Core 2 Duo E2140 Good For Gaming?

[allllec]

not far off my spec. i would say thats the least yo need for wic

 

[pegasus1]

Anyone have any suggestions on a decent baseunit for £270 then?

For video encoding you will need a C2D and 2 gig Ram unless you have a lifetime to wait for rendering, for WIC onboard gfx probably wont even let it load let alone play.

 

[smsmasters]

Just get a cheap e2140 with the M0 revision. Mine overclocks to 3.2Ghz (100% overclock) with the stock cooler and at 1.35V

 

[steve258]

ok if you can live with onboard graphics and won't ever bother overclocking then the following might be your best bet:

Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail
£46.99 (£55.21)

Samsung SH-S203NBEBN 20x20 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM
£15.99 (£18.79)

Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H GeForce 7100 Micro-ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
£43.99 (£51.69)

OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
£25.99 (£30.54)

Antec NSK 4480 Mini Tower Case (Silver) - 380W Earth Watts PSU
£45.99 (£54.04)

Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A33423)
£34.99 (£41.11)

Sub Total : £213.94
Shipping : £10.95
VAT : £39.36
Total : £264.25

Don't expect to play WIC on this though, but still a lot better than this:

Or for £269.

Processor Intel Pentium Dual Core E2140 1MB Cache 64Bit Processor.
Processor Speed 2 x 1.6GHZ.
Memory 2GB DDR2 667MHz Ram.
Hard Drive 250GB Serial ATA II Hard Drive.
Graphics Intel GMA 950 PCI Express Graphics & 1x PCI-E 16 Slot.
Drive 1 18x Dual Layer +R/-R/RW DVD burner.
Sound 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio.
Motherboard Intel 946GZ Chipset MicroATX Motherboard.

Don't need graphics card just yet to be honest.

 

[AshFU]

is the e2180 better than my nearly 2year old 4400x2?

 

[steve258]

^^ the E2180 is faster in most apps but with a bit of oc (3Ghz easy) this chip will really shine.

 

[z0mbi3]

is the e2180 better than my nearly 2year old 4400x2?

Yeah but I don't think it's a big enough difference to warrant the upgrade.

 

[mrthingyx]

Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 (Socket 775) PCI-Express/AGP DDR2 Motherboard Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 (Socket 775) PCI-Express/AGP DDR2 Motherboard £36.99
(£43.46) £36.99
(£43.46)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (ST3160815AS) Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (ST3160815AS) £30.99
(£36.41) £30.99
(£36.41)
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) £33.99
(£39.94) £33.99
(£39.94)
Antec NSK 6580 Super Midi Tower Case - 430W Earth Watts PSU Antec NSK 6580 Super Midi Tower Case - 430W Earth Watts PSU £57.99
(£68.14) £57.99
(£68.14)
OcUK GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail OcUK GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2140 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail Intel Core 2 Duo E2140 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail £35.99
(£42.29) £35.99
(£42.29)
Sub Total : £245.94
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £44.96
Total : £301.85


That's pretty much the closest I can reasonably get without an operating system or monitor, but it has a case and a PSU and everything else you need to get started.

If you were willing to go AMD...

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4000+ 2.10GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4000+ 2.10GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail £35.99
(£42.29) £35.99
(£42.29)
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) £33.99
(£39.94) £33.99
(£39.94)
Antec NSK 6580 Super Midi Tower Case - 430W Earth Watts PSU Antec NSK 6580 Super Midi Tower Case - 430W Earth Watts PSU £57.99
(£68.14) £57.99
(£68.14)
OcUK GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail OcUK GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Foxconn 6150M2MA-KRS2H Micro ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Foxconn 6150M2MA-KRS2H Micro ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £29.99
(£35.24) £29.99
(£35.24)
Hitachi Deskstar 7K160 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A32727) Hitachi Deskstar 7K160 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A32727) £23.99
(£28.19) £23.99
(£28.19)
Sub Total : £231.94
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £42.51
Total : £285.40


I'm actually quite surprised at how tough it is to find a reasonable motherboard with integrated graphics that would benefit another part of the system...

Anyway - 'tis up to you. The above two sytems are scraping through the bottom of the barrel. To be honest, another £200 would go a very long way in terms of... err... longevity.

 

[Ravie]

E2140
Gigabyte P35 DS1l
Geill Ram

when u get it just up the fsb until ** at 2.6ghz and u have a lovely system (doubt u will even have to upo the vcore)