Pentium Celeron D: Worthwile for intended use?

C

ChrisII

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 16, 2006
Messages
91
Hello all,

I'm building a PC for a friend and I do not have any experience with these processors. He basically wants the following:

  1. Burn DVDs
  2. Listen to Music
  3. Be able to run Vista (preferably 64 bit edition) on it when it comes out. (or run the beta in the meantime)

As I understand it, the memory and graphics cards are the more common "bottlenecks" of any system, and as such I initially configured an D805 on an Asus P5LD2 mobo, with 2x512 4200 DDR2. A D930 increased the price by 80 bucks, a worthwile upgrade IMO.

Thing is, the system comes up to 1250 w/ a screen, and I'm looking to something just over half that price.

Here is the config:
http://pc.ncix.com/ncixpc/ncixpc.cfm?uuid=C40610A3-3048-2962-46E6F2EC4243D76A-1037296

1- Is the celeron a good idea?
2- Are there any easy ways to cut costs?
3- Is an AMD procesor better suited for the application my friend wishes to make of his new system?

Any help would be greatly appreciated... and if there are any fellow canadians here, other good websites to buy individual components cheap?

Regards,

Chris
 
meh, build yourself a Cedar Mill with a 7600GT and you'll have something pretty good...

IMHO celeron blows...esp if u r gonna want vista in the future
 
The Celeron D's are decent compared to the northwoods, and overclock very well. They can run vista just fine and are insanely cheap too, but just so you know they arent pentium celerons, its just celeron :)
 
ChrisII said:
Hello all,

I'm building a PC for a friend and I do not have any experience with these processors. He basically wants the following:

  1. Burn DVDs
  2. Listen to Music
  3. Be able to run Vista (preferably 64 bit edition) on it when it comes out. (or run the beta in the meantime)

As I understand it, the memory and graphics cards are the more common "bottlenecks" of any system, and as such I initially configured an D805 on an Asus P5LD2 mobo, with 2x512 4200 DDR2. A D930 increased the price by 80 bucks, a worthwile upgrade IMO.

Thing is, the system comes up to 1250 w/ a screen, and I'm looking to something just over half that price.

Here is the config:
http://pc.ncix.com/ncixpc/ncixpc.cfm?uuid=C40610A3-3048-2962-46E6F2EC4243D76A-1037296

1- Is the celeron a good idea?
2- Are there any easy ways to cut costs?
3- Is an AMD procesor better suited for the application my friend wishes to make of his new system?

Any help would be greatly appreciated... and if there are any fellow canadians here, other good websites to buy individual components cheap?

Regards,

Chris
Click to expand...

First, are those Canadian Dollars or USD?

Those aren't terrible prices for Canadian money but if you want to spend half of that, I'm afraid you're out of luck especially with all the name-brand stuff and widescreen LCD.

If those are US dollars, consider purchasing from Newegg.com/Chiefvalue.com, Monarchcomputers.com, Zipzoomfly.com, Ewiz.com, Mwave.com, and other well-known etailers. I am sure you'd be able to shave off a couple of hundred bucks if buy the parts at other places. For example, I'd recommend Buffalo memory for your friend. This company has a good reputation in Japan and though it is less known here, it does make quality products.

Once you've settled for the best prices you can find, then you can decide on which processor/motherboard to use. Again, you already know going down to a PD805 would only save 80 bucks The PD805 is a good deal, especially if you can overclock it.
 
Canadian dollars. Don't worry about the screen; really I have to deal with the PC... I'll let him decide what kind of screen he wants, and additional costs will be his problem :)

Basically, I need a good mobo/processor combo that can be flexible. The Celeron idea came from the fact that certain motherboards are compatible with celeron/P4/pentium D.... so he could go from a basic celeron to a 930 (when the prices drop with the introduction of Conroe maybe!)

Any additional thoughts? Is an Integrated audio/video solution a good idea? (945G chipset?)

EDIT: What about this combination?

Celeron D 326 (61.32 CDN)
Gigabyte GA-8I945P-G (120.75 CDN)

Cheap power supply, cheap case, and the graphics card outlined in the above setup (eVGA GeForce 6600 @ 122.83). Generic HD, DVD Burner and decent RAM and I might have a <600$ system!

This starter setup has Sata II capability and my buddy can upgrade to a D9xx. Motherboard supports DDR2 and PCIe.
 
