Best CPU for an Internet Cafe?

[sm625]

Watch out for people clearly posting disinformation. I posted hard data showing that pretty much any dual core upgrade will roughly double your fps across the board. That is a 100% gain for as little as $750 (15pcs x $50 each). Yet there are people who actually have the nerve to say "buy an entirely new intel platform", knowing full well that the G630 only brings you about 20% more performance than the $750 solution, for a cost of $1950, or over 250% more cost. Just wow...

There's a whole bunch of benchmarks on this page that show you approximately what a G630 gets you compared to a midrange dual core AMD : http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/pentium-g850-g840-g620_4.html#sect0

 

[Hubb1e]

Watch out for people clearly posting disinformation. I posted hard data showing that pretty much any dual core upgrade will roughly double your fps across the board. That is a 100% gain for as little as $750 (15pcs x $50 each). Yet there are people who actually have the nerve to say "buy an entirely new intel platform", knowing full well that the G630 only brings you about 20% more performance than the $750 solution, for a cost of $1950, or over 250% more cost. Just wow...

There's a whole bunch of benchmarks on this page that show you approximately what a G630 gets you compared to a midrange dual core AMD : http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/pentium-g850-g840-g620_4.html#sect0

With all due respect sir the posters recomending A are pointing out more benefits than just gaming performance today. The G630 brings with it an upgradable socket and another 2GB of RAM. 4GB of RAM is recomended for newer games and we're thinking more than 3 months ahead. To get 4GB of RAM on a DDR2 platform he would have to spend another $60 per PC putting your suggested upgrade at $110 vs $120 with worse performance and limited upgrade options.

Your suggestion of an X2 is a good one but it does not invalidate the benefits of a G630 on S1155 and 4GB of cheap DDR3. It's up to the OP to decide on how much he wants to spend on this upgrade and if that money is well invested. He's got to make people pay for time on these PCs and if they don't perform then the customers will go to another internet cafe. Also, if he wants to upgrade to 4GB of ram the best option by far is the G620 because of the cost of DDR2.

 

[Denithor]

Can't we all just get along?



Seriously though - combine these ideas.

G630 system for half the machines. Pull the memory from the ones being upgraded to boost the non-upgraded boxes to 4GB. And then drop in 7 or 8 X2 chips to boost those up to at least a nominal dual core setup. About a year (or two) down the road consider replacing those X2 boxes with stronger duals or even cheap quads.

Try to get onto a more frequent, smaller upgrade cycle (half at a time instead of all at once) so boxes don't get quite so outdated between upgrades.

 

[Hubb1e]

His motherboards only have 2 memory slots.

 

[jacktesterson]

i like A

 

[Vesku]

With all due respect sir the posters recomending A are pointing out more benefits than just gaming performance today. The G630 brings with it an upgradable socket and another 2GB of RAM. 4GB of RAM is recomended for newer games and we're thinking more than 3 months ahead. To get 4GB of RAM on a DDR2 platform he would have to spend another $60 per PC putting your suggested upgrade at $110 vs $120 with worse performance and limited upgrade options.

Your suggestion of an X2 is a good one but it does not invalidate the benefits of a G630 on S1155 and 4GB of cheap DDR3. It's up to the OP to decide on how much he wants to spend on this upgrade and if that money is well invested. He's got to make people pay for time on these PCs and if they don't perform then the customers will go to another internet cafe. Also, if he wants to upgrade to 4GB of ram the best option by far is the G620 because of the cost of DDR2.

Well, he's only now upgrading from single core Sempron so his customers must not be too picky about performance. I think anything from the Athlon II x3 450 ($55 at Newegg with promo code), Athlon II x4 640 ($70), or Phenom II x4 965 ($90) would be a good upgrade that will last a couple of years. The Athlon II's are 95W which might be better than the 125W Phenom II given his current motherboards.

 

[Idontcare]

Can't we all just get along?



Seriously though - combine these ideas.

G630 system for half the machines. Pull the memory from the ones being upgraded to boost the non-upgraded boxes to 4GB. And then drop in 7 or 8 X2 chips to boost those up to at least a nominal dual core setup. About a year (or two) down the road consider replacing those X2 boxes with stronger duals or even cheap quads.

Try to get onto a more frequent, smaller upgrade cycle (half at a time instead of all at once) so boxes don't get quite so outdated between upgrades.

OP, listen to this man for he has wisdom. The best path will be the creative one, and Denithor is providing you with insight into what a creative path might look like. Repurposing and recycling is king for budget limited upgrades.

For instance, you didn't mention if you intend to sell the replaced parts. If you are looking at recapturing some of your replacement costs by means of selling the parts being replaced then the budget numbers will play out slightly differently (but in a way that means something when it comes to decisions) versus if you plan to simply toss the replaced cpu's, etc, in the trash.

 

[Hubb1e]

His motherboards only have 2 memory slots.

He can't reuse the memory in the computers he replaces becuase the boards only have 2 memory slots.

 

[cytg111]

Can't we all just get along?



Seriously though - combine these ideas.

G630 system for half the machines. Pull the memory from the ones being upgraded to boost the non-upgraded boxes to 4GB. And then drop in 7 or 8 X2 chips to boost those up to at least a nominal dual core setup. About a year (or two) down the road consider replacing those X2 boxes with stronger duals or even cheap quads.

Try to get onto a more frequent, smaller upgrade cycle (half at a time instead of all at once) so boxes don't get quite so outdated between upgrades.

That heavily depends on you taxation situation and derivatives.
Unless I had a thing for it I wouldnt bother(assembling hardware).
Out with one batch, in with the other.
The chance that you're gonna save money on doing it your self rather than buying in bulk, is slim to nill.

 

[infoiltrator]

C) best increase per cost.
A trial upgrade should be possible for one machine. This is the only way to check real world performance.
As a realworld check you could also upgrade one machine to an H61/ G630/ 4GB RAM with the HD 4670 and compare results.
Good fortune.

 

[SickBeast]

OP, Option C is your best bet but you should be able to get Phenom II quad cores for around $60 each. $95 is too much.

 

[frozeneyes]

Thank you for all the great suggestions, We've decided to try the idea from Denithor and upgrading 3 PC in option A for the moment, we will evaluate the performance based on users feedback.