best cpu for around $150

newguy5

newguy5

New Member
opinions? i will need a mobo for it also. other specs - 1gb pc5300 RAM, geforce 7600gt. i originally had the athlon 64 3500+, granted on a crappy mobo, but i use "performance test" to benchmark my computer. with the 1gb ram, 7600gt, 3500+ and the crappy mobo i hit a 427 (i don't know how much the mobo affected me). with my old computer of an athlon xp 1600+, 512 pc2100 ram, and a geforce 3 ti500 i hit 275. 150 points is not very good considering the upgraded specs. maybe my mobo was that bad?

anyway, would there be a better cpu to get than the athlon 64 3500+ for around a $150 budget? i know the 3500+ is like half that price, btw.
 
Had you installed all the drivers? Were the poor benchmark results matched by poor gaming/other performance? A PC with those specs should be quite reasonable. This isn't 3DMark, the rating system is different. Glancing at some of the comparative baselines, I'm not sure that these results are a problem.

If you are looking for a new CPU, the AMD X2 3800+ is ~$135, while Intel's C2D E6300 is a little over you budget at ~$195, but well worth the extra money.
 
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ceewi1 said:
Had you installed all the drivers? Were the poor benchmark results matched by poor gaming/other performance? A PC with those specs should be quite reasonable

If you are looking for a new CPU, the AMD X2 3800+ is ~$135, while Intel's C2D E6300 is a little over you budget at ~$195, but well worth the extra money.
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well, i installed all the driver's from the motherboard cd as well as got the latest nvidia video drivers, if that's what you are referring to. if there are more drivers i'm ignorant about, please fill me in. a problem was that my motherboard had an on-board video card and for some reason was borrowing 128mb of my 1 gb memory to apply to that graphics card even though the on-board graphics wasn't actually in use. the graphics card on-board could not be disabled either (ecs motherboard).

are you familiar with performance test? what type of score would you have expected?
 
The best processor in that range would be the Intel Core 2 Duo 4300, which is going to be released on the 21st with a MSRP of $160.
 
newguy5 said:
are you familiar with performance test? what type of score would you have expected?
Click to expand...
Not really. I tried it out some time ago, but wasn't too impressed. I downloaded it again once you mentioned it but only have the built in baselines as a comparison. You can see that both the Dual Opteron and X2 4200+ based baselines are getting similar results. I would never upgrade a CPU based solely on benchmark results. The real questions is whether it's performing where it counts - in real world tests.

If you are concerned about benchmarks, you can always download programs like PCMark and 3DMark. With those programs there is an extensive network available for you to compare your scores.
 
Jet said:
It would be:
1. E6300
2. 4300
3. X2 3800+
Click to expand...

so dual core is definitely the way to go these days? i just heard a lot about games not being supported by dual-core.

what's so good about the e6300, and how much better is it than the others? i don't plan to overclock, unless it's slight and on stock heatsink/fan.
 
Jet said:
If you get the right motherboard, you can overclock to 2.66 on the stock cooler.
Click to expand...

what mobo(s) would you recommend?

i don't mind doing non-stock heatsink, but i want to safely overclock. then again, i guess these days, overclocking is getting VERY expected from manufacturers and so they are building their processors stronger.
 
I read a little bit of your first post...you have a 7600GT? I have one as well, with a X2 3800+...I moved from the 64 3200+ to a 64 X@ 3800+ and it was a world of difference...Times for loading anything were just about cut in half, programs run great and with the 7600 my games run incredibly smooth.
 
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