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what cpu for low power rig?

B

Bman123

Diamond Member
Here's the breakdown. All I use my pc for is web browsing, email, and streaming netflix. It is a dell dimension running a pentium d 930 cpu with integrated video. I have it hooked up to my HDTV at 1280x720 res. It plays netflix fine but its old the hard drive is going out and its a bit slow so I just want to build a new tower.

I need advise on what cpu to get. I want cheap price, low power and better performance. Im just gonna put it in a mid tower case not a htpc case since this is our main computer. The cheaper the better on the cpu, I don't need a fancy mobo I just need decent integrated video and sound. Trying to do it as cheap as I can, I don't want to buy a store pc.

Please give suggestions and why you suggest it thanks.
 
unledozl.jpg


Since nothing you specified requires much storage space, I threw in a $75 60GB SSD instead of a $45 500GB Caviar Blue. If you do need the space of course get the hard drive, but if you don't I'd definitely go for the extra speed of the SSD.

If you need Windows 7 it combos with that case for $5 off.

That motherboard has SATA 6Gb/s to meet the needs of the SSD and 4 RAM slots so you can easily upgrade from the 4GB dual-channel I specced. If you don't plan on going the SSD route or expect to be using more than 4GB RAM (I'm on 2GB and running fine), there's another ASRock motherboard for $55.

Bah, I'll just show you:
unledhu.jpg
 
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How big of a performance difference will I get with that cpu? I don't have a problem with amd if its cheaper. I have to keep it at or under $300, the cheaper the better for sure.
 
Bman123 said:
How big of a performance difference will I get with that cpu? I don't have a problem with amd if its cheaper.
Click to expand...

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/93?vs=101

This is as close a comparison I can make using the Anandtech Benchmarks because they haven't been updated yet with some of these latest processors.

It is, however, quite an underestimate.

It's comparing a Pentium D Extreme Edition 955 3.46GHz with a Celeron Dual Core E2100 2.2GHz. They are pretty much neck and neck the Celeron wins some the Pentium D 955 wins some.

Now remember that the Celeron G540 at 2.4GHz is 2 generations ahead of the one above and you are looking at a night and day difference.
 
DominionSeraph said:
He's not gaming so he doesn't need anything more than the IGP on the Celeron.
Click to expand...

yes, but he did say low power was important.
llano is no less of a good choice for his usage scenario.

EDIT: I see "As cheap as I can" llano can't compare to your celeron in that $$, it'd cost $40+ more for the system
even tho he'd get a higher cpu and gpu speed ....
I guess i'll concede.
 
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Soulkeeper said:
EDIT: I see "As cheap as I can" llano can't compare to your celeron in that $$, it'd cost $40+ more for the system
even tho he'd get a higher cpu and gpu speed ....
I guess i'll concede.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I like AMD, but it seems that with Sandy Bridge Intel now owns from low to high. Intel's budget offerings in the past always had a caveat: The E5200 was a dead socket; the LGA 1156 Pentiums weren't that cheap and so with the higher motherboard costs it put them up against the Phenom II X4 955 in system cost...
Now Intel has a $55 processor (with good basic IGP) to pair with a $55 motherboard in which you have the massive upgrade path to the i5 2500.
 
Not sure why you'd feel the need to build a new machine when all you need is a hard drive. IF... if you can replace that 930 with a 45nm pentium or celeron, then you'd get most of the power savings of the latest tech. IF you can do a wolfdale upgrade, that plus a HDD plus a HTPC video card would cost under $100 after you pawn the 930 on ebay. That would be a cheap upgrade. From that point you'd only save 10 bucks a year in electricity going to the latest and greatest. Maybe 20.
 
The pc is old, sometimes the usb ports don't work for crap either. Id rather just spend a couple hundred bucks and have a new pc. Its running vista,locks up from time to time also. I don't do anything intensive with it so I figured why not upgrade to something low power with better performance.
 
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