C2D: E5200 vs. E7500

After I read some articles, I now have some second thoughts on getting the E7500. They say It's alot faster and more stable to OC and blah bla bla.

So which one is really the best for me?

My spec would probably be: (probably, because I didn't order yet)
mobo: p5ql pro OR p5q se2
gpu: Palit GTX 260 Sonic 216sp 896mb
ram: most likely the G.Skill PI Black 2x2gb ddr 800 CL4
psu: tacens 600w 85% eff, modular

Purpose: Gaming and logo designing with the use of Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/def [...] p=66&p2=62

There is a comparison between the E7200 and the E5200. I chose the E7200 because it has a similar stock clock speed, so you can see the clock for clock difference between the 2 series. I'd go with the E7500 and OC the crap out of it, but either way you'll be happy. Both chips have a grip of OC headroom, and you can bring a lot of power out of the little bargain chip; E5200.

Also, go with the p45 chipset mobo (p5q se2).

Sounds like your overclocking, get the e5200 and overclock the hell out of it. The newer stepping is a lot better. Your not going to get that "WOW" difference your looking for anyways. Least not while overclocking that is...

Expect nothing less than 3.7 ghz when overclocking with a mobo that can handle it.

The thing is, if I get the E7500 I cant buy an aftermarket heatsink for it, so I'll be using the stock speed for the moment since it's not advisable to OC with a stock HSF right? Whereas the E5200, I can still fit in a 50-dollar heatsink.

So which really is the best choice here?
a. E7500 w/ stock HSF using stock speed for the time being
b. E5200 w/ aftermarket heatsink

They are both LGA775. The same heatsink that will fit an E5200 will fit an E7500.

And even if an E5300 is now the same stepping, don't bother. The internal multiplier of the E5200 is high enough you will not gain anything by going to an E5300. I mean, if you could push the FSB to 400 MHz - the working speed of DDR2-800 RAM, the core of an E5200 would be running at 5 GHz instead of 5.2 GHz.

I have an E5200 in one of my systems. The best that I can do with mine is 3.78 GHz (P95 stable). But I lost the CPU lottery. My chip has a pretty high VID - 1.2875 volts.

For motherboards, I happen to like Gigabyte motherboards. If you are not going to run Crossfire, and you do not need more than 6 SATA ports, a GA-EP43-UD3L is about $80:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128380

A GA-G41M-ES2H is about $65:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128396

Also because the AMD Fanboys are slow, how about:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.273353