Best least expensive Intel chip

[fasterthanlight]

I am building a HTPC and want a dual core Intel chip. Which is the best right now? Is it the Core Duo, or Core Duo 2, or still a Pentium D 930? I don't need alot of power, just quiet and inexpensive.

 

[Demon_of_The_Fall]

I'd get a Core2Duo E6300. They're plenty fast, and easy enough on the power. Especially if you dropped the voltage a little bit.

If all you want is cool and quiet you couldn't beat a single core athlon 64 though, they use an incredibly small amount of power when they ramp down to 1GHz at 1 volt.

 

[chrisf6969]

my e6600 does 2Ghz at 1.05v (with speed step on)

6x333 (idle / speed step = 2Ghz)
9x333 (full speed overclocked = 3Ghz)

So you could probably take a 6300 (1.8Ghz) and undervolt it to around 1.0v and it would be cool/quiet & FAST!

 

[ASUDevil83]

if you can wait, i'd hold off for the E4300 due to come out Q1 07 (which i hope means January). this is the proc i'm waiting for for my HTPC.

Dual 1.8Ghz - 800MHz FSB - 2MB L2 cache.

should also be an overclocking beast with its 9x multi

 

[StealthyFish]

E2xxx series is also coming out. It's a conroe-L core. Same thing as an Allendale, but with 1 mb cache disabled. it's supposedly a sub-100 dollar processor series

 

[Arcygenical]

My e6300 Orthos's post at 1.15ghz @ 1.05v

Temps in the low 20's idle (16c room) and high 20's load.

On water...