Page 2 - Help me figure out which processor to go with?!

Well then following your principle why don't get a E8400. IF you are so much on non-OC-ing. Now please explain to me why the heck a workstation computer shouldn't benefit from the power of the OC. I'm eager to find out.
LE: Also the E4500 at stock clock is beyond the X2 4000+.

Did you even read?

Yes its better than an e4500, its also costs almost twice as much. When it comes to price at the price of an e4500 you can get a 5600+ x2, or an opteron 1218, both of which are substantially faster.


And OC'ing for a workstation. Its a work computer, you don't want to cause anything that could possible cause an instability when it comes to a work computer, on top of that OC'ing isn't just something you can do, you have to know how, you have to tweak around and bench and test and stress and tweak, all of which quite frankly don't need to be done on a work computer. And when you are building a few of them to get the all up and running OC'ed would be a pain in the ass and an unnecessary stress on rig that you want to last awhile.

Lastly an e8400? Dude you make no sense whatsover!!!! That chip alone would be nearly 1/3 of the budget. AMD is the best option here plain and simple. You are the one talking about a balanced system and yet you aren't building one.

Yes, I have, thanks for the appreciation.



This two fragments I'll answer starting from backwards. A Opteron has a larger PSU usage but we can forgot this as we can handle it. And as for the OC part. Dude OC-ing a system become something from that you can be sure. You speak of instability, well I disagree. The new CPu's can be OC'd without any instability y. They have a hidden potential in them around of at least 50%. This is fact not just a possibility. The time when OC-ing your system (especially a CPU) was a risk has dawn. As for the OC knowledge part they are tons of OC guides around the net and can be learned quite fast. And the guy's can easily spare a hour reading one of them, my opinion.



I see that you don't get the irony placed on those lines.


Lastly I would say only one thing. I would buy the E4500. But if you say so I would also agree with replacing the CPU/Moterboard with the MSI suggested by justin and the CPU's proposed by you if they are in the same price. The final price of the system would eb the same.

To clear up the why the case I had...This is a system I just build for my father in law who has similar needs as this thread minus the fact that me has minimal space but needed a case with two optical drives and two floppy's hence the silverstone case. My example was just the fact that you could get a solid build out of 700.00.

For a business who's on a budget I would not go Intel. The motherboards are more and the CPUs are more. Granted better but going the AMD route leaves you at least 100-200 to play with. More HDD space, RAM, etc.

My build was strictly mainstream not geared towards one specific task but able to handle any apps for the most part, older games, potential Vista use and while multitasking at the same time.

When I build for a customer I build to their needs nothing else. But what I always do is use the top names. Hence OCZ, Silverstone, MSI and so forth.

Again the Silverstone would be for all but try and find a small footprint case that had what my father in law needed that wasn't a piece of crap..Trust me its not that easy.

The reason I would go Intel route is because the cheapest Intel C2D is 120.00 the E4500 at 800FSB 2.2GHz The Brisbane 5200 is 2.7 just over $100 and is a nasty chip even at stock speeds. But you need to remember this is a business not somebody's personal PC which they will overclock. A business relies on these PCs so they want solid performance being rock solid stable. Again the AMD route. Here is my build for this thread.

SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S203N - OEM $34.00 (own it love it, pimp it out to all who will listen)

COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail $80.00 (Looks nice with good cooling options and Cooler Master as we all know is a great case)

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $70.00 (Do I need to say anything SEAGATE )

GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4 AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $100.00 (Potential SLI if they start to game more)

MSI NX8600GT-TD512EZ GeForce 8600GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI $95.00 with a $20.00 rebate (Its quite a solid performer and again if they game more its cheap to throw in a second)

OCZ StealthXStream OCZ600SXS ATX12V / EPS12V 600W Power Supply - Retail $88.00 ( NEVER SKIMP ON POWER)

OCZ Platinum 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop $48.00 (48 freakin bucks when I got these they were over 200.00 and IF you overclock these go FAR)

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Brisbane 2.7GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADO5200DOBOX - $110.00 (AMD has been WISE with their pricing which keeps them in the fight. This is a perfect example of that. Plus this is by no means a ok CPU. It actually ROCKS.)

Lastly if your budget pushes closer to 1000.00 then its time for Intel but lower then 800 IMO stick with AMD.

