Please Help me in selecting a CPU....urgent !!!!

[mavrick81]

Hi guyz...i know its been discussed servals times but i would really appreciate if you can help me out... i am planning to buy Asus P5Q Intel P45 chipset http://ae.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=709&l4=0&model=2164&modelmenu=1

With this mobo i have a choice of either getting a e8400 or q8200...if i stretch my budget (the max) i can jump to a q9400... i am not a gaming freak but yes when i get spare time i do luv to play games... my only concern is that i dont want to spend more on pc for the next 2-3 years... so guyz keeping this contraint of 2-3 years what do you suggest which CPU to select... its e8400 vs q8200 vs q9400... oo yeh i dont plan to OC !!!!

i have a 19 inch lcd, gts 250 gpu and 4gb corsair xms ram

 

[mavrick81]

19 views and no one is willing to help 🙁

 

[nerrawg]

Go with the E7400 - clock for clock the same performance as the 8000 series. Don't get the core 2 quads if you can avoid it - better to get core i7 and OC in that case - they OC better and are much much more powerful.

Article on overclocking the E7400 vs the E8600:
http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articID=908

 

[nerrawg]

As for having a PC last for 2-3 years, it depends on your requirements for that PC. If it is to have the best gaming PC - then you should plan on upgrading later and spend less now - good reason not to go for quads. Check out the analysis of bang-for-buck when it comes to gaming pc's here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/264181-31-best-bang-buck-spend-system

 

[aevm]

What will this PC do, exactly? Name the 3 programs you will use most of the time.

In general, the E8400 will beat the Q8400, because it's higher clocked and the extra cores of the Q8400 will not be used. However, if you expect to do things like compressing audio/video or run a server of some sort, then the Q8400 will do better because it will use all its cores.

I'm assuming your budget for CPU+MB is around $300, based on the prices for P5Q+E8400 at newegg. I'm also assuming your existing RAM is DDR2, since that's what the P5Q expects. Something like i7 920 + GA-EX58-UD3R+6 GB of DDR3 would be way better than P5Q+E8400 or even P5Q + Q9550, but it's about $600.

 

[aevm]

How about this combo for $270:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.190732

AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz
GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P

It's a bit slower than the E8400 in single-threaded apps, a lot faster than the E8400 in multi-threaded apps, and it will beat the Q8400. Not as good as the i7/x58 setup, but better bang for the buck.

 

[nerrawg]

If you need 3-4 cores than I would heed aevm's advice - if you are looking for a mobo + cpu around $240-300 range I would go AMD, get their black edition cpus if you want to overclock (unlocked multiplier) and the PII X3 720 BE or PII X4 940 BE are the 2 best choices for value. Also get a 790 version MOBO - the SB 750 chipset is much better than the 700 for overclocking.

All in all, either go cheap intel dual core (E5200 or E7400 and P45 mobo ~ $200) or go phenom II with AMD (940 and 790 - $270). Core i7 will cost you more in the range of $500 for cpu and mobo.

 

[Shnur]

You really don't plan to overclock? It's really worth the money today with AMD chips and they have programs that actually do the work for you... and it will cost you a lot less for better specs. I would go for the Phenom II x4 940 BE and overclock it.

 

[mavrick81]

Thanks guys... the main purpose of buying this pc is not just gaming...i am gonna use it for office work, internet, movies, music, and yes may be on average 5-6 hours a week for gaming... i dont do heavy graphic editing etc ... i7 is out of budget and i am not a big fan of AMD...so the only option i am left wid is Intel...a friend of mine advised me to get e7400 + Asus P5Q-Pro mobo...my only concern is that i wont be able to spend more on pc for next 18-20 months... so what do you think is e7400+P5Q Pro a good option ?

 

[DaMAn42]

The q8200 is a rock solid little work chip or if you look you might be able to find a q6600 good for the OC and speed but hot and power muncher. Both come with a fair amount on cashe q8200 4 meg and q6600 8meg. For multy tasking there the way to go. Now if you just want raw speed get the dual personaly I am not a fan its just not woth the extra frame or two compared to what a c2q would do for you.
To sum it up get the q6600 and a fair cooler for power.
Get the q8200 for a good compermise and price
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115018
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115055

 

[Guest]

if you're willing to spend the money, get one of these:

a little bit faster
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.190236
better for multitasking
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.190237

both are 20 bucks off with combo deals. you said you wanted something to last a while, don't go with the e7400.

 

[Guest]

and geez, did the q6600 go up in price? i don't remember spending 205 for mine!

oh and, that p5q pro is a great board. i have it too.

 

[nerrawg]

if you're willing to spend the money, get one of these:

a little bit faster
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.190236
better for multitasking
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.190237

both are 20 bucks off with combo deals. you said you wanted something to last a while, don't go with the e7400.

Did you read the article!? Nothing is wrong with the E7400 - its as durable as the E8400 and all it takes is uping the FSB a bit to get the same 3.0 Ghz clock with no voltage increase. Same performance clock for clock as E8400 - so what are you on about mate!? What is the down side with the E7400??? Nothing as far as I can see.

Most games work no better on 4 cores than 2 - the processor speed and cache is all that matters (E7400 is perfect balance here), The Q8200 will perform much weaker than the E7400 in games, it performs weaker than the E5200 actually. The Q6600 is overpriced and outdated by now.

When you say that you do office work and general stuff - do you mean heavy cpu bound applications like compiling gigs of data? If you are just using office, excel, dreamweaver and SPSS like the rest of us - then you don't need 4 cores. I have a laptop with a dual core 2.16 Ghz mobile cpu that can run pretty much as many web browser windows as you want, MS office, MS excel, Itunes and spotify at the same time - actually it is doing that right now hehe. However if I was trying to compile video on final cut pro at the same time - well then it would be a bit too slow. So consider this when you buy a cpu - games are generally the most taxing programs that people use, and if this is the case - build you system accordingly.