It has been really hard to start this thread and start thinking about not going AMD, but I do want to give my brother the most bang for his buck. I was wanting to find an AM2+ setup, but I have to at least see what the other camp has to offer.
What is the best CPU/Motherboard combo I can get for him at around the ~300.00 mark?
And I will be in the dark with Intel in terms of about everything. I will not even have a clue of what speed of ram to pair up with a recommended Intel CPU.
The stock speed has to be equal to or greater than 3.2Ghz (for his girlfriend has a CPU at that level). But I would also like a CPU/Motherboard where I can buy him a copper heatsink in a year and overclock it when he starts to complain about CPU power. But to start off, I plan to just leave it at stock speeds with a stock heatsink.
But, hey, I am an overclocker at heart, so if there are some super simple and safe overclockable Intel CPUs that can use a stock heatsink and a simple divider for inexpensive ram… ya, if that can get to the 3.5Ghz, mark, that would be awesome….
P35-DS3L + E21xx if you plan to OC or a E6x50. DDR2 800 is pretty cheap now days. ($34 for 2*1GB Corsair XMS2 @ newegg). Depending on if it a gaming build or not you will have to decide on the graphics. If it is a gaming build go with a 8800GT 512 if not get a cheap video card and OC it. You would need a good CPU cooler if you plan to OC the CPU. I recommend a ZALMAN CNPS7700-ALCU 120mm ($33 @ newegg) or a ZEROtherm Nirvana ($39 after MIR @ newegg). Also make sure you include a good quality PSU.
Message edited by Shadow703793 on 02-10-2008 at 08:33:52 PM
Pretty much all of them OC great. But one thing you are flawed in thinking is that cpu speed = performance. It's all about the architecture...Lower clocked intel offerings still beat amd's options. So don't worry about getting something clocked lower from intel.
Considering your budget, it is mostly based on what board/features you want. I'd recommend either a E6550 with a Gigabyte P35-DS3R or Asus p5k.
Either choice you choose, good overclockers. If you really want to save on your budget, you can nab a Allendale CPU and just OC it from the get go. Great budget based processors that can hit around 3.2 with great performance considering the price....For the Allendales you'd have to look at the E4xxx lines or E2xxx line, but keep in min the E2xxx line has 1 mb of L2 cache, while the E4xxx line has 2, the E6XXX line has 4...So just base it off your budget. Keep in mind the performance is still spectacular on the lower priced allendales when oc'ed, it's just up to you which route you want to take, and if the more L2 Cache is beneficial for you.
You really can't go wrong with any core 2 duo lineup. they are all fantastic processors with great OC potential...Even hitting 100% oc's is possible, and has been done (especially on the low end allendales considering the lower clock speed).
Choice is yours, if you have any questions feel free to ask. If you plan to OC, it kinda beats the purpose of nabbing a AMD based processor now-a-days, unless you're on a very limited budget and going for the X2 line..But even so, the low end core 2 duo line still offer massive performance with 50-100% overclocks. You're making a smart choice ^_^...It will last a lot longer.
edit- That microcenter deal is a goodie, if you are going for that close to your price range, drop the e6750 idea and nab it, a fantastic deal that you should take up. I just didn't put it in due to newegg being out of stock, plus charging a ridiculous mark up due to demand. Regarding the cooler, if your budget is really low, a Arctic Freezer 7 pro is a goodie for low budget after market coolers. But even on the stock coolers, you should be able to OC a bit...
First - Don't go by the "3.2" for beating GF. It depends on which 3.2 proc she has. Take a look at tom's processor performance chart. Most of the core2Duo's with their lower clock speed will beat and old 3.2
By choise would be the E6420/Gigabyte MB/with DDR2-800 CL4 memory
Reason: This was my first overclock (E6400 instead of E6420) and it was so simple, Basicly set the Buss freq to 400, Ram voltage to 2.1 and set the Memory timing to spec. and walla worked like a champ first time.
I did use a Zalman 9500 CPU cooler as I do not recommend the stock cooler even at stock freq (athought many others have had NO problems w/stock cooler, enough have due to the poor design.
It has been really hard to start this thread and start thinking about not going AMD, but I do want to give my brother the most bang for his buck. I was wanting to find an AM2+ setup, but I have to at least see what the other camp has to offer.
What is the best CPU/Motherboard combo I can get for him at around the ~300.00 mark?
And I will be in the dark with Intel in terms of about everything. I will not even have a clue of what speed of ram to pair up with a recommended Intel CPU.
The stock speed has to be equal to or greater than 3.2Ghz (for his girlfriend has a CPU at that level). But I would also like a CPU/Motherboard where I can buy him a copper heatsink in a year and overclock it when he starts to complain about CPU power. But to start off, I plan to just leave it at stock speeds with a stock heatsink.
But, hey, I am an overclocker at heart, so if there are some super simple and safe overclockable Intel CPUs that can use a stock heatsink and a simple divider for inexpensive ram… ya, if that can get to the 3.5Ghz, mark, that would be awesome….
First off what CPU does hif GF use that is set to 3.2GHz? Depending on which model there are a lot of Intel dual/quad cores that at stock speeds will blow that away even when at a lower clock speed. For instance, I have a Q6600 that at stock was faster than my old P4EE 3.4GHz. Now I have it OC'ed to 3GHz.
