intel e2140? or athlon x2 4200+?

just wondering i'm a budget gamer, and partly because it makes no point for the most part for me to blow alot of money on a system. Because i tend to stick with a game or two for a few years at a time. (currently cs:s and cod4) i usually run fps configs so i don't care about graphics for the most part. Just stable framerates and performance.

I behind on my cpus these days.
I'm on a athlon 64 2800+ oc'ed to 2.2 (754 socket)
radeon 9800xt 256 mb
1 gig ram
crappy half working epox mobo.

Just wondering (probly a dumb question) if i will see a big performance difference? Which processor is better for for a 70 to 100ish price?
I seen them e2140's oc like crazy.

I plan on purchasing a micro atx case and mobo. (no room need to make stuff smaller)
wanting to get a 1950pro i think it, the one that runs like 100 bucks.
2 gigs of some ddr 2 800 muskin

So i'll get to the point lol just curious what cpu is suggested? out of them two or anything in that price range. I'm shooting for the 500 dollar machine lol. and plan on probly playing cs:s and cod4 for the next few years lol.

E2140 is better.

From the reviews I've seen, the 2140 @ 3Ghz is slightly faster than the 3600 x2 at 3Ghz, but the 2140 is also slightly more expensive. The big difference is the 2140 will overclock higher if you get a good stepping. The 3600 will probably max at 3.2Ghz if you're lucky but I've seen 2140's get well over that.

Sorry, I see that you were talking about the 4200 x2. From what I've seen, not many athlon 64 x2's can cross 3.2Ghz regardless of what version it is. Only exemptions would be the 5600 or 6400 black editions. I would say go for the 2140.

With a e2140 you can use even value ram, no need to splurge on mushkin. Get the cheapest DDR2-800 kit you can find, skip the idea of micro-atx (you won't find many options OC wise) and you are good to go.

Only thing I would consider if I were you is the 8800gt.

Well, the E2140 has the same amount of L2 cache as the 4200+, but it draws at least 30w less. As far as overclocking them goes, I don't know as I haven't owned either one. I'd think on that X2 you would be hard-pressed to get it over 3 GHz, I've only seen newer "F3" stepping Windsors hitting 3 GHz or over. However, getting the E2140 to 3 GHz could also be a tough task as you'd need to get the FSB to at least the upper 300s. That's going to be difficult on a micro ATX motherboard since they usually don't overclock worth a damn, especially the cheaper ones (under $100). A 2160 would only require a 333 MHz FSB to get to around 3 GHz, as long as your board supports pad-modded chips (my Gigabyte micro ATX board does not) then you should be able to hit 3 GHz with a micro board based on one of the 1333 FSB chipsets with little trouble.

I found an excel document with gaming comparisons from this website.

They don't compare the E2140 to the 4200+ directly, but they do compare it to a 4400+ (which could be considered unfair since the Toledo 4400 has more L2 cache then either the 4200 or the E2140) and they compare it to a BE-2350. I think the comparison to the 2350 is more fair since the chips are closer in a specs-comparison. With the exception of the COD2 numbers it looks like the two AMD chips scored better across the board on gaming benchmarks compared to the E2140, at stock speeds of course (2.1 GHz on the BE-2350, 2.2 GHz on the 4400+).

E2140, don't go micro if you want to overclock. Besides if you get a lower end P35 (Abit or Gigabyte) w/o all the goodies (IE: SATA Raid) for around $80-90 you can step up to a Penryn quad later down the line when they get cheap and you'll be able to OC the heck out of your system, regardless of CPU.

wow thx for the info guys. I'll admit i've always been a athlon fan boy lol basicly since back in the early early days. but as i been kinda getting ready to buy a new machine, i been looking around and it just looks like athlon has really fallen down.

someone said get a 8800gt? would that be overkill for a processor like that? i was thinking of getting the 3850 i believe it is radeon. The one thats running for like 180 on newegg right now. but i'll think about it a bit. i was just gonna go with the 1950 radeon because its got some power and its cheap.

thx for the info i was gonna go micro atx, but as i see in the forums here and before i came and checked this message i seen there not worth a crap for oc'ing. Which i plan on getting a nice cooler and oc'ing that as far as i can get it.

that muskin ram i was talkin about was only 50 bucks for 2 gigs didn't seem bad price for a brand i trust.

thx alot guys fo rthe advice.

If the mushkin is $50 it's their value stuff and is pretty much what I would recommend. You could actually do better on the price but they are a good name.

I mentioned the 8800gt because they can be found cheap if you look hard. Dell had it for $207 the other day, back up to $260 now. I have a x1950pro 512mb myself, and it is a great card. I am the same way as you, I stick with a game, right now it is TF2 and still CSS. It will get the job done, for sure, but the 8800gt is so nice and fast...i want one.

I'm hoping Santa will bring me an 8800GT this year for xmas..........I'm sure I've been good

In my opinion you are not going to notice a huge difference beetween the 2, the C2D will OC higher and be a little on top but it also costs more.

Get E2140.
If you will ever play Oblivion/Bioshock/other new games you will thank me.
Oblivion was CPU limited at 15/20FPS. Now I am with a [email protected]/7600GS, and it runs 30-50FPS on higher resolution with more mods with HDR!