Need help to choose.

[bauerbrazil]

Im a long time AMD user, but now its time to move on...

Im thinking to buy a Core 2 Duo E7200 because looks like it has a good price/performance and overclocking potencial.

I used to read lots of articles years ago, but now its a diferent story.

So, should i buy this cpu or there is a better option in terms of price/performance and overclocking potencial?

I need help to choose a motherboard and memory too.

Is a Kingston DDR2 2Gb PC6400 800Mhz enough?

What is a good/inexpensive motherboard?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: bauerbrazil

Im thinking to buy a Core 2 Duo E7200 because looks like it has a good price/performance and overclocking potencial.

So, should i buy this cpu or there is a better option in terms of price/performance and overclocking potencial?

Balance of "price"... "performance"... "overclocking" = E2180

 

[bauerbrazil]

Just a detail, i want to use stock cooling...

 

[JPB]

Go with the P5Q

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

e7200 is a great choice, i just got mine from newegg.

inexpensive motherboard chipsets to go with the e7200:
P35, P43, P45

 

[rahilk]

Originally posted by: JPB
Go with the P5Q

This is a great motherboard. I recently got it.

 

[DSF]

It would help to know what the machine is going to be used for.

 

[bauerbrazil]

Originally posted by: DSF
It would help to know what the machine is going to be used for.

Casual gaming.

Well im seeing ill have a big problem with this upgrade, my VGA is agp and i didnt want to spend money on this one because it has just 2 years old.

 

[JackMDS]

If you want to stay with your 2 year old AGP, then there is No point to upgrade, any penney that you spend would be a waste.

Get an inexpensive Mobo that supports E2180 (it go can up to about 2.8GHz with the stock HSF) and a sub $100 PCIe GRAPHIC card.

Use the rest of the stuff that you have,

You probably would double your processing power for less than $200.

 

[bauerbrazil]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
If you want to stay with your 2 year old AGP, then there is No point to upgrade, any penney that you spend would be a waste.

Get an inexpensive Mobo that supports E2180 (it go can up to about 2.8GHz with the stock HSF) and a sub $100 PCIe GRAPHIC card.

Use the rest of the stuff that you have,

You probably would double your processing power for less than $200.

The reason i want to upgrade everything except vga is because i still have a overclocked XP 1700+ and i have a "good" 6600GT.

Well, ill think about this option or spend more with better stuff.

Thanks.

 

[JackMDS]

This Mobo is $47, http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128076

E2180 is $60 from Tiger, $70 from NewEgg.

This probably makes triple circles around your AGP. $120

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814121263

A little over $200 and you are moved into the 21st century.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

If you can spare the extra $50 or $60, the E7200 is definitely a much better chip than the E2180. Even an E2180 overclocked to 2.8 GHz would still get [severly?] outperformed by an E7200 running at stock speeds, thanks to the E7200's extra 2MB of L2 cache and tweaked 45nm architecture.

This P43 Biostar TForce board looks like a good value.

There is no sense for you to keep your AGP 6600GT, because there are currently PCIE video cards that are more powerful for only $30 - like this Radeon HD2600XT.

Is a Kingston DDR2 2Gb PC6400 800Mhz enough?

Yes. Just grab whatever the cheapest DDR2 800/PC6400 RAM you can find.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Wow, double post.

The forums gave me a strange "15 secs between post" error message.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: cusideabelincoln
If you can spare the extra $50 or $60, the E7200 is definitely a much better chip than the E2180.

Even an E2180 overclocked to 2.8 GHz would still get [severly?] outperformed by an E7200 running at stock speeds,

thanks to the E7200's extra 2MB of L2 cache and tweaked 45nm architecture.

Ok... Name that tune! :laugh:
Show us links where the OC'd E2180 is "severly outperformed" by a stock speed E7200.

BTW, Are you claiming the OC'd E2180 is "severly outperformed" in every benchmark, most benchmarks, a single benchmark?

>> LINKS? <<

 

[cusideabelincoln]

I was referring to gaming benchmarks. Specifically, I took this determination from this Xbitlabs article:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articl...duo-e7200_6.html#sect0

As a substitute for an E2180 @ 2.8 GHz, the E4700 should be fairly equivalent. While it only runs at 2.6 GHz, it has twice the L2 cache - almost all benchmarks show L2 cache being important, especially on lower end chips, to performance. In those circumstances, the E7200 is outperforming the E4700 by 20%.

In this AT article, the E7200 again outperforms the E4700 by 5%, even at higher quality settings.

These benchmarks show the affect of L2 cache from comparing the results of the E2200 to the E4500. In those circumstances, the E4500 averaged 10% performance improvement over the same-clocked E2200.

Finding direct benchmarks are difficult. If you come across any, then please post them as well. As you see, this is why I put the question mark after severly. It means "maybe." If I had used no punctuation, or used an exclamation point, then I would stand by my claim and fight for it to my death! Since I didn't, I'll just argue my point over a message board.

And since overclocking is a considering for the E2180, you also have to consider it for the E7200, which is going to provide even more performance over an E2180.

 

[bauerbrazil]

I would like to thank you all for yor help.

The only problem i have with this upgrade is because everything here in Brazil is way expensive than you guys have in the US, and VGA are the worsts.

HD 2600XT 256MB is basically 160 dollars here.

Thats not too much, but if i wanted i top notch VGA i would pay a lot.

Again, thanks guys.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

That's horrible. Look for these other models, which should give you performance similar to a 6600GT or better:

X1300 XT
7300 GT
X1600 Pro
X1650 Pro
X1600 XT
7600 GS
HD 2600 Pro
HD 3650
X1650 XT
7600 GT
8600 GT
HD2600 XT
8600 GTS
HD 3850
9600 GT

These are approximately ranked from worst (at the top) to best (at the bottom).