I'm putting together a new build. I figured I might as well get used to Vista. I've never paid much attention to CPU's, usually buying middle of the road AMD. What I do isn't taxing at all, but I might do a few games on the new one. With a budget of $200, what do you people suggest for a processor?

I'd suggest for the price going with the E8400. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115037 . It's a great buy for $200, having 45nm, 3.0ghz, 6mb L2 cache, and 1333mhz fsb. Or for 10$ less you could get the 8200 which runs at 2.66ghz. I think the E8400 is a better deal though.

Also, they just recently dropped the prices on many Intel models, including the quad cores. If you are willing to go up to $220, you could get a Q6600. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115017 . For what your doing, a Quad Core might be a bit of overkill though.

I don't really know much about AMD CPU's, but if you are willing to spend 200$ for a processor, might as well go with Intel. I read the phenoms aren't that great, especially since Intel has the Q6600 at $220, which is quite better. The tri-core AMD's came out though and they are priced pretty nicely. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....;name=Phenom+X3.I don't know how good they are, but one thing to take into consideration is that they are quad core phenoms that one of the cores died on. I'm sure AMD probably tests the other cores to make sure they are functioning correctly, but you never know . I still think it's a really good idea though.

+1 on the 8400

Got an old slot A Athlon that I'd let got cheap.

I'm going to take my time. First I have to see if the wife was really serious. Probably buy it piecemeal so she doesn't see one big bill

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819103194

get a good hsf, mobo and power supply

I'm going with a Seasonic PS. I've had good luck using them on builds for other people I haven't made my mind up on a mobo, yet. Kind of leaning towards an ABIT

Those seasonics are used a lot by the overclockers and dvd burner reviewers/testers, nice choice



I doubt the wife would understand tho

SHHH! What she doesn't know....
I figure I can hide a bunch of small boxes rather than one big box

If you do go with amd or decide to overclock a core2duo, try to get low cas high performance memory so the ram won't bottleneck the cpu on intensive processing operations and then that your motherboard will support the higher ram voltages required

The nvidia mid level video cards with the 8800 and new 9600 chipsets are pushing last years highend cards for performance
and capable of running even the most demanding games at lower level settings

Ordered the first round of parts: Went with the AMD and a Zalman heatsink, the power supply and for the first time in my life I actually bought a case. I've always wanted a Lian Li, so I bit the bullet

I don't forsee those parts coming down in price much if any in the next few weeks, I would get the ram next tho I can't see it getting much cheaper and it might just get a lot more expensive, it's going to start to bother you not having it all together.

Do you have a large doghouse?

It's called my garage. Luckily UPS gets here early and I can hide all the stuff in there before she gets home. Besides, I have the mother-in-law living with us and she likes me. I can get her to run interference

Well, the final pieces, I think.
Abit mobo
Crucial Ballistic
I'm 95% positive I'm going with this video card
MSI/nvidia

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820148076

Link won't open Chew. I can't figure out exactly where it's pointing to

31$ after rebate, have another household order the second pair

you need 64 bit and quad core at least if you ever go above 4 gigs

just trying to keep balance in the force and the wife happy

I say this now, but I don't see myself ever needing more that 4 gigs. Talk to me in 4-5 years and I'll probably be kicking myself
A few things had rebates. I'll let the wife think I'm a nice guy and give them to her


update: As I'm writing this UPS just pulled up, PARTY TIME

Well I must say, I'm impressed with the Lian Li case. Who would have thought that black could look so good. I can't tell if it's painted or powder coated but the finish is as smooth as a baby's behind. Even the front dummy covers are aluminum. Well thought out design. Ample air flow.and light weight. The motherboard tray slides out the back, with all auxiliary cards remaining fastened to the motherboard. The only thing that's kind of funky is they installed fan guards on the inside, on the fans. A dumb safety feature. If you're going to be near the fan blades, it's going to be off. All it does is collect lint and dust that much quicker

Which Amd did you end up getting. I have been tossing around the Idea of upgrading, my Socket 478 is still hanging in there though.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/
I paired it up with a Zalman heatsink. Got to hit the auto store tomorrow for some emery paper to lap the heat sink

you'll have to lap the top of the cpu also?

durn you are ambitious or dangerous



I'll pass on that

I guess there's no need in asking if you are going to raise the multiplier?

The chip surface is pretty flat. It's just something I've always done. I dress my wood chisels and plane blades the same way

That Abit board is overclock friendly. Even has a CMOS reset button outside the I/O plate

have you looked at the top of a amd 64? that metal cap looks less flat than the bottom of a premium heatsink?

of course I was the guy who spent days polishing low grade aluminum for nasa with rouge and molehair

wookies are old

Haven't opened the box yet. Maybe I'll break out the polishing cloth

some guy gave me some disks of aluminum they wanted to take up on skylab for tests, I was told to polish them to a mirror finish, after a couple of days he said never mind, you can't use low grade aluminum





just used a dab of geil cu paste with premium TT silent boost and 25% OC over 2 years ago

no lapping or polishing

Has AMD cleared up the problems with the Phenoms yet?

http://www.motherboards.org/

Finally got around to putting everything together the other week, piece of cake. Started up OK, setup the BIOS and loaded the OS without a hitch. Let it run for 3-4 days straight. Decided everything is up to par, put the side cover on, and went out to plant some flowers. Two hours later, come back into a dead computer. Power supply checked out OK, so I get ready to pull the CPU to check for heat damage. Breaking out the old magnifying glasses for these old eyes, I put the 3 prong CPU fan on the 4pin fan header. The darn plastic interlock was the same, I just couldn't see what I did. Plugged it into the 3 pin fan circuit and everything's OK, so far

Maybe since it was in the wrong plug, it didn't have any speed control based on how hot your processor was? Your fan speed might have been really low and the processor was really hot. Thats just my guess, but anyway, good luck!