Sub £100 CPU

[gordon.smith]

Hi All,

Time for another silly question from a lurker.

Any recomendations for best CPU for around £100 (+ - £10). Intel or AMD, i'm not a fanboy of either. My current system (built about 4 years ago) has an AMD tbird 1.33, so it's time for a new build (if I can convince SWMBO). Once I get the CPU sorted then I'll be back with more requests for mobo opinions.

Cheers

[Merlin4458]

might be able to get a 3200 venice for under 100, thats ur best bet imo

[herulach]

opteron 146 for 117 iirc

[Curfish]

id agree with merlin of the 3200 venice, the oem version is at ebuyer for £99.82

[alsenior]

intel pentium d 905
dual core for £90

[Merlin4458]

but u gotta know wot ur doing with those dual cores , would go 3200 still imo

[charlaph]

If you're happy to overclock then I'd say Pentium 4 D805, or maybe hunt around for a cheap 630. They both overclock really well and are great value when pushed, especially the 805. At stock speeds they're nothing special.

[Max Tractor]

Hold off, I not a fan of telling ppl to wait, but at this time you should, AMD new kit is supposedly out may 23, motherboards on pre-order at various retails, though this new socket looks like it a zero or less speed than current skt 939 cpus, but what I would be waiting on is Conroe or whatever they are calling it now Core 2 Duo? If it looks as fast as it has shown, then it will be a killer cpu, out, well I posted on here about it being in July, nothing confirmed, reports today that it will be revealed at computex next month, so I say wait, although you will have to increase the budget.

[mfurse]

If your going to overclock then Opteron all the way - there has been lots of success getting to 2.6-3.0Ghz (i.e. quicker than an FX-57), not bad for a chip that is less than 100 quid!

Opteron 144/146 are both around 100 quid. The 146 is your best bet because it has a 10x multipler meaning it should reach 2.6Ghz+ with less motherboard limiting issues creeping in. You can run the memory asyncronously with the A64/Opterons too meaning you dont have to buy some expensive overclockers memory to get a great overclock from the CPU.

If you don't want to overclock then an Athlon 64 3200 would be a good bet. Waiting for the new AMD AM2 socketed chips might be a waste of time since their hardly any quicker and DDR memory is still cheaper than DDR2.

You could also hangon for intels new Core2 but I have no idea what that beast will retail for....

Matt

[scrandman]

The other thing to bear in mind is that the first AM2 & Conroe offerings (both CPUs and boards) will likely be very expensive for the first couple of months due to them being "new tech".

The early boards will also likely to have lots of bugs that need ironing out, as has been the case with every previous new generation.

[mike306dt]

I have an opty 144, currently running at 9*280 at stock voltage. Bang for buck chip if you intend to overclock as they pull some impressive scores

[Syd]

I currentley run a venice 3200 its ultra cool and apparentley easy to overclock although I haven't got that far yet

[taqies]

Yerp, I'm obviously would suggest the venice 3200. I've got venice 3000 before I upgrade to x2 3800 and I've managed to get it running @ 2.7 Ghz on MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum. Whole hearted recommendation, go with 3200...

[mike306dt]

Maybe I'm wrong here, but surely an opty running at 2700 should be a little faster with the extra cache that they have? The price difference isn't that much either.

[gordon.smith]

Thanks for the suggestions folks. I've decided to go for the venice core, which by lucky coincidence is on web special at Aria today.

Now the great motherboard hunt. Back soon

[taqies]

Maybe I'm wrong here, but surely an opty running at 2700 should be a little faster with the extra cache that they have? The price difference isn't that much either.

Yerp, opty with extra cache definitely faster at some application that benefits and values the xtra cache.

congrats dude, welcome to the world of venice.