- Joined
- Oct 6, 2004
- Location
- Philly
Please post you responses, and factor overclocking into your choices. I am upgrading soon, and have not kept up to date on current technology. Thanks in advance!
-
Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!
Best Intel CPU under $200?
- Thread starter HeatM1ser2k4
- Start date
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2008
- Location
- Odessa, Texas
MMMMMM....
E0 Stepping, E8400, E8500, or you could also find Q6600s. It will depend on what you plan to do with it.
E0 Stepping, E8400, E8500, or you could also find Q6600s. It will depend on what you plan to do with it.
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2002
- Location
- Dallas, TX
Im a tad biased on this, given my substantial luck with my q6600 (3.2 GHz @ 1.2v), but I still think it's probably the best option out there. Coupled with a p45 board, the q6600 will get into the high 3s (maybe low 4s, but Im waiting better cooling to give it a try) ... but if you're someone who upgrades regularly and games a lot, e8500 is the chip to get.
Come on intel, drop those hexa core penryns into the rest of the lineup. Give me a reason to upgrade.
Come on intel, drop those hexa core penryns into the rest of the lineup. Give me a reason to upgrade.
- Joined
- May 2, 2002
- Location
- Keller, TX
I'm very impressed with my Q6600... as mentioned above, it OCs really well and provides great performance all around. (Cheap, too. I paid $189 on NewEgg... may have gone down since then.)
OP
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2004
- Location
- Philly
- Thread Starter
- #6
I plan on using this a mainly a gaming rig, but I like to OC and run benchmarks time to time...but mainly gaming....
And I dont want to upgrade again for at least another 18 months, so I'm looking for a CPU(and a good mobo for overclocking) that will endure the test of time, yet still provide maximum gaming enjoyment!
But I do like to push the limits with overlocking, and have a watercooled system now that I will just adjust to the new rig I put together
And I dont want to upgrade again for at least another 18 months, so I'm looking for a CPU(and a good mobo for overclocking) that will endure the test of time, yet still provide maximum gaming enjoyment!
But I do like to push the limits with overlocking, and have a watercooled system now that I will just adjust to the new rig I put together
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2008
- Location
- New Jersey/NY
I would go with a Q6600 since stuff is beginning to utilize quads.
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2002
if you want something that will last a while for gaming, get a E0 dual core. get a X38 or X48 based board for Xfire with a single or even dual 4870's right now. unless you just want to get a 4850x2 in a while or can spend the money for the 4870x2 now.
we only have ONE game that can correctly utilize quad cores. the vast majority of games are still made to utilize a dual core. im not going to beat a dead horse and will leave if someone tries to debate YET agian the dual vs quad. cause its quiet simple, go quad core if your going to be doing some to alot of a/v encoding. if your mainly going to be gaming then get a dual core.
the biggest bottleneck in our computers is not the CPU or the GPU but the hard drive. there was some testing a while back, i forget by who. they tested SSD vs mechanical HD in crysis and got a nice FPS boost in crysis with the SSD. As from past reviews of GPU's to cpu speed, the cpu isnt the bottleneck to the card. when the cpu is running at least 3.2ghz clock speed on a core 2. the gpu becomes the bottleneck when you crank the res with aa/af on.
we only have ONE game that can correctly utilize quad cores. the vast majority of games are still made to utilize a dual core. im not going to beat a dead horse and will leave if someone tries to debate YET agian the dual vs quad. cause its quiet simple, go quad core if your going to be doing some to alot of a/v encoding. if your mainly going to be gaming then get a dual core.
the biggest bottleneck in our computers is not the CPU or the GPU but the hard drive. there was some testing a while back, i forget by who. they tested SSD vs mechanical HD in crysis and got a nice FPS boost in crysis with the SSD. As from past reviews of GPU's to cpu speed, the cpu isnt the bottleneck to the card. when the cpu is running at least 3.2ghz clock speed on a core 2. the gpu becomes the bottleneck when you crank the res with aa/af on.
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2002
xfire = crossfire, so yes it would require a ATI GPU.
if you want sli then your looking at right now a NV based board. either the a 780i for DDR2 or a 790i for DDR3. If you just plan to stick with one gpu then get a P4x based motherboard.
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2004
- Location
- Alta Loma Calif.
p5q-e would be a good choice
Rich
Rich
- Joined
- May 2, 2002
- Location
- Keller, TX
the whole Asus P5Q line seems to be pretty good... i'm using the P5QL Pro (only $85 on newegg) and like it a lot if you don't mind the P43 chipset... I couldn't justify the P45 for the amount I was spending on other stuff.
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2001
- Location
- New Iberia, LA
And the P5Q-Pro is around $135-140 at NE IIRC.
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2004
OP
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2004
- Location
- Philly
- Thread Starter
- #18
So many choices! Now I'm considering an e8400/8500
I like the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138118R listed
if I got that mobo and an E8500, would http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231144 be good memory for it?
I'm sorry that I am so out of the loop---my current rig has served me well and still does a great job, so I havent had to keep up to date recently...thanks in advance!
I like the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138118R listed
if I got that mobo and an E8500, would http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231144 be good memory for it?
I'm sorry that I am so out of the loop---my current rig has served me well and still does a great job, so I havent had to keep up to date recently...thanks in advance!
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2004
Something along the lines of DDR2 800 or 1000. If you want the headroom 1000 would be good. 2x2gb is where it's at now...2gb is still fine but I moved to 4gb and have been quite happy, however I'm running 4 sticks of 1gb, not to much of a performance hit vs 2x2gb.
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2005
FYI:
I have a E6400 currently running @ 2.66GHz. 8800GT 512 (I think)
While playing Crysis, FEAR, SPORE, I am GPU limited.
While playing Oblivion, Bioshock, I am CPU limited
While playing ALL of these games(specially Supreme Comander) + more I am HDD limited.
Seriously. I am playing SPORE and I have task manager + performance thingy showing HDD queue length, and my CPU usage is at 20% both cores and .8-1.5GBs memory, but HDD spikes when I load, go from somewhere to somewhere or try to save.
2.66-2.8GHz should be plenty and C2Ds are easy to get there. Any C2Ds really. I'd recommend getting a GOOD hard drive (look into SSDs?), a 8800GTS+, and a Qany. It will really save you if you are doing ANYTHING which is multicored. Any unraring, unzipping, encoding of any kind.
It's really nice having more than one core. For example, say I want to play some chess, watch a video and encode this thingy. I set one dedicated core for encoding, and one core for video and chess. Then I set chess to slightly less priority. If I had a Q then it'd be really nice...
I have a E6400 currently running @ 2.66GHz. 8800GT 512 (I think)
While playing Crysis, FEAR, SPORE, I am GPU limited.
While playing Oblivion, Bioshock, I am CPU limited
While playing ALL of these games(specially Supreme Comander) + more I am HDD limited.
Seriously. I am playing SPORE and I have task manager + performance thingy showing HDD queue length, and my CPU usage is at 20% both cores and .8-1.5GBs memory, but HDD spikes when I load, go from somewhere to somewhere or try to save.
2.66-2.8GHz should be plenty and C2Ds are easy to get there. Any C2Ds really. I'd recommend getting a GOOD hard drive (look into SSDs?), a 8800GTS+, and a Qany. It will really save you if you are doing ANYTHING which is multicored. Any unraring, unzipping, encoding of any kind.
It's really nice having more than one core. For example, say I want to play some chess, watch a video and encode this thingy. I set one dedicated core for encoding, and one core for video and chess. Then I set chess to slightly less priority. If I had a Q then it'd be really nice...
