Core 2 Duo E8400 is same as i3 or i5?

[faye]

Hi,

I am using E8400 and which i am very satisfied with the performance for the task i do the most.
Browsing, word, excel, little games, mp3s

i am now making another similar system. but a cheaper one with similar performance.
Can i3 perform the same as E8400 or i must go with i5?

 

[Herr Kutz]

I don't really understand what you mean by making a cheaper system when you already own one.

Anyway, check out the Anandtech CPU bench comparing the e8400 to i3-530:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/56?vs=118

For what you are doing I don't think you will see much, if any, performance difference.

 

[nenforcer]

The Core i3 is all dual core and most comparable to the C2D E8400.

The Core i5 7XX is quad core while the Core i5 6XX remains dual core.

There would be no point in upgrading to anything less than a quad core Core i5 7XX from your current system.

 

[faye]

maybe i didn't make myself clear, i am making another system.
i am putting the new system in another house.

and i see they have a very similar performance, since i only do a lot of browsing from this machine i guess i won't be seeing much of a performance difference. but the price of a i3 530 is almost half. yeah~~
what is a good cheap motherboard for suggestion?

 

[StrangerGuy]

maybe i didn't make myself clear, i am making another system.
i am putting the new system in another house.

and i see they have a very similar performance, since i only do a lot of browsing from this machine i guess i won't be seeing much of a performance difference. but the price of a i3 530 is almost half. yeah~~
what is a good cheap motherboard for suggestion?

Unless you got a killer deal you got to be a fool to even consider any new C2D system today.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

the i3 550 is only 99 at mc. that would probably be a slightly noticeable step up from what you have

 

[dbcooper1]

For what you do, you will notice zero difference between the i3 and i5; certain things will likely be smoother with either compared to your e8400.

 

[RU482]

if it's just for web browsing, why not go with a cheaper AMD system?

 

[Termie]

This article will tell you everything you need to know about the performance of the two chips:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/cpu-benchmark-mainstream.html

The 550 is 10-15% faster in many tests, and at worst equals the e8400.

 

[Arkaign]

if it's just for web browsing, why not go with a cheaper AMD system?

Agreed. For the OP's stated goals of :

"Browsing, word, excel, little games, mp3s"

An AMD-based system will be better. Great mobos with very good onboard GPU can be had for $60-$70, which isn't the case with i3/1156 (some dirt-cheap mobos for near that price, but brands like Biostar, ugh, and not as feature-rich).

$99 Athlon II X4 + $65 Gigabyte 760G AM3 Mobo = great flexible combo that will probably outlast a dual-core i3 in usability. Things are continually getting more multi-threaded, and 4 real cores help with extra threads/apps/av/etc in a system running a modern load of software.

i3 is good as well, it will be slightly faster in apps that aren't as multi-thread optimized, but will bog a bit more under significant multitasking. i5-7xx+ is where the Intel power really is.

 

[McRhea]

I have both CPU's in two machines, and can't tell the difference between them performance wise. Use both machines for games only, and of course browsing.

The i3 is a lot cheaper than the E8400 though, so that's definitely the way to go.

E8400 @ 4Ghz (air) in my machine, stable since December 2008.
i3-530 @ 4Ghz (air) in GF's machine, stable since March 2010.