Intel Celeron Processor: Still Worth It?

[Fuster33]

Guys, I'm seeing everyone here talk about the higher-end Intels, the dual-cores, the quads, and the i7s. But on an relatively limited budget (about $800), would it still be worth getting the Celeron? I'm thinking of a budget all-purpose machine that can breeze through all the basic tasks, and has enough power for running even some of those powerful games at decent settings. I mean, it's more about the GPU rather than the CPU nowadays, right?

 

[misry]

Celeries for a desktop never made sense to me, nor do Sempr0ns. Crippletech.

Does the $800 include a monitor, keyboard, mouse? A case/PSU?

Assuming you have a monitor but want a whole new box you can set yourself up quite a tidy little system based around a 720 or 9400 depending if you are going Green or Blue.

 

[hundredislandsboy]

I can't think of any reason to buy a Celeron when an e5200 is just $5 more! An e5200 Wolfdale with 2 MB of L2 cache will runs circles around an e1500 Celeron with its 512KB of L2 cache! I know this because I bought an e1200 last year and an e5200 this year and now I'm trying to sell the e1200, maybe worth $25?

I've played Crysis on both these CPUs with a 9800 GT and it's like night day on load times and framerates. Forget about the Celeron.

 

[Devastator_uk]

Celerons have no purpose being in existence, at least on a desktop anyway, with similar price much better CPUs out there.

 

[vouslavous]

Celeron is only good for productivity tasks like word proccessing, browsing the web and email. If 800$ USD does not include monitor you should be able to build a pretty high end computer.

 

[mamw93]

There is no point in buying a Celeron. They are outdated and have no real purpose. If you want to buy something cheap get a Core 2 Duo and be happy.

 

[The Third Level]

For 800 you can easily build yourself a Phenom II X3 720 system.

 

[PepoJ]

I think everyone's saying it isn't worth it because of your budget Fuster. If it were lower (like say, half?) maybe it would be worth it. Would never consider it for gaming though.

 

[Fuster33]

Thanks guys! I'll just take a look at the Homebuilt section for more ideas. The i7 is just too much for a $800 budget right now, right?

 

[jamoramaJAM]

http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/172986.aspx
JSV35's budget builds. Has everything you might need =D.

Keep in mind that they are base price, not including OS, monitor, keyboard/mouse, etc.

(Get a E8400 or E7400. Great overclockers, pretty cheap, and run cool... the new phenom tricores are nice too (gen II))

 

[million3g]

amd has the 5800 runnin at 3.0 for 75 bucks. cant beat it for the price or even a quad phenom I for 90.00. but celeron i couldnt honestly build a computer and live using those things lol

 

[joefriday]

My celeron 420 rig is nice for office apps, web surfing, dvd playback, and online flash video (youtube, hulu). It's even enough for old games (COD, Quake III, etc.). However, I would never recommend it or any of the dual core Celerons for any sort of modern gaming. They are just too much of a bottle neck for today's highend graphics cards. The e5200, when overclocked, will provide enough headroom to take advantage of a good portion of a highend graphics card.

 

[Reynod]

E5200 ... good little workhorse for the price.

Putting a Celeron in your PC is like buying a Russian Niva ... you will regret it, and there is no way to overcome the cognitive dissonance produced from the decision.

If you have one then overclock it in a dangerous way ... put up with it while it lasts ... then DONT DO IT AGAIN.