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Advice on new CPU, mobo

N

nitz12

Weaksauce
Joined
Dec 4, 2007
Messages
88
The wife is sick of the painfully slow 3 year old home build that was done on the cheap. So, I need to grab up a new CPU and mobo that will really act like a PC should, but it will only be used for standard tasks like those done with MS Office, surfing, some photo editing, but not any heavy duty gaming at all. I have a couple sticks of 1 GB Corsair DDR2 800 that I would like to use. I plan on installing Windows 7 when I get it later this month. The mobo I'm looking at is the GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P at $115 and the CPU is an Intel Core2 Duo E7500 Wolfdale 2.93GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W @ $120. I can spend a little more, so is it worth it to go to a Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor. Is there any reason to not get the quad core? Does anyone have any other ideas for a great combo for about $250? Probably won't do much OC with this and yes, I know I could speed things up with faster RAM and HD. Need to start with CPU and mobo though.

Thanks!
 
What processor is in the old computer now?

For basic stuff I would think the E7500 would be more than enough.
 
what's in there now is a AMD Sempron 64 3000+ on a Biostar K8T80-A7
 
For your wife's needs, a quad-core CPU is a bit overkill. Also, in terms of best bang for the buck for low budget builds like yours, AMD is the far better choice.

Also, faster RAM won't really help in real world situations.

If you want to save some money, this combo is a good choice:
$133 - AMD Athlon II X2 240 CPU + Asus M4A785-M AMD 785G HDMI mATX motherboard Combo

Also what PSU will you be using for your wife's build?
 
I believe there is a 400W Cooler Master in there now. Is the AMD CPU as good as the Intel, and are the mobos suggested as feature rich as the Gigabyte? Not averse to AMD.
 
also, will a micro atx fit in the box I currently have which is a Just4PC Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
 
So there is that much of a disparity in price between AMD and Intel that equal CPU's and their respective 'equal' mobos makes Intel at least 35% more? Or are the AMD alternatives proposed here, and their mobos, not quite as good as the items in my original post?
 
nitz12 said:
So there is that much of a disparity in price between AMD and Intel that equal CPU's and their respective 'equal' mobos makes Intel at least 35% more? Or are the AMD alternatives proposed here, and their mobos, not quite as good as the items in my original post?
Click to expand...

It's the former. The X2 240 CPU that I recommended earlier performs close to the E7500 yet is half the price. At this point in time, the only cost-effective Intel CPUs are their Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs.
 
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