Is anyone still using a chip as old as mine?

Tafkap

Tafkap

Tafkap

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31 Jul 2003
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I've been almost ready to hit the button on an i7 Devil's Canyon, but it's hard for me to justify..

I still run my Core2Duo Conroe 1.8Ghz chip from 2006! It handles most games fine at 1680 x 1050 with a 7850 Radeon. Do I need it? Strictly no...not when I could still run Tomb Raider at medium detail.

Do I want it? Hell yeah!

I've been toying with the idea of building a new machine, something quieter mainly, and just waited for bargains and got things piece by piece.

So..I've already got a Z97 motherboard, 8Gb of ram and a 512Mb SSD sitting waiting for when I go for it.

I have my eye on a Dark Rock Pro 3 cooler, a Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 case and a CPU to complete the machine. I'm not sure if an i5 would suffice rather than an i7..for gaming there's no difference is there??
 
I think I'm as bad as you. I currently use an Intel Pentium E2210 @ 2.2GHz, which I bought from someone on the Members' Market when I used to have a different account. I think the graphics card is an nVidia 6600.

I bought it to play CS 1.6, CoD and MoH, but almost never play any games these days so don't need anything newer... but am considering upgrading just for fun. I figured even a Pentium Dual Core would be faster than my current setup, or perhaps I could push the boat out and get an i3. No idea about what graphics card I should get though, as I'm completely out of touch with what's what.
 
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Look up cpubenchmark and also anandtech to compare cpus in different scenarios. Look st the scores for what relates to what you do most and then decide if its worth it.

The old 6 core xeon chips are relatively chip now and pretty dam quick
 
What's your budget, you don't need a i7 for gaming, an i5 is perfectly capable.

I do advise to get everything at once, prices change constantly and bargains back then could be expensive now. SSD's have dropped significantly within the last few months.
 
Budget wise, well saving a hundred pounds by getting an i5 would be nice - I do a fair bit of photo editing and I wonder if I can justify the extra now, when perhaps I can upgrade my CPU down the line..

I remember saying the same thing to myself, right enough, when I plumped for almost the bottom spec Core2Duo and never did get that quad core, higher clocked chip when it became cheaper!

Maybe I should just get the i7, safe in the knowledge that I won't have to upgrade for many years. If I was just a gamer then an i5 would be ideal, but I'm trying to convince myself about the i7.

I agree on the whole parts thing, but I got the memory over a year ago when it was actually cheaper than it is now!

The motherboard was a couple of months ago when it came with a free Asus headset, and the ssd is just a recent purchase - 148 for a 512mb SSD wasn't to be ignored at the time. As I say, I've been going for bargains and rather regret not buying the i7 when it was £239 back on 19th August as it's up to £256 now.

I've been keeping close tabs on component prices over the past year as I've ruminated over building a new machine, writing down the prices and the dates. They've fluctuated a lot in that time..sometimes daily! The hours just fly by so they do when I'm checking prices. :-)
 
Even a Pentium G3258 would be a big upgrade from a E6300. Even more so when overclocked. Paired up with a H81 or B85 board that allows overclocking and it would be a big but cheap upgrade that you could then drop a i5 or i7 into in the future. Known H81 and B85 boards that support overclocking with the G3258 are:-

Asus B85M-G
Asus H81M-plus
Asus H81M-E
Gigabyte B85M-D2V

Or to make absolutely sure you could overclock, a cheap Z97 board such as the Gigabyte Z97P-D3 would do the job. Personally I hat the bottom of the range mobo's though.
 
Love the name, pastymuncher!

I already bought an Asus Z97 board - 85 quid at the time with a free headset was too good to ignore. So, I'm all set for that i5 or i7. Once I get over my indecision.

A big thing for me is silence, as my base unit is right next to me and if I add a Corsair RM600 psu to my list then I reckon I'll have a pretty quiet machine in the end.

Speed with my ssd and i5/i7 allied to a quiet(er) machine and also usb 3.0 does make quite a compelling case. If only my old Conroe chip was unbearable! Eight years is a long time to have a PC, but I also feel guilty adding to the consumerist society that always demands bigger and better when it's not really necessary.

If I can sell my old machine I won't feel so bad!
 
Bigger and better is always a good decision ;)

If you need the power of the i7 for other things then grab one, but for everything else the i5 will be perfectly fine for many years to come.
 
Still using a Q6600 here but it is showing it's age in Planetside 2 but I do play at Eyefinity resolutions but any other game it's fine.

Planning on upgrading to a old i7 system one day which should give me a other 4+ or 5+ years.
 
The laptop I'm using right now has a CPU equivalent to a desktop Core 2 Duo E8300, my tablet has a Intel Atom Processor Z3740 which is basically around Core 2 Duo E6300/6400 performance territory for 1-2 threaded processing and about 60% of the performance of a Q6600 for 4 threaded stuff.

Both handle general desktop use and light gaming fine. Obviously no comparison to my main laptop and gaming PC though.
 
Tafkap said:
I already bought an Asus Z97 board - 85 quid at the time with a free headset was too good to ignore. So, I'm all set for that i5 or i7. Once I get over my indecision.
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It sounds like you would be happy with the G3258. It's 1/3 of the price of the i5 (let alone the i7!) and does extremely well in games when overclocked, and you've got a good motherboard to do that with.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/pentium_20th_anniversary_series_g3258_processor_review,14.html

Failing that just get an i5, i7 is a waste of money.

P.S. and to answer the OP, almost as old, Q9300 ;) Still plays games fine!
 
Thanks joeyjojo...I'll look into that processor. The cost is one factor that's stopping me from just buying an i7 so something cheaper would be very interesting to me.

Sgoaty - you have no idea, that motherboard box is under my lounge table every day and is just reminding me all the time that I'm half way to a great new machine!! The button will have to be pressed, or else I bought it for nothing..
 
I think the oldest processor that I'm still using (fairly) regularly is a Core 2 Duo E6420 in an old dell that only gets used for browsing and dust collecting.
 
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