Dual vs Tri-core

[Sakumo]

My uncle wanted me to build him a computer with a budget of $500, including OS. He wants it to last around 5 years, which I thought was kind of crazy for a fairly small budget, but it was doable. He mostly does web browsing and sometimes, his son gets on and do some CAD. Now my main concern is whether a dual core will be sufficient for 5 years. I'm debating over these two CPUs:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103726
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103688
On one hand, the tri core will last long, but on the other hand the dual core will fit in the budget better, thus a slightly better MoBo, and I don't think he really will need the extra core. I'm leaning toward the tri-core, but it breaks the budget(it's really $600, including a monitor, but I'm getting that somewhere else, so no combined price). Please help me decide.
Thanks in advance to all that help.

 

[AndroidVageta]

I say tri-core...in the coming years everything will become more and more multi-core...so a tri-core will give him that extra speed when its used...obviously.

And a cheap motherboard doesnt mean cheap quality...anything from Asus or Gigabyte should last a while.

 

[Sakumo]

I know that it doesn't necessarily mean a crappy board, but I mean better upgrade paths.

Also, I plan to get this MoBo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130237
Not a bad board, but DDR2 is outdated. DDR3 cost the same as DDR2 now..

 

[AndroidVageta]

DDR2 isnt really outdated...DDR3 only comes in handy in situations where massive bandwidth are concerned...something that wouldnt effect your dads uses.

 

[Sakumo]

Got a point there. Guess I'll just go with that MoBo, unless I find a better bang for the buck MoBo. Also, he's not my dad, he's my uncle...

 

[soccerballtux]

Hm, you could get a motherboard that takes DDR3 RAM. All AM3 chips can use DDR3 ram if in a mobo that supports it.

 

[LoneNinja]

I'd go for the X3, AMD doesn't have any dual cores that will be much faster at single threaded apps than their tri cores, and the 3rd core will make and increasingly large difference as time goes by.

 

[Sakumo]

Thanks for the help guys, I'm going for the tri-core then, but I'll stick with the MoBo.

 

[daveybrat]

I've used that exact motherboard a couple of times for builds. It's a very good quality and very stable. Excellent graphics onboard for your uncle and a lot of upgrade options. That price is also excellent.

Go with the AMD Tri-Core and that motherboard and he'll be set for years.

 

[evolucion8]

TriCore is the way to go, DDR2 isn't really outdated, DDR3 is only faster with clocks over 2GHz due to it's horrible latency. AMD's Tricore and Phenom are more computing bound than bandwidth bound anyways!

 

[soccerballtux]

TriCore is the way to go, DDR2 isn't really outdated, DDR3 is only faster with clocks over 2GHz due to it's horrible latency. AMD's Tricore and Phenom are more computing bound than bandwidth bound anyways!

it's no slower in real seconds. Higher latency but it's a higher latency because the RAM is running at twice the speed.