Pentium D 945 or Pentium Dual-Core E2180

[expee15]

Hi all!
I need some help.

a very good friend of mine is going a build a machine, with very low budget, and second-hand components.
since, he is using second-hand components, he has very limited options.
guys, please just tell me, which one of the microprocessors is better between these two: 'Intel Pentium D 945 (3.4 GHz, 4 MB cache)' and 'Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2180 (2.0 GHz, 1 MB cache)'?

he is going to use this PC for gaming, will hopefully put 4 GBs (or atleast 2 GBs) of RAM and a nice 3D card (hopefully NVIDIA 9000 series).

now, in this regard (gaming purpose), which one of these two microprocessors will be a better choice, keeping in mind the games of current era?
remember guys, he has no other options available for microprocessors.


just a side question, can Pentium D 945 compete with Pentium Core 2 Duo E4400 (2.0 GHz, 2 MB cache) in gaming performance?

 

[Shadow703793]

E2180 wins hands down. Fore more bang for buck OC the E2180 to 3Ghz and it will be smiler to a E8400 (at stock) for gaming.

 

[daship]

Agreed! Even better get a e5200.

 

[jimishtar]

e2180 can overclock up to 4GHz with good air cooler. Its a beast. Throw in an 9800gtx or maybe 250gts and feel free to rock some games.

 

[Aoster87]

e2180 for sure. The Pentium D line generated a ton of heat, whereas the straight Pentium line runs cooler, more efficiently, and is designed better.

 

[jitpublisher]

Pentium D's are done.
Old, outdated technology. Whatever you decided to buy, you do not want to buy a Pentium D these days.

 

[Shadow703793]

^That is unless you are trying to fry bacon on your CPU. :lol:

 

[Aoster87]

^That is unless you are trying to fry bacon on your CPU. :lol:

Heh, as a former Pentium D 920 owner I will second that!

 

[expee15]

Thanks all.
sorry for my late response, but u guys have solved my problem.
now I'll definitely go for the Dual-Core
Thanks again.

 

[4745454b]

LOL, I thought it was your friend?

 

[expee15]

LOL, I thought it was your friend?

LOL, nice catch there :d
well, it was a spontaneous reply..., since the friend is bit new in computing and is depending on my choices and reasons for buying PC components.

 

[hefox]

I think E5200 has approximately the same price with E2180 so you should think about buying E5200.

 

[ill b ben]

he can probably get it second hand for dirt cheap (thus not many options available)

Anyhows my gf has a 2180 in her rig, knowing me i OC'd it ofc.. got it up to 3.2 ghz with a dirt cheap p45 chipset mobo and 2 gig of 667 ram

 

[englandr753]

Unless you already have the motherboard, I would think about getting the AMD 7850. Its only 59.99 and comes stock 2.8g with 3mb cache. The E2180 has 1mb cache.

If you can get an Intel board that supports an Intel Core 2 Quad that you could upgrade to later from the E2180 then go Intel.

The 7850 is deactivated on Newegg but you can get it online or in the store at Microcenter.

Food for thought...

 

[hefox]

Unless you already have the motherboard, I would think about getting the AMD 7850. Its only 59.99 and comes stock 2.8g with 3mb cache. The E2180 has 1mb cache.

If you can get an Intel board that supports an Intel Core 2 Quad that you could upgrade to later from the E2180 then go Intel.

The 7850 is deactivated on Newegg but you can get it online or in the store at Microcenter.

Food for thought...

Yes, 7850 is better than E2180 but you can say that a cpu is better than another one because of the bigger cache memory. D 945 has bigger cache memory than E5200 but still...E5200 is much better. The only thing that matters is real life test.

 

[expee15]

Thanks guys, for all your help...

the thing is, the friend will buy an Intel Core i7 system next year, when it will be cheaper as compared to now. and thats y, he is not willing to spend much money on this machine. this machine is just for time pass.

@hefox: we do not have other options , remember?

@englandr: thanks for the advice, but we dont want to go for AMD.

thanks again guys...

 

[englandr753]

@ hefox, Im not recommending the cpu on the cache alone. Most anyone here that knows a little about processors know the architecture is where its at. Cache does play a limiting factor as you don't game with Celerons with their low cache even though its a Core 2 Duo Celeron.

@expee15, that's cool. Its only a suggestion anyway. I have both AMD and Intel and honestly I go for the best price/performance instead of AMD or Intel but that's how I roll.