What are the popular cpu's this summer?

[Cooljt1]

Been running an opteron 146 at 2800mhz on a dfi lanparty ultra nf4 board since last summer and looking to upgrade. I want to go dual core since multi tasking was better with my old pentium 4 with ht. What are the populay amd or intel setups with a processor costing from around 150 - 200 dollars. I will be overclocking so what is better at stock speed doesnt matter too much.

 

[stevty2889]

For that price range, the AMD X2 3800+ is the best. At stock speeds, it performs about the same as the pentium-d 950(3.4ghz), and if you overclock, the pentium-d can't catch up. If you could spend a little for for a core 2 duo E6300, well..just look at all the posts about Conroe..

 

[Cooljt1]

hmm, e6300 and e6400 are looking very good. I think i want something higher than the x2 3800+ since that seemed to be last years hype. the core 2 duo motherboards are all using ddr2 right?

 

[harpoon84]

The E6300 just falls within your budget so I'll say that's the 'in thing' at the moment for that given price range. X2s are for the slightly more budget minded buyers, if you can afford it go C2D, much better performance especially if you overclock, which looking at your Opty 146 @ 2.8GHz you certainly do.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: harpoon84
The E6300 just falls within your budget so I'll say that's the 'in thing' at the moment for that given price range. X2s are for the slightly more budget minded buyers, if you can afford it go C2D, much better performance especially if you overclock, which looking at your Opty 146 @ 2.8GHz you certainly do.

How does this fall within his budget of 150 to 200 dollars? The only thing he can do is go X2 AMD upgrade. If he buys the e6300, he also has to buy mobo and memory. Unless of course he changed his budget to fit the hardware he wants.

 

[ZOXXO]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: harpoon84
The E6300 just falls within your budget so I'll say that's the 'in thing' at the moment for that given price range. X2s are for the slightly more budget minded buyers, if you can afford it go C2D, much better performance especially if you overclock, which looking at your Opty 146 @ 2.8GHz you certainly do.

How does this fall within his budget of 150 to 200 dollars? The only thing he can do is go X2 AMD upgrade. If he buys the e6300, he also has to buy mobo and memory. Unless of course he changed his budget to fit the hardware he wants.

What are the populay amd or intel setups with a processor costing from around 150 - 200 dollars.

 

[myocardia]

It would really be cheaper for you to get an X2 4400. They almost always do between 2.7 & 2.8 Ghz. Plus, it has a higher multiplier than you've got now, and can be had for slightly over $200, with no need for buying anything else. Of course, it will only have twice the processing power you've got at the moment. If you went with an E6400, you could have more than that, with a good overclock.

 

[Cooljt1]

oh, when i said 150-200 i meant for the computer alone. i would be more than willing to upgrade the motherboard too and i figured that adds about 150 more. after reading a bit more and getting up to par with what's going on the e6300 and gigabyte ds3 motherboard look like a great combo. i'm still in the dark about ddr 2 ram though.

 

[harpoon84]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: harpoon84
The E6300 just falls within your budget so I'll say that's the 'in thing' at the moment for that given price range. X2s are for the slightly more budget minded buyers, if you can afford it go C2D, much better performance especially if you overclock, which looking at your Opty 146 @ 2.8GHz you certainly do.

How does this fall within his budget of 150 to 200 dollars? The only thing he can do is go X2 AMD upgrade. If he buys the e6300, he also has to buy mobo and memory. Unless of course he changed his budget to fit the hardware he wants.

I assumed he meant for the CPU alone - and I am right.

Obviously AMD to Intel is a platform jump.

 

[krotchy]

If your running an opteron 146, upgrading to a socket 939 X2 4600+ will be the best bang for your buck. Anything else will require moving to DDR2 (200 for 2 GB of performance DDR2), and 120-250 bucks for a Core 2 Motherboard would be the immediate price. Then throw in a Core 2 E6300 for another 200, and you already spend over 600 bucks. You would spend less for an AM2 mobo, and still need DDR2. Despite this, the upgrade from 939 to AM2 is really mediocre at best and I see no point.

Id say get an X2 4600+ for your socket 939 motherboard, this will provide a huge multi-tasking boost and still be a very good system for under 300 dollars total. Then in another year, once Conroe prices have dropped from their current state, and the motherboards start to mature for conroe you might make the jump to DDR2 and a conroe mobo, or even DDR3 in a year.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: harpoon84

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: harpoon84
The E6300 just falls within your budget so I'll say that's the 'in thing' at the moment for that given price range. X2s are for the slightly more budget minded buyers, if you can afford it go C2D, much better performance especially if you overclock, which looking at your Opty 146 @ 2.8GHz you certainly do.

How does this fall within his budget of 150 to 200 dollars? The only thing he can do is go X2 AMD upgrade. If he buys the e6300, he also has to buy mobo and memory. Unless of course he changed his budget to fit the hardware he wants.

I assumed he meant for the CPU alone - and I am right.

Obviously AMD to Intel is a platform jump.

Exactly! Going E6300 would be at minimum 250.00 over his processor budget. But now the OP has made it clear that his overall budget seems to be a bit higher than what he originally stated.

 

[Skott]

I was gonna build my daughter a AM2 3800 X2 with the ASUS M2N32 mobo but after pricing the Conroe I found out for an extra $160 I could get the E6400 and the ASUS P5W DH mobo. So I went with the Conroe setup. Didnt have to change any of my other component choices. The E6400 should overclock higher than the 3800 too so thats an added plus. I could have went with a E6300 and the Gigabyte DS3 and saved even more money but I went with higher priced quality.

The E6300 & E6400 are in good supply now and easy to find. The E6600s are starting to be found more often online too. Prices starting to hedge down finally. So look into things carefully before buying. you might find going Conroe not too much more expensive depending on your choices.

 

[Cooljt1]

yeah, well getting a complete new platform isnt a big deal. my parents are looking to upgrade their computer so i'll just give them my current setup. either way, i will be buying a new motherboard and processor.

 

[Cali]

dont forget about the upgrade to dd2 with that mobo.

Originally posted by: Cooljt1
yeah, well getting a complete new platform isnt a big deal. my parents are looking to upgrade their computer so i'll just give them my current setup. either way, i will be buying a new motherboard and processor.

Thats exactly what i did when i upgraded