Here is the configuration I've built:

Inwin C583K5 Mid Tower Case Black 3X5.25 2X3.5 3X3.5INT 350W ATX V1.3 20/24PIN

Intel Celeron D 326 2.53GHZ LGA775 Prescott 256K L2 Cache 533FSB 90NM EM64T Processor Retail Box

Gigabyte GA-8I945P-G ATX LGA775 945P DDR2 PCI-E16 SATA2 RAID Sound 2GBLAN 1394 Motherboard

OCZ Gold EL PC2-4200 1GB 2X512MB DDR2-533 CL3-3-3-8 240PIN DIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit W/ Ramsink ** Motherboard supports DDR2-667, but supplier doesn't sell good stuff**

Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB SATA2 7200RPM 8MB 11MS NCQ RoHS Hard Drive 5 Year MFR Warranty

EVGA E-GEFORCE 6600 300MHZ 256MB 128BIT 500MHZ DDR PCI-E DVI-I TV-OUT Video Card

BenQ DW1650 Black DVD+-RW 16X Dual Layer DVD Writer OEM

TOTAL PRICE (in CDN): 622.29.

Does this look decent for the application that my friend wishes to make of it?
 
2 things:

1 - I'd be a little concerned about that PSU. I bought a cheap case, with a generic 400W PSU for a very similar system (2.53Ghz OC'd to 3Ghz), and a few months after I assembled the system it started to randomly restart. So I had to go over and check out the system.... I couldn't diagnose the problem as it would reboot kinda randomly, mostly underload, but sometimes not. THen I was in the BIOS looking at settings and it did it again. So I realized it must be the PSU. Luckily, I had a spare (old 300W Skyhawk) swapped out and its been fine every since.

2 - With the price of the 805 coming down you should really consider getting one. You could have a MUCH more powerful system for not that much more cost.
 
I don't intend on overclocking the system, just so everybody knows. All I want is decent spped with Vista (32bit beta 2, which came out last week sometime), good DVD burning speed and ability to play music (ensured by the external soundcard my friend already owns.)

The PSU was a concern for me too: but this is a budget system, and I'd be hard pressed to find a brand name PSU for less than 50 CDN and a case for less than 50. The reviews on the website I will be purchasing on (www.ncix.com) are very positive. This is, afterall, a budget system.

The D805 still costs a heafty 100 dollars more than this celeron... which would bring the price up nearly 20%.... the person in question will probably upgrade to D9xx series when cornroe comes out, as I anticipate a significant drop in price.

Vista, DVD Burning and Music. Can we do it with this system (stock)!?
 
He will probably still need to upgrade the PSU when he upgrades to the 900 series. So you can buy right now once, or buy twice b/c you skimped the 1st time.
 
chrisf6969 said:
So you can buy right now once, or buy twice b/c you skimped the 1st time.
Click to expand...
I agree. I used to try and get the cheap stuff as well, but I think it is better in the long run to get quality parts that you will not need to replace later.
 
ChrisII said:
I don't intend on overclocking the system, just so everybody knows. All I want is decent spped with Vista (32bit beta 2, which came out last week sometime), good DVD burning speed and ability to play music (ensured by the external soundcard my friend already owns.)

The PSU was a concern for me too: but this is a budget system, and I'd be hard pressed to find a brand name PSU for less than 50 CDN and a case for less than 50. The reviews on the website I will be purchasing on (www.ncix.com) are very positive. This is, afterall, a budget system.

The D805 still costs a heafty 100 dollars more than this celeron... which would bring the price up nearly 20%.... the person in question will probably upgrade to D9xx series when cornroe comes out, as I anticipate a significant drop in price.

Vista, DVD Burning and Music. Can we do it with this system (stock)!?
Click to expand...

Your friend probably wouldn't notice the difference between a PD805 and a PD940 unless he did alot of video encoding. If you factor in the price of the Celeron D, might as well get the PD940 now. And if you're not going to overclock, why not just order a whole system from OEMs like Dell and HP? Their set-ups are better suited to a budget, as far as I know. There are three reasons why I build my own: I overclock/tweak/upgrade, I like the personal touch, and the sense of fulfillment. Lately, I have felt that these reasons are overrated.
 
ChrisII said:
Vista, DVD Burning and Music. Can we do it with this system (stock)!?
Click to expand...

Easily. Celeron D's cant be beat for the price, they are insanely cheap and arent nearly as slow as people think.
 
Well in my household we are longtime DELL users (LONGTIME!) We actually bought a Pentium 133 laptop that cost upwards 6500 dollars!

Truth is, I don't like Dell and I've looked at all the "mainstream" offerings and the quality of the components don't match the barebones system I'm trying to build. The Celeron chip, if it does the job, costs only 60 dollars and wouldn't be replaced until an offical build of Vista.

My system offers DDR2 memory, SATAII drive, a graphics card that makes some sense: most mainstream models bundle "integrated graphics" into their systems, making them utterly useless, as the Vista requirements state the necessity of a modern 128MB card.

This is meant as a quality, budget PC. Shipped and built w/tax it comes to a meager 665 CDN. (I would have built it, but they offer it free...)


I would have considerded AMD as a choice but the chips here in canada are minium 100CDN for the "manila" AM2 socket version.


