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A first timer and his budget rig: e2180 vs. e7200

R

rmgill

n00b
Joined
Feb 8, 2007
Messages
7
I am in the process of building my first computer and am looking for a processor that is cheap and overclocks easily. The e7200 and e2180 fit the bill perfectly. I will be using this computer for light to moderate gaming on a 8800GS + Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L (or perhaps the DFI LanParty, haven't quite decided yet) and general desktop use.

I've read that both overclock extremely well, with the 7200 reaching ~3.4Ghz and the e2180 reaching ~3.2Ghz fairly easily. I may or may not buy an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 to go along with whatever processor I choose considering that both overclock quite a bit on stock cooling.

I'm leaning towards the e2180 at this point in time simply because it's 60 bucks cheaper, and every once in a while it drops to $50 AR. I also wouldn't feel as guilty about plopping in a Q6600 a few months down the road when a hot deal comes about. :p
 
E2180 FTW.

B/c it is so damn cheap. Just put one in my main rig (downgrade from Quad), and it jumped right in at 2.66GHz w/o hesitation. Haven't tried further, but $$$ is sweet.
 
Look at my sig except the proc. I just got the E7200 thursday and right out the box got 3.8ghz with my current setup. Im pretty sure that wins hands down.
 
If you're interested in saving the extra cash, then the E2180 wins all the way.
If you've got the extra cash to burn then you may as well get the E7200.

The E7200 costs about twice as much as the E2180, and it's not really worth it to be honest.
 
Even at stock or a slight OC I doubt you would notice much difference as far as gaming goes. I just got an e2200 and I have it at 2.9GHz right now and have only seen an improvement in sythetic benchmarks. The HL2 stress tests/crysis cpu benchmarks showed less than 1 fps improvement. Most modern games will be limited by the GPU. This is just coming from my experience with an e2200. Other things may benefit but I have seen barely any gain as far as games, i seem to be bottle necked by my 9600gt.

Edit: I am also using an EP35-DS3L board and an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. This is my first time OCing and am just starting with this chip but I found at stock volts highest I could go was 2.65, which seems to be the norm. I should be able to hit 3 or slightly above with little more voltage.
 
I would go for the e2180 if i were you , since you plan on replacing it with a quad. the good thing about the e7x00's and other C2D is VT. If you are not doing virtualization stuff then you should save yourself the cash. btw The 8800GT is incredibly cheap now. i've seen it for $149! That is...put as much $ as you can on the GPU.
 
E7200. Who cares if it costs more, it's still an inexpensive processor. That's my take.

If the choice is between a 2180 and a better GPU versus a 7200 and a weaker GPU, then go ahead and go for the 2180, but if you don't have to make that sort of trade-off, then go for the 7200
 
Thanks for all the great replies! I'm all too aware that the 8800GS is going to be my bottleneck, but the $90AR + free Call of Duty 4 deal was too good to pass up considering COD4 was going to be the first game I'd buy.

It looks like I can't go wrong with either chip I decide to purchase - they're both steals as everyone has confirmed thus far. I'll be keeping a keen eye out for deals on either processor the next couple weeks as I wait to see what happens with all the P45 mobos and I'll snag whichever one gets a discount or a rebate. If that doesn't happen, I'm going with the e2180.
 
UtopiA said:
Yeah the P45 is looking very sexy:
http://anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=455
Click to expand...

Ummm $280 for a motherboard does not look sexy to me.

Sexy to me looks more like $150+- for a good motherboard.

Back to OP.

the E7200 should be faster (clock for clock and it SHOULD overclock higher), but its probably not worth 2x the price.
At least not if you're on a tight budget.

If you can already afford 4Gb of ram and a 9600GT or 8800GT videocard and the e7200 then get it.

But if you have a choice of 2gb vs 4gb or something slower than the above 2 cards, then save the money on the processor and get more ram or a better videocard.

ie: put your money towards getting
>= 9600GT
4Gb if possible (2x2Gb)
then if you have money left over to get the e7200 over the e2180, get it
 
You can get the E7200 for only $132. With good air cooling, you can hit 3.6 Ghz and barely need a voltage increase.

Invest in a water cooling setup and you'll get at least 4.0 Ghz.
 
chrispycrunch said:
BTW e2x00's come with crappy aluminum coolers. Not sure what the E7's come with.
Click to expand...

The same coolers. Also there are two versions of the stock Intel cooler floating around. Once has a copper slug in it, the others are solid aluminium.

For $135 though, E7200 buyers should just pickup a Q6600 imo. Its a lot more CPU for a fairly minimal increase in cost. E2xx0 and Q6600 are the best values out there right now. Getting a E7200 its like the end result of not being able to make up your mind :D
 
ocellaris said:
For $135 though, E7200 buyers should just pickup a Q6600 imo. Its a lot more CPU for a fairly minimal increase in cost. E2xx0 and Q6600 are the best values out there right now. Getting a E7200 its like the end result of not being able to make up your mind :D
Click to expand...

And... where do you see any Q6600s going for $150~?
 
e7200 the price may be 2x as much but the cache is so much larger than the e2180 but they oc at about the same=)
 
jxaznxk said:
e7200 the price may be 2x as much but the cache is so much larger than the e2180 but they oc at about the same=)
Click to expand...

You've seen the E2180 hitting 3.8 Ghz with good air cooling? Do share. :D
 
Leman said:
And... where do you see any Q6600s going for $150~?
Click to expand...

I don't, but I see people putting $50+ coolers on 7200s, and I see 6600s going for not too far over $170. I think people get a better value from 6600 and a cheap cooler (or even stock) compared to trying to hit huge numbers with a 7200 and a great cooler, and the cost difference is not too bad. if money is really tight, get a 2180 and spend some of the saved money on the rest of the pc..
 
jxaznxk said:
e7200 the price may be 2x as much but the cache is so much larger than the e2180 but they oc at about the same=)
Click to expand...

After buying an e2200 recently I looked into this a bit and it seems cache size really doesn't make a huge difference. The main differences were in office type applications and very small difference if any in games. There was a good comparison on xbit labs of how cache size effects performance. I can't seem to find it right now but will post it if I do.

Edit: After a quick search I found this.
 
Lol what are the chances of posting at about the same time too! Good links by the way, helped me in my decision :D
 
I dont know about anyone else, but I would consider some of those differences significant in the above links.
 
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