how fast is the e2180/2160 for everday use?

[j0j081]

I'm building a pcs for a couple of friends. I'm trying to decide what budget processors to use. How fast will the e2180 and e2160 feel compared to my e6750 at stock speeds? I'm wondering if the e4xxx line might be better to go with then cut back on something else on their builds. These pcs will be used for everyday type tasks mainly, perhaps a bit of light gaming but I kinda doubt it.

 

[CatchPhrase]

Overclocked and they are great.

 

[Tullphan]

Crank that puppy up to 3.0gHz & you'll be good to go.
Use the money you'll save over an E4xxx series & upgrade something else.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

The E2XXX line is excellent for general usage and gaming, for internet surfing, email, and general BS you would hardly see any difference with a faster CPU. And if you overclock the difference will be even smaller.

For general usage the current Dell deals are impossible to beat. You can get a complete E2180 system w/ 19" monitor, XP home, and a 1yr warranty for around $400 with free shipping, no way you can build a system like that for 4 bills

Dell Vostro deals

For comparison I just went to newegg and added an E2180, Windows XP home oem, and the cheapest 19" monitor listed at newegg to my cart and it totaled $320 + shipping.
That leaves less than $80 to match the Dell deal for

Case
Power supply
Motherboard
1gb Ram
160gb Hard drive
DVD rom
keyboard
mouse

 

[cubeless]

for everyday tasks they are fine... i have a 2810 in an ecs 945 cheepo board, and at stock it is more than powerful enough to do any work task smoothly...

even for gaming it's pretty good... oc'd to 2.5ghz with a 8800gts640 in it it plays crysis ok at 1680x1050 w/med settings...

but it is absolutely 'seat of the pants' slower than a 6750... but with .5 the cache and over 1.2ghz less cycles it ought to be... but for the $$$ the 21xx chips do a great job... it's fast enuf...

 

[DSF]

Heck, for stuff like word processing and net surfing you're fine with less than a 2GHz P4. The E2xxx is fine for that type of stuff even at stock speed.

 

[j0j081]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
The E2XXX line is excellent for general usage and gaming, for internet surfing, email, and general BS you would hardly see any difference with a faster CPU. And if you overclock the difference will be even smaller.

For general usage the current Dell deals are impossible to beat. You can get a complete E2180 system w/ 19" monitor, XP home, and a 1yr warranty for around $400 with free shipping, no way you can build a system like that for 4 bills

Dell Vostro deals

For comparison I just went to newegg and added an E2180, Windows XP home oem, and the cheapest 19" monitor listed at newegg to my cart and it totaled $320 + shipping.
That leaves less than $80 to match the Dell deal for

Case
Power supply
Motherboard
1gb Ram
160gb Hard drive
DVD rom
keyboard
mouse

that's is a good deal but once I upgraded it to Vista, 2GB of ram, a slightly bigger hdd (since they'll need it for music and videos), and non onboard graphics the price was coming out to a bit more than I had specd out on my own. I wasn't including a monitor, keyboard, or mouse in my build because they already have that. My build is also using the same motherboard I have which I thought would be great for upgrading down the road a bit if they wanted to. Guess I will tell them about the Dell and see what they think.

 

[nyker96]

Using a E2160@3.0Ghz. not a problem can play games and most of all do encoding and office work beautifully. Saved the cash for a new P182 case for this rig. No complaints on this rig.

 

[v8envy]

If you don't mind vista, vista home basic OEM is $50 -- about half the price of XP. Which leaves 130 for all the extras.

Also, newegg is not the cheapest place to get much of this stuff. Lately I've been noticing clubit and ewiz beating them by 5-10% on everything but very 'mature' or undesirable hardware. And newest stuff? Forgetaboutit.

But I agree, Dell is just about impossible to beat if you're going to go for the stripped to the waist model with absolutely no extras.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Yeah Dell gets you on some of the upgrades, but the upgrade to Vista is not bad $0 for Vista Home basic or $29 for Home premium.

They charge $50 to upgrade from 1gb to 2gb, I would just buy one of these and stick it in myself and save $30 1gb stick of DDR2-667 $19.43

On the HDD the upgrade prices aren't bad, but I would just find a good deal on a second hard drive and add it myself. That way you get more storage space and the benifits of having 2 drives.

Same with video card, Dell wants $120 to add a 8600gt 256, while the cheapest one on newegg is $55 after rebate, again I would by from newegg and add on.

And you can alway eBay the monitor if you don't need it.

And of course the best thing about the Dell route is the 1yr warranty, which means you won't have to provide tech support for two machines. I've built several machines for friends and family and it's cool to share your technical abilities, and it earns you some respect and valued time spent with friends and family, but beleive me it can be a real pain in the ass the 3rd of 4th time you have to spend a couple of hours un-gunking and scanning for adware, or fixing a fubar'd OS, or cleaning dust bunnies out of the PS.

 

[brencat]

Love my E2180, though in hindsight I probably would choose the E2160 if I could do it all over again due to its more consistent high OCs on lower vcore than was required for my E2180.

OP...the one thing about the Dells is the crappy PSUs they use. That and the fact they are proprietary and odd shaped too so you can't simply swap a normal PSU into the case Dell provides when your buddy wants to upgrade his video card someday with the latest power hungry monster. I found this out recently when I opened my brother's 2yr old XPS system. So if I were your friend, I'd personally pay up for you to build it, in order to get the regular non-proprietary retail parts for everything.

 

[lopri]

E2000 series performance is great once overclocked. I wouldn't bother with them, however, if you're not going to overclock.

 

[jeffconnors]

Originally posted by: brencat
Love my E2180, though in hindsight I probably would choose the E2160 if I could do it all over again due to its more consistent high OCs on lower vcore than was required for my E2180.

OP...the one thing about the Dells is the crappy PSUs they use. That and the fact they are proprietary and odd shaped too so you can't simply swap a normal PSU into the case Dell provides when your buddy wants to upgrade his video card someday with the latest power hungry monster. I found this out recently when I opened my brother's 2yr old XPS system. So if I were your friend, I'd personally pay up for you to build it, in order to get the regular non-proprietary retail parts for everything.

I think that reason alone would be worth staying away from Dell. How much would a Dell PS be to replace? Probably a lot more than one purchased elsewhere.

 

[magreen]

What are you all talking about? The Dell PSUs are excellent. Just because you tried to run a mammoth video card on a 300W psu and it didn't work, you're complaining that it's a crappy psu? Fact of the matter is, you could run a mid-range card on the 300W psu that comes in their budget inspiron/dimension lines, and that's a pretty impressive feat for an OEM 300W psu.

And you can get a more fully loaded system for cheap on dell outlet... Vista premium, 2gb ram, etc. I've had very good experiences with them.

And the e21xx series will be plenty fast enough for everyday use. You won't even feel the difference between them and a high-end cpu unless you game, encode video, benchmark or run some other cpu intensive app.

 

[nerp]

No need to OC -- it's fast enough.

I'd never OC a system I'm building for someone else. If something blows up, that's not fun.