Newbie Needs A CPU

[Marlorn]

What's the best processor out there that doesn't cost an arm and a leg? The E6600 seems to be getting a lot of buzz...is it worth the cash?

 

[TheStu]

what will you be doing with the computer, and what is your budget? And I don't just mean for the processor, I mean for the whole system

 

[pkme2]

Buy what you need now and wait till after Xmas to buy the rest. You got PM.

Prices may get better.

Good luck.

 

[Zap]

Welcome to the forums.

If you can wait until the end of January, the E4300 "should" be out and "should" be around $150. In my estimation that would be the best bang/buck CPU at the time (when properly overclocked). What are your plans for your computer? Gaming? The ever popular encoding? Web browsing? What's your overall computer budget? For gaming, the largest expenditure should be video card.

 

[Marlorn]

I do a lot of graphic design work (Photoshop / Illustrator), 3D animation (MAX / Maya), and gaming. My budget is around $1500 for the entire rig. My current computer has a 128mb GeForce 5600FX.

 

[n7]

On a budget?
E6300
Not much of a budget?
E6600

It's that simple

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Marlorn
I do a lot of graphic design work (Photoshop / Illustrator), 3D animation (MAX / Maya), and gaming. My budget is around $1500 for the entire rig. My current computer has a 128mb GeForce 5600FX.

Sounds like it can cover a lot. I'd say initially get your "fixed" costs out of the way, such as motherboard, HDD, RAM, optical, PSU, case, monitor, Windows. Basically everything EXCEPT video and CPU, but plan it around PCI-E video and socket LGA775. Then, what you have left, balance it out between lowest Core 2 Duo and best video card.

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: Marlorn
I do a lot of graphic design work (Photoshop / Illustrator), 3D animation (MAX / Maya), and gaming. My budget is around $1500 for the entire rig. My current computer has a 128mb GeForce 5600FX.

Your priorities (in order of importance) should be:

1. Large amount of memory (both Maya and Photoshop can be memory intensive...at least 2GB)
2. Video Card (a low line QuadroFX is better for Maya, but not for gaming...which is more important?)
3. Dual core CPU (either an E6300 or an X2 4200 will be fine for your purposes)