luck if you what to oc those chips if you are just aiming for high clock speeds get the 8350.
If not you can try your luck on a 8320 i have mine running at 4ghz at only 1.2v on a pos motherboard with only a 4+1 vrm power phase, it will go a lot higher to when i pick up a better motherboard with a 8+ power phase.
But its still pot luck how well a cpu will overclock.
Then you might want to invest in the 8350, though I have heard of people reaching those clocks just fine with an 8320. Just make sure to get yourself a decent cooler.
microcenter does combos on all cpu/mobos, if i remember correctly it's $40 off on am3+, 1155, and 1150, $30 on fm2
My vote will also go to the 8320, on a good motherboard with an 8+2 power phase design it should overclock just fine.