which cpu to buy??

hfxmunroe · **Joined:** Mon Sep 07, 2009 2:18 pm **Posts:** 7

sorry if you see these thread all the time but I am looking to upgrade my cpu and mother board, what I have now is p4 2.8 and I was thinking og a E8200 cpu or should I go with an AMD, I will have to upgrade my vid card too but I am looking to get a cpu under the $200 range. I do plan on doing some gaming thoughts?

Hali_Newf · **Posted:** Sun Sep 13, 2009 8:03 am

If you are a fan of intel and wanna be in the 200 buck range then the E8400 is for you.

When choosing a board there is _alot_ to consider. But if going Intel then at least have one that will take a quad core so you can future proof it a little.

The same goes with AMD. I would go for an AM3 socket board so you can upgrade things later and go with a solid dual core( with at least 1mb of L2/core) if money is a concern.

What video card(s) are you considering?

hfxmunroe · **Joined:** Mon Sep 07, 2009 2:18 pm **Posts:** 7

not sure maybe the ati 4770 perhaps

and its not so much that I am a fan of intel I am just wondering which woudl be better for the buck. Like say I get a 8400 intel is there a amd the same price thats better

Hali_Newf · **Posted:** Sun Sep 13, 2009 12:44 pm

two 4770's in x-fire is apparently friggin awesome( wip the 4870's arse). I would have to double check specs on both but if not mistaken, two is probably easier on pwr than one 4870. Even one is pretty darn good - performance to cost ratio = awesome. Good choice.

When it comes to cost and performance you gotta weigh some things out. I go AMD cause of the performance to cost ratio. I cant justify the cost of a higher end Intel for that little bit of performance gain - or for the wrong reason being bragging rights. The i7's are nothing short of amazing, but do you wanna pay for one? or the board and ram to match? Especially when you upgrade regularly.

So what I do is try an future proof as much as I can. If you go AMD, cheaper and a marginal performance hit. I dont think for a basic home machine that you wanna play a few games on, you would really notice a whole hell of alot.

I would rather suggest that you concentrate also on any bottleneck. One huge one being a hard drive. Its why I got a couple raptors - load times for installs, games etc are dramatically reduced.

I would suggest for cost purposes, A strong AMD dual with at least 1MB of L2/core. And get an AM3 socket mobo as you may upgrade later when prices get better. Go get some 800Mhz ram cause its cheaper than hell right now and be done with it. some 4gig kits right now are ~50-60 bucks. When u are ready to upgrade, you will already have the board, all you would need change out would be the ram and cpu - which by that time should be down alot in cost.

thats my .02

Denty · **Posted:** Sun Sep 13, 2009 2:56 pm

intel chips do just fine, and most tend to over clock nicely, amd i tend to sell for people who wanna save a few bucks, but the new amd x2 250s seem to be doing nicely and better priced, and are reasonable for gaming. and for the best bag for your buck, 4770's are great, 2 of them use less power than a single 4870, and the performance with one 4770 vs 4870 is pretty much on level. 4770 is well worth it

Dr_BenD_over · **Posted:** Sun Sep 13, 2009 3:12 pm

If you go Intel, stick with an Intel chipset motherboard.

4770's ROCK!

hfxmunroe · **Joined:** Mon Sep 07, 2009 2:18 pm **Posts:** 7

so I am thinking of either these 2 tell me if they look good or should i lean another way all together
1 AMD PH-II X3 720 2.8GHz 7.5M BOX95W AM3 BLACK EDITION - Retail
2 INTEL Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz FSB1333MHz 6MB LGA775 Dual-Core

on cpu benchmarks.com the amd seem to be higher I think

CMDR Steve-O · **Posted:** Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:10 pm

We'll have to see what happens to the prices once the 58xx series come out later this month.

Hali_Newf · **Posted:** Mon Sep 14, 2009 7:27 am

Both selections are great. Will it be one or two 4770's?

hfxmunroe · **Joined:** Mon Sep 07, 2009 2:18 pm **Posts:** 7

1 at first then 2 later I guess

hfxmunroe · **Joined:** Mon Sep 07, 2009 2:18 pm **Posts:** 7

CMDR Steve-O wrote:

We'll have to see what happens to the prices once the 58xx series come out later this month.

so shoudl I wait until they come out to see if I can get something better cheaper?

Hali_Newf · **Posted:** Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:36 am

The 4770 is priced slightly higher cause of supply/demand. Still - its price is good for the performance you get. I would give it a little longer ( until the new ATI flagship is unveiled) so prices are a little lower.

You would also need a x-fire board. MB has several.

Topsecret66 · **Joined:** Wed Jun 18, 2008 3:09 pm **Posts:** 1366

Well you don't sound like a hardcore computing individual and there are no games that really utilize 4 threads so I would say this will do you fine.

AMD Phenom II X2 545 3.0GHz BOX 80W AM3 - Retail
http://www.mysterybyte.com/part/15377/

Just looked at best bang for the buck price and thats what i would build from a glance.

which cpu to buy??

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