2140 + oc mobo -or- 4500 + non-oc mobo?

[FoxEye]

Heya

First off, this isn't a PC for myself, it's for my niece to play her horsie games on. The current machine she has doesn't have a GFX card, and her mum wants to buy a whole new PC. Therefore, upgrading options have been ruled out

The dilemma I'm having is between CPU and mobo (and possibly RAM, were it not so cheap anyhow).

A 2140 can be had for £40, and a decent mobo (Giga P35-DS3) for £70. That would have course be the overclocking route. A possible 2.5-3 ghz machine for £110.

However, a 4500 can be had for £75, and a cheap ECS mobo for as little as £25. That's a 2.2ghz machine for £100.

At a stretch, the 4500 + decent non-oc mobo is possible, if not costing more than £125 ish. That's assuming that there is a difference in quality/ stability between a £25 and a £50 mobo.

Whilst we're not talking about a machine to play Crysis, I will also be upgrading my own PC in the near future, so discussions of relative Crysis performance are valid

At the end of the day, I'd like to know which route is better - the oc route or the better CPU route. And whether a cheap mobo would be suicide or a good move. Doesn't need on-board VGA, of course, since I've budgeted £70 for that already.

 

[jak731]

e2180 and abit ip35-e then overclock it to as high as possible.
run a few hours of orthos to test stability first and if yoru niece needs an intel quad you can just get her one to put in along with a nice high end GPU.

a good mb would be my choice and will most likely be made of better components anyway

 

[hp7909]

2140+good mobo (OC or not)+leave everything at stock! Sorry, I don't see the reason why you want to OC It will cause stability problems & you know that you'll be their technical support 24/7/365! Other factors are the components will wear out faster, higher power consumption, etc.

@ stock, the E2140 is no slouch!

 

[Vir]

I think if you get a E2160, it will go to 3.0Ghz REALLY easy without much stressing the components on that Gigabyte P35 motherboard.

it will run at this:
CPU: 9x333 = 3.0Ghz (standard voltcore possible most of the time, not REALLY stressing the cpu)
Motherboard FSB: 333x4 = 1333Mhz (Supported by the motherboard, not stressed)
RAM: 333x2.40=800Mhz~ (standard supported by PC6400, not stressed)

Fast/Reliable overclocked PC for almost no money

As for what hp7909 said, I don't agree that it WILL cause stability problems. If you don't go to far there should be no problems at all. Anyway, that 4500 @ 2.2Ghz. The E2140/E2160/E2180 will do that blindfolded

I've never been happier with my E2160 then any processor I've had.

 

[melbourne720]

I'd always get the best motherboard I can afford, and the e21x0 series are very good. As for whether you should overclock when you build for a n00b, then thats up to you.

Saying that, n00bs can get into plenty of problems that have nothing to do with the overclock!

 

[O-Jay]

I recently did a build with the E2140 and chose to invest in a decent motherboard (think i paid near £100 for one). At the end of the day, the motherboard is going to be the main foundation your pc is built on, so you want it to last, and i tend to go by the "you get what you pay for" theory/motto/whatever you wish to call it.

But yeah i would go the Intel route, with a decent P35 chipset motherboard.