Best processor under $200 Processors RAM Motherboards and Overclocking Question

Question Best processor under $200 ( PCMech Forums Processors, RAM, Motherboards, and Overclocking )
Updated: 2009-06-04 05:20:12 (13)

Best processor under $200

For gaming only, what is the best processor AMD or intel under $200. The games will be current of course.

Answers: Best processor under $200 ( PCMech Forums Processors, RAM, Motherboards, and Overclocking )

Best processor under $200

Intel E8500 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115036

If you must have a Quad the AMD 940 Deneb http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103471

Khalil

Best processor under $200

For gaming only, you do not need a quad - yet.

glc

Best processor under $200

Even though the games themselves don't take advantage of all 4 cores. Would 2 cores be designated just for the game and the other 2 cores for the OS, antivirus, firefox, other background apps?

If the above is true I definitely want 4 cores.

Does a 32/64 bit OS have any effect on 4 core CPUs?

Thanks for the help,

glc - Where do you learn so much? What is your occupation? What certs do you have?

g3neralknyght

Best processor under $200

Quote:

Originally Posted by g3neralknyght

Even though the games themselves don't take advantage of all 4 cores. Would 2 cores be designated just for the game and the other 2 cores for the OS, antivirus, firefox, other background apps?

If the above is true I definitely want 4 cores.

Does a 32/64 bit OS have any effect on 4 core CPUs?

Thanks for the help,

glc - Where do you learn all so much? What is your occupation? What certs do you have?

It would be very advantageous if you were to do other tasks while gaming. Not too many do that but let's say you wanted to burn a DVD or encode a movie while gaming, a quad won't slow down like a dual core would. It would take a heck of a lot to slow down the E8500. Pretty much any Core 2 Duo out there is over kill.

Khalil

Best processor under $200

I cannot hold a candle to to someone like glc or Khalil in terms of experience, but from what I have personally experienced, the E8500 is a beast for gaming and it overclocks incredibly (most people on this forum will advise against doing so, however).

scuderia

Best processor under $200

I have an E8500 in my gaming rig. Stock is 3.16GHz, I have mine OC'd to 4.12GHz but that is not with the stock heatsink/fan of course. It's fast enough without overclocking it and I would advice against it unless your willing to take the risks and study the subject well before attempting. It's a fantastic CPU and pairs up quite nicely with an ASUS P45 board.

If a quad sounds more interesting to you, again not the best option right now for a pure gaming machine, then look at the AMD 940.

12twelve12

Best processor under $200

nothing like a e84 or 8500 and a p45 chipset

jdeb

Best processor under $200

I would go for a dual core, not the quad. It will allow you to do intensive operations in the background, but chances are your harddrive will be way overworked and/or you won't have enough ram to do that _and_ run a modern game at the same time. Simply having antivirus installed, or firefox open uses barely any processor.

LeftyAce

Best processor under $200

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeftyAce

So you are suggesting that he uses Dual Core for multi-tasking over a Quad, I am not sure I understood your post. Please elaborate on your idea.
Thanks

Khalil

Best processor under $200

Wow, that was kinda unclear. Sorry about that.

The OP had asked:

Quote:

Even though the games themselves don't take advantage of all 4 cores. Would 2 cores be designated just for the game and the other 2 cores for the OS, antivirus, firefox, other background apps?

and what I was trying to say was, there are other limitations on how much your computer can do at once than just the number of cores. Harddrive access speed and ram limitations are going to prevent you running a virus scan in the background while playing a game, for example.

For this reason, I'd get a dual core. The quad core won't be fully utilized.

LeftyAce

Best processor under $200

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeftyAce

Wow, that was kinda unclear. Sorry about that.

The OP had asked:

and what I was trying to say was, there are other limitations on how much your computer can do at once than just the number of cores. Harddrive access speed and ram limitations are going to prevent you running a virus scan in the background while playing a game, for example.

For this reason, I'd get a dual core. The quad core won't be fully utilized.

Unless you are using a low amount of ram (say under 2GB) and/or a slow hard drive (anything under 250GB is pretty slow for a 7200RPM, most 10KRPM and SSDs are fast enough) a quad core can easily be utilized fully.

Masaki 7-11

Best processor under $200

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masaki 7-11

Are you saying that the capacity of a hard drive has an effect on its speed?

Another question, is it possible to "alt tab" between 2 partitions on a HDD? I know this specifically isn't possible but maybe something similar? Would one partition have to be running inside the other like a virtual machine?

For an "at home" machine what scenario would 4 cores superior to 2 cores?

g3neralknyght

Best processor under $200

Quote:

Originally Posted by g3neralknyght

1. The capacity isn't really the factor here; it's the fact that higher capacity drives usually have larger caches, which does have an effect on the performance.

2. No, you cannot "alt tab" between 2 partitions. A virtual machine would work... but you can't run a current install in a VM. VMs have to be created as only VMs and won't run as the primary OS.

3. There aren't many ways that a 4 core beats out a 2 core for a typical at home user. A few that I can think of are heavy (and i mean REALLY heavy) multi-tasking and also some video encoding can make use of more than 2 cores.

alanebro82

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