Intel E5300 or AMD Athlon II x2 250? Suggestions please.

[Horsa]

I want to purchase a new computer as my old ones is PIV 2.0 GHz. I rather lean towards E5300 or Athlon II x2 250.
AMD Athlon II x2 250
ASRock A790GMH/128Mb
AData 4GB, 2GB x2 DDR2 AD21066G002GMU
Onboard VGA

or
Intel E5300 2,66GHz, FSB 800, L2C 2MB
ASRock G41M-S (G41/ICH07,D2 ,Pcx)
AData 4GB, 2GB x2 DDR2 AD2800G002GMU
Digital Alliance 9500GT 512Mb 128Bit DDR2

The price almost the same.
I used them for playing MMORPGs mostly and a little office and sometimes Corel Draw projects. I will not overclock as I not a fan and I know nothing about it.
Thank you.

 

[myocardia]

Welcome to anandtech. Either will be many times faster than your current system, without trying. The problem is that you're wanting to game. That means that the system that has a "real" video card is going to kill the other, even if the one that has the video card has a much slower processor. Gaming= need a video card, even if its a cheap one. That means in this instance, the Intel system will run circles around the AMD, since it has a video card.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

The "Digital Alliance 9500GT 512Mb 128bit DDR2" is going to make the Intel E5300 build much, much, much better for gaming than the "Onboard VGA" of t he Athlon II X2 250 build. Now if both builds had the same video card, then gaming performance would be identical.

 

[richierich1212]

Yup a PCI video card is better than onboard.

 

[Horsa]

OK, I see. If I add the same VGA to the Athlon configurations, which is better as for performance and reliability? I used old athlon once before (Athlon & Duron times), and it's not very reliable (hang ups occurs many times). So I have a little prejudice towards athlon/AMD. And this is budget PC as I only have about US$300 for it, along with PSU. And I will used the old casing. Thanks.

 

[MODEL3]

You can even consider:

AMD Athlon II x2 240 (only -7% performance in relation with a Athlon II x2 250, -15/20$)
780G motherboard (-30/35$, check first Athlon II compatibility)

in order to save money and buy a GPU at 50/60$.

 

[Horsa]

I think about all the suggestions and come up with this
US$83 AMD Athlon II x2 250
US$83 AsRock A780GMH/128MB
US$58 Corsair Twin2X2048-8500 C5D
US$65 Digital Alliance HD4650 512MB 128Bit DDR2 PCI-E 2.0
US$289 Total
My questions is will the Hybrid CrossFireX works?
Or maybe I'll choose the one below
US$75 Intel Pentium E5300
US$82 Gigabyte GA-P31-S3G
US$52 Corsair Twin2X2048-6400 C4DHX
US$60 Digital Alliance Ge Force 9500GT Super
US$269 Total
As for PSU I already got Cooler Master Extreme Power Plus 500W, is it good enough?
Thank you very much.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Go with the Athlon 2 combo. At the very least you'll be able to upgrade your CPU when you want to.

 

[LoneNinja]

500W is plenty for a build like that.
Hybrid crossfire only works with the Radeon 3400 unless that has changed recently.
I would take the Athlon build, it'll have slightly better performance in games.

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: Scholzpdx
Go with the Athlon 2 combo. At the very least you'll be able to upgrade your CPU when you want to.

I would say the exact opposite. Buy the Intel system and spend the extra $20 on a more power video card - your gaming performance will be dramatically better.

Something like this 9800GT for $85 (free shipping and after $15MIR) would make your system into a true gaming machine (the 9500GT is barely a step above integrated graphics).

 

[richierich1212]

Originally posted by: Denithor

Originally posted by: Scholzpdx
Go with the Athlon 2 combo. At the very least you'll be able to upgrade your CPU when you want to.

I would say the exact opposite. Buy the Intel system and spend the extra $20 on a more power video card - your gaming performance will be dramatically better.

Something like this 9800GT for $85 (free shipping and after $15MIR) would make your system into a true gaming machine (the 9500GT is barely a step above integrated graphics).

Something tells me that the OP isn't from the US, just because I've never heard of Digital Alliance.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

The Cooler Master Extreme Power Plus PSUs, from what I've seen, are extremely crappy and usually don't put out their rated wattage. However, the one you have will work fine as you will not need anywhere near 500W for the system you're building. You'd be lucky to break 150W

Denithor posted
Something like this 9800GT for $85 (free shipping and after $15MIR) would make your system into a true gaming machine (the 9500GT is barely a step above integrated graphics).

While I agree the 9800GT would make his system much better, the 9500GT is most definitely a step above integrated graphics. It's as much faster over integrated as the 9800GT is faster than it.

 

[Horsa]

Digital Alliance wasn't sold outside South East Asia. As for 9800GT with 512MB, the PALIT cost US$115, Point of View cost US$118 in my country and that 2 is the cheapest.

 

[vailr]

Intel Pentium E6300 Wolfdale - $84
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - $99 (AR)
(Newegg pricing)
combined with your listed choices:
US$58 Corsair Twin2X2048-8500 C5D
US$65 Digital Alliance HD4650 512MB 128Bit DDR2 PCI-E 2.0
Total: $306 (+ shipping?)

As a bonus, should be "Hackintosh-able", if you wanted to try OSX (USB mouse & keyboard, SATA optical & HD recommended for doing this.)

 

[richierich1212]

Um what other graphics cards options do you have, Horsa?

 

[MODEL3]

Well Athlon II x2 240 is better in games than Intel E5300, and it cost only 61$ (newegg)
Also if you don't dislike ECS brand, you can get a ECS 780G with 30-35$ less! (without the sideport mem, afterall you are going to use a discrete GPU!)

About the VGA, I would suggest 4670 512MB or 9600GSO 512MB (minimum) in order to enjoy some games!

 

[Horsa]

Intel E6300 cost US$115 and Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L cost US$138 in my country, not going to be my choice.
I found an online store that sell Intel E5300 at US$68, and as some people said that LGA775 is on the way out of the picture, I don't see why I should buy an expensive mobo for LGA775. At the new online store I found, the price is like this
Intel Pentium E5300 - US$68
MSI P43 Neo-F - US$87
Corsair Twin2X2048-8500 C5D - US$58
Asus EN 9800GT / Hybrid Power / HTDP 1Gb 256Bit DDR3 - US$150
Total: US$363

 

[Horsa]

Or something like this:
Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition (AM3) - US$105
MSI 770-C45 - US$91, since I not using the integrated GPU
OCZ 2 X 2GB AMD Gold PC3-10666 - US$83
MSI HD 4670 512Mb 128Bit DDR3 - US$78
Total: US$357

 

[Denithor]

For a gaming system you want as much video card as you can buy and the rest doesn't matter as much.

So go with the lowest cost CPU/motherboard/RAM you can get away with and then max out your GPU.

Benchmark for consideration. (Read the other pages as well for more info.)

Integrated << 9500GT << 4670 < 9600GT < 4830 < 9800GT < 4850

There's your basic lineup of the low to mid range cards. Set your budget then pick the better value in CPU/etc and then spend the rest on GPU. And keep in mind - a faster GPU will make a lot more difference in game performance than a faster CPU.

 

[richierich1212]

Go with either the E5300 or 250 like you originally chose, but get the best graphics card possible.

 

[Horsa]

Thanks for that info. I think I know what I need to buy now.

 

[Horsa]

Thank you all, I see what I going to buy now. I choose going AMD as it has better uograde options.
It will be like this:
AMD Athlon II x2 250 - US$78
ECS 780GM-A - US$72 (5 years warranty)
OCZ 2 X 2GB Gold Edition PC2-8500 - US$66
Sapphire HD 4850 Vapor-X 512Mb 256Bit DDR3 HDMI - US$135
Total: US$351
Going to do the real shopping tomorrow, thanks again all.

 

[Illyan]

That'll be a great gaming system. Light years ahead of your current P4.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

That's definitely the best system you've put together. Faster and cheaper than the others.

 

[Rezist]

Out of curiosity why hasn't anyone mentioned the E5200? Same chip are they not?
I was looking at a new value build I'd go with
Athlon II 240
Cheapest AsRock mobo with/ SB750 (possibly a 785G Gigabyte or MSI)
Radeon 4850
2x2 GB of decent latency DDR800

You can save money of the mobo however, brands like ECS are usually cheaper, sometimes Foxconn as well. Biostar has a really cheap 785G mobo out as well. I don't think ASUS is worth looking at when your on a budget.