Help with CPU choice

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Reaper84

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Hi Guys

I am going to be getting a new CPU in the next couple of days. I already have the motherboard(MSI G31). I am unsure of which CPU to buy though. I was originally looking at the Intel e7400 but I see the Intel Q8200 isn't too much more and is a quad as well. I will be mainly using it for gaming and a little video encoding. I am not going to overclock because I don't think my cheap mobo can OC anyway :)

I know the dual core has a higher clock rate but the quad has more cores.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
 
Sounds good to me man. If your going to overclock get a better board because if you buy that your overclocking will be limited but if you know for sure you won't overclock then it's all good.
 
Thanks killadoob

Unfortunately I bought a brand new G31 board befor the CPU. I bought it last month when budget was a little tight biut regret it now, anyway.

I am leaning toward the quad but have not had any experience. I am currently using an AMD Athlon 64 3200 s939 proc and an nforce 4 mobo.

I am hoping the jump will be a big one as I also have a new geforce 9800gt, but I installed it in my current pc and it didn't make a huge difference over my old 7900GT. I think my CPU is really holding me back.

Anyone have this quad or something similar.

Thanks
 
Would go with the quad-core for future proofing. Should help with stuff like encoding as well.
 
Don't know will probably only have the Athlon 64 3200 CPU, the nforce 4 ultra mobo and 2 x 512mb DDR400 ram to get rid of. I am in PE so make me an offer :D

What is everyone's thoughts on the Q8200, I see it gets a bashing in user reviews but I think it should be pretty good for gaming.

Any thoughts
 
just keep in mind that the E7400 and Q8200 won't be able to run the XP mode in Win 7.
 
i would say save a little more for a E8*** OR a Q9***..you could also look @ 2nd hand!
 
Thats cool. I am currently running vista and am surprisingly happy with it. It is a really stripped down version of it though, it fits on a cd so has a lot of the junk removed.

I also live in P.E and only have a 500mb HSDPA contract so no downloading the windows 7 RC for me :(

Anyway thanks for the replies

On another note. Will getting a quad make backing up my DVD movies faster?

Thanks
 
depends how you back them up. If you encode them into divx using software that supports multithreading then a quad should be faster.
 
It should, I ripped DVDs using an old P4, on my dual QuadXeon it was a lot quicker (although i never tested two identical DVDs).

Edit: The speed may have increased due to the SCSI disks (but I think the processor made the biggest difference).
 
I am not too keen on 2nd Hand computer parts, and I live in PE, so I might as well live on the other side of the world:) where does one look and how does one trust the seller.

I can't really stretch my budget beyond R2200. Is the E*** dual cores better than a quad? They might be faster in non multithreaded games but games that take advantage of quads will murder a dual core IMO
 
The MSI G31 can reach 390fsb or so...so its the best bang for bucks when paired up with a E5xxx cpu coz then it can reach 4ghz.

If i was ur situation with video encoding...i would get a second hand Q6600...can oc nicely with that board and the quad cores is perfect for encoding.
By the way, doesn't the 9800gt support gpu video encoding?
If it does then a quad is irrelevant...Except for being more future proof
 
Nameite said:
The MSI G31 can reach 390fsb or so...
Click to expand...

There is no way a G31 mobo could reach 390fsb on stock voltage and stock cooling thats just insane... I have this board and the most it went to was 339fsb before it got fried ,which is pointless when using my Q9550 from 2.8 it only moved to 2.9 and since the op mentioned there wil be no overclocking i dont think his going to spend alot of money on cooling.IMO g31 is a great board for the average user best bang for buck but expect nothing more from it
 
I oced my mates msi g31 to 390 fsb...what fried on ur board? The south bridge?
I used a hypertx2 on his pc, so maybe it helped with cooling...or it was just a good batch.
And i volt modded his E5200 to 1.3 :)
 
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