Want best budget but plan use for five years so a few extra $ mean nothing

Mannaman

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Hello, best bang for buck processor and MB and video card for heavy multitasking and movie watching but no gaming
 
First off, define multitasking for your use. What sort of programs do you use, since you don't game?

In general, I would recommend the i3-2100 and a good H67 motherboard. They're fast chips, and very cheap.

As for a video card, I'd get something like the new AMD 6600 cards.
 

Mannaman

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On, multitasking, I download a great and then process what I d/l., i.e., add parity files to protect, try to organize things where I want them, process video files, browse the Internet, YouTube writing and answering, lots of things that take resources and use memory.

I have an E4700 (775) and am considering a better MB with USB3 and SATA rev.3 for that 'year' I get a 1.5GB/ps SSD (at a good price) and a quad Core 2, and am hoping that I can find someone who is upgrading to an i7 and wants to sell their used MB and highly overclockable CPU.

I know that it wouldn't cost that much more to go to current tech. but I'm under the impression that there are some Northbridge issues that need to be worked out so it seems I could get something good and reasonably priced by going used Core 2 Quad and wait until an opportune time comes (with more money) to get my "dream machine."
 
Even the i3-2100 would be able to handle what you're doing with your computer, and a Z68 motherboard would allow you to transcode video faster. The stuff you're doing isn't very resource intensive.

Ideally, you could go to an i5-2400 and Z68 board with 4GB RAM, but it really depends on how much you have to spend.
 

Mannaman

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Because of the issues of which I hear with Northbridge, *and* because I have someone to whom to sell whatever rebuild I make now, I decided to upgrade my MB now and wait until Ivy Bridge comes out to build something significantly better.

In fact, if I get a 775 MB with USB3 and at least two PCI slots, SATA rev.3, (six SATA connectors), and in the process of time, find a 775 Extreme processor at a cheap enough price, I might put off another upgrade even longer.

So far, I haven't been able to find a 775 MB with SATA rev.3. Do you know of any or think any will come out?

If that's not going to happen, then I'll just accept it, take SATA rev.2.

I still need a quality 775 MB for my current CPU simply because it seems my "memory error" problem must be the MB since it's happened since first boot up and never ceased through seven different DIMMS.
 

Mannaman

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I'm curious why you chose the 2500K instead of the 2600K.

I don't usually swap computers quickly. I figure I'll keep a computer four years or longer and since I use it so much (average more than four hours a day), it seems to me the extra speed is easily worth the extra money.
 

Mannaman

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I hope my words don't sound confusing and contradictory to my stated agenda.

I've been actually looking at two options and being a little ambivalent. Firstly, building a budget Core 2 Duo board since I already have the processor and memory, and then if my money is plentiful in a year, selling the board to a friend who has an AMD XP 1400 and buying an Ivy Bridge.

My friend doesn't even use tabs in the browser. "Multitasking" is only mental and she uses M$ Office, email, does some browsing and watching Netflix movies (which is why the upgrade in a year [or sooner] -- some are too demanding on her AGP video card).
 


The only real difference between the 2500K and 2600K is hyperthreading. Neither chip OCs better or anything like that. Although I use some Autodesk applications on occasion, I mainly play games and I'm not a heavy photo/video editor. Hyperthreading would be a waste for me, so it was an unnecessary $100 to spend.

I can't imagine that for your use that a good 1155 quad core would ever get bogged down. The Sandy Bridge chips are so well designed that they'll probably be good for several years to come. Obviously the 2500K would be even more future proof because you could OC it down the road. Again, I don't know what kind of budget you're working with here, so I can't really recommend anything specific.