I even figured in shipping and total is just over 650.00

I won't repeat myself cause I still would go with my build but you said that you have been off of the CPU knowledge. Let me give you a brief look over the current situation.

(Potential SLI if they start to game more) -> I though we aren't making gaming systems.

As for the market names you like to use (MSI, OCZ):
Anything if I have learned till I meet with the IT market is this: There isn't a reliable, excellent company. There are just excellent products.

Who are you referring this comment to:
you said that you have been off of the CPU knowledge...

Yeti it seams our opinions here are massively bumping head. You have you opinion of what a mainstream business system would look like. when a budget under 800 is needed AMD currently is the best bang for buck route. (I build PC for customers, so I am no novice) If you look at the charts you will find the 5200 in the middle of the pack at $110 where the lowset Intel is the E4500 which is 130.00 but again keep in mind Intel boards are more expensive not by much but they are so add them together and you spend 40 extra on an Intel build with a GOOD CPU. But what if you cant spend the 40, you still have an awesome AMD 5200 under 650.00 giving you extra room to spend else ware.

Also keep in mind they DO game at work and yes currently it is only Halo which isn't intensive...they could easily change to something more challenging in the future so having the future proofing with a mobo that is SLI or Crossfire enabled will cover them there.

You are wrong about your comment here:

There isn't a reliable, excellent company...

These company's have awesome customer support and go above and beyond what many vendors do with the boards they get. Compare a MSI mobo with a PC Chips board. They get the same goods from say nVidia with a 500 series chipset board but MSI goes above and beyond what PC Chips will do and the support is a huge difference.

So maybe you took my comment one way but you were missing my point.

Neah don't be sad,, I got the point.
I was saying that the market is in constant change and at any point a less known company can produce something unbeatable, something that outperforms the rival products. Now this doesen't mean that the other company is producing crap. No just that there is a better one.

For example take a look at the Gainward video cards. They were considered one of the last company's just a few years ago and nowdays they produce one of the best performance/price ratio products. The same is the story with A-Data. Last year they were nowhere on the memory market. However this year they have won quite a few awards, gained a huge market share.

As for the good company's. I would say take a look at Samsung and their three panel types on the 226BW LCD monitor. It is really a scam, trick played on the honest customers in my point of view. And they haven't learned as the story repeated with the Samsung 223BW2.


You know that SLI/Crossfire is a good deal only if you get two high end card don't you ? In any other case you shall have a better performance increase if you buy a better single card. Indeed here it is the fact that in that particular situation you have to sell the old one. If they do intend to play more powerful games then I recommend that get a better Single card for anyone who plays on resolution below the 1680 X1050 (20"+). SLI is equal in my point of view for the average user with more power used by the PSU(higher bill), more sound produced by the coolers and less space in your case.

LE:

you said that you have been off of the CPU knowledge...

off course not on you, read the first post in this topic.

Oh now I see where you came up with that comment...

No my knowledge is updated everyday from a ton of different sites I have just had a TON of LF issues that has kept me from updating my guide. But trust me Yeti my game is as good as ever.

Now to the grind...

First point in your reply = 100% with you on that. Lets loot at the AMD FX 62 it was a monster and then the C2D put it in its place big time. Since then Intel returned to the top of the hill and AMD climes up a bit just to fall short again and again. But AMD is a monster company as we all know and they will regain the top of the hill at a certain point. Its actually better for us...

Another 100% with you and on your second topic. I have 3GB of A DATA running on my wifes rig and at 40+- for 2GB that is just freakin crazy and it can push the limits. Her P4 631 is sitting at 3.85GHz on air and the temps are still massively low. So I can vouch for A data. As for Gainward...man I do wish I could get my hands on one of their cards here in the US. They seam to be a more European and Asian vendor then the US but if they were more in the US ...watch out XFX and eVga...Again I am with you Yeti.

And lastly SLI/Crossfire...I have only once used it back when I had two 6600GT and it was nice but nothing over the top and I do agree having one nasty ass card can for the most part be better then two but haveing the opportunity to have SLI or Crossfire as an option is always a nice feeling when say you only need 10 or so FPS to get all the gaming experience out of a game for 75-90 bucks compared to getting one nasty card.

IMO SLI and Crossfire are best suited to getting you over till you can get the nasty card.

Yeti this has been good stuff...now maybe if the starter of this thread would now just join in and ask us some questions as to what we have replied.