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Thoughts on a cpu

bedazzled

bedazzled

bedazzled

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Joined
22 May 2006
Posts
345
A mate who's a never used a PC before would like me to build him one so that he can start learning about them, basically as a hobby but also maybe usefull to know a little about using one for work. It will only be used for internet, e-mail and probably leaning the basics of MS word ect (think the ECDL course) and maybe a few basic type games.

I've a spare socket 1155 P67 mobo I can use but am wondering about the cpu, I am considering one of these three. The gpu would be a 512 Meg 9800GTX+ I've got lying around

Pentium G620 2.6 Ghz Sandybridge £47.99
Pentium G850 2.90 Ghz Sandybridge £67.99
I3 2100 3.10 Ghz Sandybridge £94.99

Any thoughts one which would be the best cpu to get.
 
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Considering his uses I would just go with the cheapest CPU available - the G620. This may be the slowest desktop sandy bridge CPU, but in the scheme of things it is mighty fast and will easily handle all the work you mention in the OP.

If he has some money left over due to going for the cheapest CPU, then I would strongly recommend also investing in a small SSD - to install the OS and key applications. This will greatly improve general performance in these apps - and have a much greater effect on performance than going for an i3 (or even an i5) CPU.

If he decides at a later stage he wants to get heavily into more intensive applications and high-end games then he has the option to sell the G620 and buy an i5 2500K (or even an Ivy Bridge CPU).
 
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cmndr_andi said:
Considering his uses I would just go with the cheapest CPU available - the G620. This may be the slowest desktop sandy bridge CPU, but in the scheme of things it is mighty fast and will easily handle all the work you mention in the OP.

If he has some money left over due to going for the cheapest CPU, then I would strongly recommend also investing in a small SSD - to install the OS and key applications. This will greatly improve general performance in these apps - and have a much greater effect on performance than going for an i3 (or even an i5) CPU.

If he decides at a later stage he wants to get heavily into more intensive applications and high-end games then he has the option to sell the G620 and buy an i5 2500K (or even an Ivy Bridge CPU).
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About the best advice I've ever seen on this forum! Nice to see someone who is level headed enough not to recommend something 3 times over the OP's budget
 
Definitely go with the cheapest. No reason at all to buy something silly fast when you know what you'll use it for and that isn't

a) games
b) video converting
c) folding/SETI
 
G620 sounds right for what he wants. Sounds like he only wants to tinker so no point going ott..
 
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Go for it.
 
This is what I'm looking at, I have a spare 64 Gig intel ssd I could donate along with a 500Gig drive plus the other required parts. I'm thinking that the i3 would be better for playing DVD's and some games.

Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £83.29
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £66.65
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/4G) £16.66
OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Fractal Design 92mm Silent Cooling Fan £7.49
OcUK Value 2.0 2 W RMS USB powered Speaker Set £6.66
Sub Total : £195.74
FREE SHIPPING (DX Secure Next Day) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £39.15
Total: £234.89
 
sehcure said:
My suggestion would be much more bang for your buck - the SSD+G620 would be better than the i32120 and a regular hard drive.
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+1 to this, a processor regardless of how fast is always, always going to be made or broken by the speed of the memory sub-system, be that RAM, cache or hard disk, the data always has to come from somewhere so there is always a delay between asking for it, and getting it. Solid State Drives reduce that delay by a frankly huge amount, its also more or less perfectly consistent as well.
 
Gashman said:
+1 to this, a processor regardless of how fast is always, always going to be made or broken by the speed of the memory sub-system, be that RAM, cache or hard disk, the data always has to come from somewhere so there is always a delay between asking for it, and getting it.
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Never thought of it that way, the G620 and an ssd it is then :)
 
bedazzled said:
Never thought of it that way, the G620 and an ssd it is then :)
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think in the current computer world Solid State Drives are the things that will give someone the biggest, most noticeable boost in performance, in everyday usage much greater than the boost you'd notice between a good processor and a slightly worse one.

think about it in this context, a Phenom II X4 with a fast Solid State Drive or a 2500 with a conventional drive, which would feel the fastest in everyday usage, would hazard a bet it'd be the Phenom II system, even though the Sandy Bridge processor has more 'potential' processing power the extra processing horsepower is irrelevant if the processor isn't the choke point in the system.
 
Gashman said:
think in the current computer world Solid State Drives are the things that will give someone the biggest, most noticeable boost in performance, in everyday usage much greater than the boost you'd notice between a good processor and a slightly worse one.

think about it in this context, a Phenom II X4 with a fast Solid State Drive or a 2500 with a conventional drive, which would feel the fastest in everyday usage, would hazard a bet it'd be the Phenom II system, even though the Sandy Bridge processor has more 'potential' processing power the extra processing horsepower is irrelevant if the processor isn't the choke point in the system.
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Eloquently put, and astute in observation.

Gone are the days of RAM being the best speed boost OP.:)
 
An SSD seems overkill for those specs tbh, if he'll be using it for the internet I'd be more inclined to get him a large conventional drive for storing movies/music. ;)
 
mmj_uk said:
An SSD seems overkill for those specs tbh, if he'll be using it for the internet I'd be more inclined to get him a large conventional drive for storing movies/music. ;)
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I disagree, even on low-end PCs (personally I upgraded a Core 2 Duo system with an SSD) the performance jump due to an SSD is very impressive.

Especially when the main use will be within windows and using a variety of applications then the benefits of an SSD will show through, since most of these tasks are not very CPU intensive and much more taxing on the storage drive and RAM.
 
cmndr_andi said:
I disagree, even on low-end PCs (personally I upgraded a Core 2 Duo system with an SSD) the performance jump due to an SSD is very impressive.

Especially when the main use will be within windows and using a variety of applications then the benefits of an SSD will show through, since most of these tasks are not very CPU intensive and much more taxing on the storage drive and RAM.
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I'm not denying it won't speed things up but someone new to PC's is much more likely to need the storage space than worry about MS Word taking 2 seconds longer to load up.
 
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