My Birthday Present.

[Nanor]

Right, it's all coming up to my birthday soon. 16th birthday too! But it's crap 'cause I'm away on holidays on my birthday. How. Gay. I whined at my parents for making this horrible decision and demanded some phat computer stuff.

At the minute I have a 7600 Geforce 256MB and 1792 megabytes of RAM. Now that's not bad I think you'll agree, I should be able to play any game under the sun, at least on low, with reasonably good FPS. 'fraid not. I can't even play CoH on low without it eventually turning into a horrible horrible chug fest later in the game (lots of tanks), it eventually drops to 5FPS. I can't play BF2 on 64 player maps because my game drops to 10FPS when I see someone making it very hard to get a kill. So why is this? Well I've neglected to mention one piece of hardware, my CPU, in all it's 1.7GHz goodness. Surely it's the problem why I can't run games, there's nothing else to account for my FPS, or lack thereof.

Now, why don't I just buy a new CPU? I can't, my motherboard that I have at the moment is a QDI KuDoz 7x. If I were to upgrade my CPU from an AMD 2100+, I could only upgrade it to an AMD 2600+, and frankly I'd like to go higher.

Roll in this bad boy. The problem I had was my lack of money, my only choice was to get a new PC, which my parents weren't going to buy. That Intel Socket 775 Motherboard solves the problem (I'm not actually sure if it's that motherboard or another one my brother is recommending but it's close and you get my point). I can use the stuff I have on this PC already, my graphics card and RAM, but I need a new CPU and I can't decide..

So the question, which one would you recommend? If you had to choose a good, reliable CPU which would you have in order for gaming and that hopefully I can use even in the future?

Thanks

 

[thatbloke]

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 if you can afford it.

Or the E6420 as a cheaper option

In the current market Intel Core 2 Duo processors are the only processors worth getting

 

[waterproofbob]

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 if you can afford it.

Or the E6420 as a cheaper option

In the current market Intel Core 2 Duo processors are the only processors worth getting

yeah agreed there, problem is if you get a C2D can you get a mobo that is DDR RAM compatible. all the ones I've seen are DDR2 which would mean new RAM as well as new CPU and mobo. Also you'll almost certainly need a new PSU. Its sort of a bit of a tumbling thing.

 

[DeZmond]

There is of course the path of AM2 dual core cheapness, but Core 2 Duo processors currently hold most respect for performance, even if it slightly more expensive overall (after RAM upgrades etc).

Dual core is the best option though, so forget single core if you're after performance.
Also, it goes without saying that you should avoid old AMD tech (754 and 939) and old Intel extreme, as well as the original Core Duo series, since they don't have 64-bit support and aren't as shiny as their Core 2 Duo brethren.

 

[Nanor]

Right well. I've ordered the motherboard, something similar to the one above and a shiny celeron (yes, the white trash chip). My reckoning is that I'll order a single core chip as it may prove more beneficial than a dual core as not all game support dual core and when most of the games I play do, then I'll most likely invest in a dual core.

Processor
------------------------------------------------------
1 x Intel Celeron D 352 Processor with EM64T - 3.2GHz (512KB L2 Cache) 533MHz FSB (I1354598) = £29.96
------------------------------------------------------
Sub-Total: £29.96
Shipping and Packaging: (Standard Delivery - 0.8 kg
(Delivery Tracking Information Not Provided)): £3.89
VAT 17.5%: £5.92
Total: £39.77

Total came to about £80. Not bad, eh?

 

[DeZmond]

Well it's 64bit and has 512k of cache, so it should still be reasonably good in the performance stakes... certainly not a bad choice for the money.

As for dual core, it's certainly worth considering in the future, assuming your motherboard is compatible. Although it must be said that you'll then have to configure your system to take best advantage of that dual core setup, and as you correctly point out few current games can make use of a dual core configuration.

Just wait for the next version of Source, though...

And I'm happy because I just ordered an AMD Athlon X2 4200+ and got it cheap because it's 939 socketed (which since I already have 939 is a bonus)... I shall report how it performs when I return to the UK to actually use it

 

[Traxata]

the AM2 sockets arn't that expensive either though DeZmond

AMD AM2 Athlon 64 4200+ Dual Core 2.2GHz, 2x 512KB Cache, Retail Energy Efficient

£48.05

 

[Nanor]

Well my motherboard has something to with socket 775, so when I get money and more games support dual core I can get plenty of dual cores. For example.

 

[Nanor]

Well, it arrived today, but won't be installed 'til Sunday.

 

[VibroAxe]

yeah agreed there, problem is if you get a C2D can you get a mobo that is DDR RAM compatible. all the ones I've seen are DDR2 which would mean new RAM as well as new CPU and mobo. Also you'll almost certainly need a new PSU. Its sort of a bit of a tumbling thing.

I'm slightly worried but what bob said here because he is completly correct. You can't run a C2D without having full DDR2 support. Now nanor brought a celeron D (celeron dual core if memory serves?) but does this need DDR2 or not?

 

[Iron_fist]

there are chip-sets that support DDR under a C2D platform however because you are restricting the amount of memory bandwidth further than running DDRII you'll have a hit on performance. Intel will have performance issues with their chips till the next batch with the improved memory architecture ( something similar to AMDs Hyper-transport) hit the shelves