You can get a pentium g620 for 70 $ or i3 sandybridge for 110 $, both will be able to handle videos (HD), photos, music without any lag and really fast. For these things even if you get an i7 you will not see an improvement. As for gaming, you will need to buy a graphic card. If your games require quadcore then you will need the i5 otherwise all games will work in the dual core. Hope this helps.