• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

DC or i7?

satriani1412

satriani1412

satriani1412

Associate
Joined
6 Apr 2009
Posts
346
Location
Crewe
Ive been trying to decide whether or not i should try my luck with the infamous e5200 and stick it in my system and stay with that for a while on my current setup, or spend a bit more money and wait to afford an i7 spec.

Currently im running a below par motherboard that came with my fujitsu system and a pentium D processor @ 2.8ghz but its still crap.

Having trouble playing games smoothly, apparently im getting good fps and what not but its still stuttering a lot and i think its something to do with my current processor/board.

Would anyone recommend this dual core e5200 and maybe recommend me a decent board to run it?

Also my current board is running my 800mhz ram at 130mhz or something stupid even though its supposed to support up to 400.

This board, is not, at all, clockable, nothing except fans can be adjusted in the bios so was hoping a new board and this processor that people seem to be having a good time with would be worth it, obviously would invest in a decent cooler too but i dont know which ones are good and arent worth it to be honest.

Got an HD 4830 running on stock clocks with the new ram, but i was just wondering whether anyone would recommend spending the money on this processor and a board to tide me over for a while or just wait and take my chances with a full D0 system?

ta very muchly
 
Last edited:
Yeah imo you should see a nice improvement with a better board + cpu, something like this
Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3 Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £66.99 (£58.25)
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail £62.09 (£53.99)
Sub Total : £112.24
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £18.26
Total : £140.00
This would be a lot cheaper than going i7 which would set you back 3 times as much, circa £400 for CPU+mobo+RAM
Edit: that mobo is on TWO, just so you know
 
It depends on how much you are willing to spend.

Imo I went for an i7 system just to be future proof. Now since you already have a good video card and a hard disc which is enough for now, you can maybe wait for the i7 motherboard prices to go down a little, and then buy a CPU + Mobo + RAM. DDR-3 prices are now quite cheap also :)
 
The Pentium D's are basically dual core Pentium IV's and they are not high performing chips when it comes to gaming. The only way to get real performance from an Pentium D is insane overclocks, at 3.7Ghz they performed "OK".

Core 2 Duo on the other hand excels at gaming, with the dual core's being almost twice as fast as a Pentium-D clock for clock. (IE a 1.6Ghz Core 2 Duo is as good as a 3.2Ghz Pentium-D when it comes to gaming) Its also very capable for media and office applications, so its not a case of improved gaming at the expense of other applications.

If your mainly after gaming, I'd take the cheap route, and get the Core2 Duo, the i7 is still a little on the pricey side to really be worth it at the moment.
 
Sounds good, I was aware that this Pentium D was rubbish but its good to know whats actually happening in there.

Its not that im not after an i7 system, but it wont be for a good 6-8 months so I was thinking about a Dual Core as an affordable option to tide me over, especially after seeing some of the numbers people have pushed with it.

Also looking at that thermalright brick of a cpu cooler, is it safe to install on a board lying vertically because on the boards ive seen it attached to it looked like installation of an anville
 
With a board like the GB thrifles recomended to me, can anyone give me a vague idea of overclocking ability? Ive seen some great numbers with this CPU but being an OC novice im not sure what stable numbers I could expect to touch on if I get a good cooler
 
Don't bother with the i7 yet tbh.

Just grab an E5200 with half decent board like the one above and you should get straight outta box ~3.2 - 3.4GHZ. You might want to get some good cooling for it as well, AF7/extreme if you want to save cash or get something like Tuniq/TRUE if you want somethin' better.

No idea what memory you have but if you got some noname chinese stuff you might want to get good overclockable ram like OCZ or GeiL.
 
Ive got 2x 1gb of the OCZ Platinum stuff if thats any good?

Was looking at the arctic freezer xtreme that looks like a black brick, that huge thermalright thing or maybe the noctua.

Im quite drawn to the e5200 considering a lot of people on here have given it some good reviews rather than splashing out on an i7 just yet
 
The 5200 is nowhere near the performance of a quad-core, but for 50 notes it absolutely flies and you can clock the nuts off it.

My advice: Get a 5200, clock it as high as it'll go (3.6-4gHz shouldn't be too ambitious) and see how she goes. If it doesn't work out, use it as a media server :-)
 
Never overclocked before but thats the plan :)
Got a lot of reading to do havent I >.<

Will definitely need a new board though, the current one is pretty much locked except for cpu to ram ratio and fan speeds
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom