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?

 

[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.

 

[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!