I need a little help on choosing a CPU.

[Gepetto]

I am still very new to this so a little advice would be very welcome.

I'm going to help my friend out (I think) by donating him my ABIT IN9 MAX motherboard (nice board but rubbish for clocking) as his PC has died, and I've bought a P5Q.

He bought a graphics card (dunno what, but definitely PCI-E) as he thought that might have been what had caused the problem, and he has two 1GB sticks of DDR2 Ram and the Case, Hard Drive, and 400W PSU from his existing set up, so basically, he now only needs a CPU.

He only uses his PC for surfing, storing his photos, MS Office and very light gaming on a 19" monitor so he doesn't need the very latest processor.

However, I don't know whether to get something like an E2200 (cheap) or go for something like an E8500 (capable for longer).

Anyone point me in the right direction?

 

[alex24]

Considering that you said the board doesnt clock very well, i'd go down the wolfdale E7300 or similar route. That'll last, is still sub £100 notes and can be clocked with another board later. Still, for very light gaming, there's nothing wrong with an E2200, it really depends on whether this is a stop-gap solution or an investment.

 

[Gepetto]

Thanks for the reply Alex. He's the type that buys a reasonable PC from a mainstream store every three years or so, as I used to!

Because I have started dabbling, he is now taking an interest, and appreciates that he can do a lot better for less money. I've said to him that for a couple of hundred quid now, he can start to put together a high quality system that will last him another couple of years, but he does seem to want to spend only a little, to get him through the foreseeable future.

What I want to do is illustrate his options, and have done so to a certain extent, but if he can see some other opinions on here, it will help him make up his mind as to which direction to go in.

 

[alex24]

It might then be worth looking at a cheaper C2D CPU and a better mobo. For what you said the usage is, if it doesn't change in the near future, a low dual core is fine. However, with the money you saved on that you could get a nice reliable, stable, up to date and feature-rich motherboard that could overclock the dual core for a little more performance if needed in the future. That way you have a stable base to improve the rest of the machine around by adding gfx, hdd, etc.

Sorry if that confuses things!

 

[Gepetto]

No, not at all.

The only reason to use the MB is because it's there, so I, personally, am leaning toward the later CPU i.e. E8*00. If that does him fine for now without major (or indeed any) overclocking (I have my Q6600 running at 2.8Ghz on it at the moment) then he will have the option of graphics, extra Ram, and a new board, when, and if, it suits him.

That's my logic, at this stage, anyway!