Looking to calc price/performance ratio

[Caveman]

Intel Core 2 Duo 3GHz Wolfdale Socket 775 Processor for $190 + free shipping

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3GHz Dual-Core Processor for $185 + free shipping

Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 2.53GHz Dual Core Processor for $132 + free shipping (updated)

Intel Processors at MicroCenter.com: Dual Core E2180 2GHz for $60 + $6 s&h, more

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition 2.6GHz Dual Core Processor for $72 + free shipping, more

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3GHz Processor, model no. ADX6000CZBOX, for $99 with free

 

[RamIt]

DP

 

[RamIt]

2180 by far "if" you overclock, X2 if you dont.

I personally would look to the E7200 if it was my budget.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

if you are satisfied with the 2180 - great, the best thing about it is you'll have a 775 board that'll give you great options down the road like the 7200 at probably a cheaper price

looks like the p45 boards are the way to go for saving energy fabbed on 65nm which translates to lower heat dissipation, better overclockability without raising volts like on the NB, Asus has a true 16 phase pwm config on their P45 Deluxe at the egg, but currently out of stock, other places are showing up as having some

good luck

 

[heyheybooboo]

X2 5000+ BE @ $72 (probably hit 3GHz at stock volts - maybe max between 3.2-3.3GHz)

2180 @ $66 (some folks go 2.8GHz+ on stock volts - YMMV - 3.2GHz @ maybe 1.4v)

Hard to go wrong either way

 

[boomhower]

Its a close between the E2180 and E7200. Strictly performance/dollar the 2180 would get it. If it will fit in the budget I would go with the E7200. With 3x the cache, increased clock-for-clock performance, and lower power consumption makes the difference in price worth it to me. I don't necessarily think it is worth over double the price to most users but that is for each to make up there own mind.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
if you are satisfied with the 2180 - great, the best thing about it is you'll have a 775 board that'll give you great options down the road like the 7200 at probably a cheaper price

looks like the p45 boards are the way to go for saving energy fabbed on 65nm which translates to lower heat dissipation, better overclockability without raising volts like on the NB, Asus has a true 16 phase pwm config on their P45 Deluxe at the egg, but currently out of stock, other places are showing up as having some

good luck

It's also a $200 motherboard, which defeats the purpose of a budget chip. A low-cost P35 board is just fine for overclocking an E2180 or E7200.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Originally posted by: DSF

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
if you are satisfied with the 2180 - great, the best thing about it is you'll have a 775 board that'll give you great options down the road like the 7200 at probably a cheaper price

looks like the p45 boards are the way to go for saving energy fabbed on 65nm which translates to lower heat dissipation, better overclockability without raising volts like on the NB, Asus has a true 16 phase pwm config on their P45 Deluxe at the egg, but currently out of stock, other places are showing up as having some

good luck

It's also a $200 motherboard, which defeats the purpose of a budget chip. A low-cost P35 board is just fine for overclocking an E2180 or E7200.

+1

 

[Cheesetogo]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN

Originally posted by: DSF

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
if you are satisfied with the 2180 - great, the best thing about it is you'll have a 775 board that'll give you great options down the road like the 7200 at probably a cheaper price

looks like the p45 boards are the way to go for saving energy fabbed on 65nm which translates to lower heat dissipation, better overclockability without raising volts like on the NB, Asus has a true 16 phase pwm config on their P45 Deluxe at the egg, but currently out of stock, other places are showing up as having some

good luck

It's also a $200 motherboard, which defeats the purpose of a budget chip. A low-cost P35 board is just fine for overclocking an E2180 or E7200.

+1

+2

 

[razor2025]

E2180 if you're going for Socket 775 using good gaming card.

5000+ Black Edition if you're going for a AM2 IGP board. (non/light gaming).

I would recommend E7200 if you don't plan to upgrade for another 2-3 years.

 

[Drsignguy]

The E21XX series are good budget chips as I own one. (E2160) I also own the E7200 and by far its a better chip. For spending the few extra bucks, get the E7200 as its 45nm and has 3mb of cache as opposed to 1mb like the E21XX chips. I noticed a huge difference right away. That's my opinion and stickin with it.

 

[ShawnD1]

What is this rig for, exactly? Xbit did a nice article about overclocking a celeron, and it showed which programs use a larger L2 cache, and which programs really don't care about L2.

gaming
Games heavily rely on L2.

media encoding
For media encoding, L2 does absolutely nothing. Buying a cheap processor and overclocking it is the way to go.

CPU rendering
L2 cache does nothing. Buy a celeron, OC it.

photoshop, after effects, mathematica, file compression
Photoshop and After Effects are not affected by L2. Mathematica and file compression use L2.


Xbit also did a comparison between an overclocked E2160 and a stock X6800, link.
The overclocked budget chip is faster in almost every test. Not many programs use that extra L2 cache.