Hi I've been asked to build a new system for a relative, however its on a scrict bugget.

It doesnt need to be massively powerful, however it must run modern programs and vista and the like.

now I've sorted out most of the parts, but when it comes to the cpu ive hit a problem. It's odvious that the c2d series are much better than the XPs price/performance. But they don't go low enough in price (Including the e4300) - it's not just the cost of the chip, but the motherboard as well, both together come about £160 ($350 - i think).

However, XP 64 X2 line are very cheap these days and the motherboards (AM2) are also cheap. both together come to about £100 ($215) - but for a little more I could get a Pentium (gasp) D 820 and p965 board, this would allow for future up grade to a C2D system, however im sure if AMD will release a new chip they will grab a new socket or move to Socket F entirely.

So what would you recomend a PD 820 (with the chance of future upgrade avalible) or the XP64X2 3600 or something entirly different.

Thanks

wow that was a quick respose - i yeah i think your right

Vern's right, but if your relative is thinking of upgrading to a C2D, then the Pentium will be a good route. But get a 915D over the 820D...it has double the cache, and runs cooler. Just another tidbit to chew on. GL

A lot hinges on his update plans, i guess. If he plans on running this new setup for awhile, then definetely get the 3600+. If he intends to upgrade in the near future, then either brand will offer a nice upgrade path, as well as great performance(once upgraded).

Thanks for the input it seem to me that AMD will do me the best justice, so unless anyone has a radical ideas, I think i will put a 3600 or 3800 into the build -

is there a signifigant performance increse between a 3600 or 3800? bearing in mind it will be coupled with 1Gb of RAM 7300GS Vista HB 64bit

If you're not overclocking, a 90nm (Windsor core) X2 3800+ will be a better choice. If you will OC, a 1.9GHz, Brisbane X2 3600+ is what you're looking for because most probably, it will flawlessly do 2.7-2.8G or even more.

With today's pricing, I'd go with a $110 X2 4600+ ($100 OEM) at least.

AMD 3600 is great..


But the Nvidia 7300 your getting, isn't it a bit too low?

I just built a new computer for my sister on a tight budget. I used the 65nm version of the AMD X2 4800+ (US$135) and a motherboard based on the AMD 690G chipset (US$99) which has surprisingly good video built into the mobo (that total translates to £118 according to Yahoo). It runs Vista Home Prem fine with the aero interface. I was actually going to use the 4200+ originally but decided the budget would support the 4800+. I wanted to stick to 65 Watt CPUs to keep the cooling down. I'm very impressed with what the AMD products can do for budget systems. I am planning a similar system for my HTPC, I like the HDMI built into the 690G board, but I'll probably go with a 3600+ there so I can hope for passive cooling.

I would recommend AMD and consider onboard video for a budget system to run Vista.

I think passive for an x2 3600+ might be iffy. You'll want a kick-arse aftermarket heatsink.

I think passive for an x2 3600+ might be iffy. You'll want a kick-arse aftermarket heatsink.
Yes; huge fin area and a good (maybe 120mm) case fan somewhere near it to blow out all the hot air of the heatsink. Passive cooling is a science apart, because you have to think well of the whole case and it's ventilation but if you do it well, it's a really good thing. Undervolting can also help a lot to lower the temps in this case and I think there is room for serious undervolting in a 65nm X2 3600+. Maybe (but these are only rough numbers of mine) it will comfortably sit on 1.25 or even 1.20V on full load.

Running onboard video will help a lot, outputting very little heat compared to a discreet video card... which add surprising amounts of heat into the case.

x2 3600 with a cheap amd chipset all the way, just get an amd 690g board that has the best integrated gfx on the market right now and you'll be set. Just get the arctic cooling freezer 64, stay away from the zalmans, I almost destroyed my cpu because of the retards at zalman who designed the way it clips onto the cpu

Running onboard video will help a lot, outputting very little heat compared to a discreet video card... which add surprising amounts of heat into the case.
And with today's video cards... they all can beat my ancient GF5200 I am not a gamer, so it still serves me pretty well but Recently, I am running very often in 10-20MB files to render and there I really feel it lagging.

That's why I think the amd 690g is such a great chipset, it's cheap, and has very powerful integrated gfx (relative)

how is the overclocking with those 690G chipsets? any good ones to be recommended?

To tell you the truth (I'm not going to lie to you since it will cost you down the road), just about all integrated mobos suck for overclocking, that's something that you'd want the 570ultra chipset by nvidia or the 580x chipset (though I haven't really paid attention to it's overclocking). But the 690g chipset has excellent features which is why I recommend it, if you want an overclocker, teh 570ultra and a gfx card would probably be the way to go

AMD wins this one.

I wanted to demo that chipset tell us more how is the gaming on it?
Hey dewd,
I haven't tried gaming on it yet. I just finished putting it together last night (3 day shipping after the price cuts), and it's currently running a 24 hour memtest to make sure everything's happy. I'll install a couple games tomorrow or Monday and get back to you on that. I'm not a big FPS person, so I'll probably try Oblivion and Titan Quest, they're about the most demanding I have, and maybe I'll try the SupCom demo too.

I wanted to demo that chipset tell us more how is the gaming on it?
Hey dewd,
I haven't tried gaming on it yet. I just finished putting it together last night (3 day shipping after the price cuts), and it's currently running a 24 hour memtest to make sure everything's happy. I'll install a couple games tomorrow or Monday and get back to you on that. I'm not a big FPS person, so I'll probably try Oblivion and Titan Quest, they're about the most demanding I have, and maybe I'll try the SupCom demo too.

This is something i'm very interested in as well. Those 690g chipsets look to be a very good option. There are boards out there with this chipset that clock fairly good actually. I think you could expect 2.6 out of it maybe more. The HT bus on these things has reached heights of >1900mhz, which should help the integrate graphics as well which also overclock nicely by results i've seen.