All I want to know is if you fine people believe it can Run Vista, Burn DVD's and play music, or if this can be done for cheaper. Many thanks
 
ChrisII said:
All I want to know is if you fine people believe it can Run Vista, Burn DVD's and play music, or if this can be done for cheaper. Many thanks
Click to expand...

Yes it can, and no you cant go cheaper as of now, the sempron's come close but are still a bit more per performance.
 
I've had 3 2.4 ghz socket 478 Celeron D's. I got 4 ghz stable on one, but it took quite a bit of voltage and one of those copper Thermaltake heaksinks with a Vantec Tornado to keep it cool. It ran at 3.6 ghz on stock voltage. That Celeron was the most fun I've had with any chip and it's still going strong in my father's PC. The other two didn't fare nearly as well; neither could get above 3.4 ghz stable. For the ~$70 I paid probably a year ago, these chips were some of the best values to come around. Still, I would probably go with an entry level dual-core solution at this time if you can spare the money.

It will run Vista and will perform general tasks fine now, but as time wears on, this system will show its value roots fairly quickly.
 
I've found a suitable Case and PSU to complement the setup (Fortron Sparkle 400W). The case is a large, beige affair, not terribly good looking but at least it's functional.... any other cost cutting ideas that won't compromise the current performance?

Update: I went ahead and ordered the following..

-Nikao 17IN ATX Mid Tower Case 4X5.25 1X3.5 5X3.5INT Silver No PS W/ Air Duct
-Intel Celeron D 326 2.53GHZ LGA775 Prescott 256K L2 Cache 533FSB 90NM EM64T Processor Retail Box
-Gigabyte GA-8I945P-G ATX LGA775 945P DDR2 PCI-E16 SATA2 RAID Sound 2GBLAN 1394 Motherboard
-Corsair Value Select PC2-5300 1GB 2X512MB DDR2-667 240PIN DIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit
-Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB SATA2 7200RPM 8MB 11MS NCQ RoHS Hard Drive 5 Year MFR Warranty
-XFX GeForce 7300 GS 550MHZ 256MB DDR2 PCI-E VGA DVI TV Out Video Card
-Fortron Sparkle FSP/SPI ATX-400PN 400W ATX12V 20/24PIN Power Supply W/ 120MM Fan P4 AMD Ready OEM
-BenQ DW1650 Black DVD+-RW 16X Dual Layer DVD Writer OEM

I feel that the above configuration is appropriate for my friends needs and was able to drive the price down even further (by making a tradeoff with the graphics card, the 7300 was cheaper, but nVidia and other independant reviewers state that this is ideal to step into Vista.)

I understand that may have said that the Celeron is not quite as good as say, the D805, but this system only cost 581.43 CDN. Thanks for the power supply suggestion; I think it was probably a very good idea for a latter processor upgrade.... now I have to get my friend to overclock it :)
 
ChrisII said:
Vista, DVD Burning and Music. Can we do it with this system (stock)!?
Click to expand...


Yes, and it will do it very well IMO. Celeron D's are actually good processors, especially for the money they cost. They also overclock really well, which I have yet to do with mine. There was a thread a while ago about OCing them and some had them at or around 4ghz. With Vista you will want good ram and a good vid card, which you have.
 
i wouldve suggested the asus p5ld-vm as it has onboard video which is good enough for your friends needs for the moment and has a pci-e x16 for later upradablity if vista dont like it
that way you couldve saved about $70 on the vid card and then used that money towards an 805 or something
and as ur not overclocking its perfect for you
 
It seems that alot of people put the processor before the graphics. There is no way an integrated graphics card could have run Vista Beta 2. I'd have a fast-ish processor but couldn't do what I wanted to do. Gaming is not the goal here. Besides, the processor would have cost me 100 dollars extra, and would have only saved 80 on the graphics card.

I do like your motherboard suggestion, as it does DDR2 and SATAII.... does mATX change anything?
 
ChrisII said:
It seems that alot of people put the processor before the graphics. There is no way an integrated graphics card could have run Vista Beta 2.
Click to expand...

Yes, there is. Ive done it.
 
ChrisII said:
It seems that alot of people put the processor before the graphics. There is no way an integrated graphics card could have run Vista Beta 2. I'd have a fast-ish processor but couldn't do what I wanted to do. Gaming is not the goal here. Besides, the processor would have cost me 100 dollars extra, and would have only saved 80 on the graphics card.

I do like your motherboard suggestion, as it does DDR2 and SATAII.... does mATX change anything?
Click to expand...
matx boards most of the time have onboard graphics
and for your needs that is sufficient till vista gets released
xp should and will run fine
 
ChrisII said:
Surely not with Aero effects and all? I guess you learn something everyday...
Click to expand...

Honestly yes, of course its not the fastest in the world but it does work.
 
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