Right now the best dual core is probably the E8400 since for roughly $$230(maybe less) you can OC it to 4GHz on air from its stock 3GHz. Ram is dependant. I got myself some PC8500 or 1066MHz Corsair ram but most get PC6400 or 800MHz ram. Either way it should be able to match your OC easily. Now if you want to up the ante you can get the current best choice quad core CPU aka the Q6600 as it OC's yo at least 3GHz on the stock voltage and to about 3.4GHz on air with a little voltage jump. But overall pretty much any Intel CPU right now based off of Core2 will OC very nicely.
For the mobo I would suggest the Asus P5K-E as it has the P35 which is great for OC'ing and already has full support for any of Intels newer 45nm CPUs dual or quad core with a simple BIOS update. RAM I would say either Corsair PC6400 or thei PC8500. Either way its good RAM that OC's very nicely. I have mine running at 1333MHz right now.
Message edited by jimmysmitty on 02-10-2008 at 09:18:50 PM
I'm not sompletely sure if this is true, but I've heard that the Core 2 Duos are about twice the performance at the same clock speed as Pentium Ds. (Pentium Ds, because they are also dual core).
So if your brother got even a 1.6 Ghz Core 2 Duo, it would be on par with his girlfriend. I'm not exactly sure sure what would be the best CPU for you to get on your budget, but I have the e6550 (2.33Ghz stock) and I have it overclocked to 3.4Ghz. And the RAM is what's holding me back. This is like a 6.8Ghz Pentium D.
So pretty much, don't just look at clock speed. And get a fairly good Core 2 Duo. They pretty much all overclock pretty good.
anyone else think it funny that there was an AMD ad right after the first post?
or do these ads shift around from time to time?
either way, for me, it was amd, so it was funny...
ps-6xxx series, for best bang. can always add little upgrades like another cooler later. for long term, go 6.
I tried to get him to tell me more about his girlfriend's CPU, but over the phone last night I was lucky to get him to find 3.2 Ghz. He truly does not have a clue. So, no, I do not have to worry about beating the 3.2 if it is just the best setup I can get him for the money, and that will likely beat his girlfriend's computer anyway. Besides, she has a 7300LE in there. I joked with him and promised him that every single component on his computer would be better than hers; it was a joke, but I still bet it will be in the end.
Do I need to plan for the future and get him a board that can host two video cards? One new card will always be better than two old ones, right? Will two video cards ever become standard during the lifetime of this cpu/motherboard? No, I bet not.... so just the best motherboard/cpu setup for his price range. But this will last him 5-years or so... his current computer is the one I built him that long ago.. ABIT NF7 with a Barton CPU running at around 2.3 Ghz...
I tried to get him to tell me more about his girlfriend's CPU, but over the phone last night I was lucky to get him to find 3.2 Ghz. He truly does not have a clue. So, no, I do not have to worry about beating the 3.2 if it is just the best setup I can get him for the money, and that will likely beat his girlfriend's computer anyway. Besides, she has a 7300LE in there. I joked with him and promised him that every single component on his computer would be better than hers; it was a joke, but I still bet it will be in the end.
Do I need to plan for the future and get him a board that can host two video cards? One new card will always be better than two old ones, right? Will two video cards ever become standard during the lifetime of this cpu/motherboard? No, I bet not.... so just the best motherboard/cpu setup for his price range. But this will last him 5-years or so... his current computer is the one I built him that long ago.. ABIT NF7 with a Barton CPU running at around 2.3 Ghz...
CF and SLI might not be something that has "swept" the PC community as a mass but you should give him the option. Most good quality mobos come with 2 PCIe slots. Normaly they are 1 fullx16 and they other at x4 or x8. Or the newer ones offer from 2-4 fullx16 PCIe 2.0 ports.
I just suggest giving him the option of adding another GPU as that will make his system last longer especially 5 years cuz thats a long time to go without at least a upgrade.
His GF PC is probably a P4. Most CPUs that run that fast were from the Pentium 4/D days. AMD had a few but they were listed differently.
OK, from the post above, I guess I am, then, wanting to prepare for a time when he might want a 2nd card in there.
It just does not look like the recommended GA-P35-DS3L can meet that need.
What about the GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3P and the The E8400. But that board does not have too many reviews. And if the E8400 remains out of stock for long or when I am ready and/or need to order, what would be a 2nd CPU choice?
If you are going a dual card setup, best to get a x38 board with two full x16 slots. Regarding the CPU, you can nab the e8400 from clubit or microcenter instead. Don't worry about ordering the CPU from other places, the e8400 is a great buy, and you shouldn't skip it just because it's sold out at newegg. For the board, if you go single card a Asus P5K-E/P5K, or a Gigabyte P35-DS3L/P35-DS3R. Honestly though, get a single card, no point, if you want a dual card, he can just nab a 3870x2...Offers slightly better performance than crossfiring 2 3870's due to the gpu's being on the same PCB and interacting with eachother with less distance.
If he wants a nvidia solution, a 8800 GT is the best bet, if he wants a dual nvidia solution, you'll have to go a intel nvidia chipset....OUCH!...They have issues. Unless he waits for the 9800GX2, than he can place that sucker in a intel chipset and pretty much have SLI on a intel based system (the only good point of nvidia coming out, along with the 9800 GTX).
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Eisen6faust 