New Purchase, what to buy

[Berzer]

Hello all, i'm planning on purchasing a new computer for christmas from an online store that i feel is fairly reputable. i'm just not sure what type of processor to shoot for though. i currently have a 1.3 ghz Intel Celeron from gateway that i bought off my sister not too long ago. This system is fairly outdated that i know, and i am wondering if I should go with a quad or dual core intel that is 1.8ghz or am i better off with an intel celeron D 3.6ghz. from what i am hearing the dual core is (2) 1.8 ghz cores, so in essence a 2.6 ghz right? on one hand i think that the 3.6ghz would be pretty damn fast, and yet i read articles that would lead me to believe the 1.8 ghz dual core would be faster. i plan on using my computer for normal internet browsing as well as some gaming. i play some mmorpg's like guild wars and plan on getting into playing some half life and gears of war. which of these two processors would be best for a gaming system. These are the two that i am looking at here.

Intel Core 2 Duo 800 / 1066Mhz FSB
or
Intel Celeron D365 3.6ghz Lga775 533fsb

which is the best for gaming?

 

[link590o]

two cores does NOT. i repeat. NOT mean twice the power. it simply splits the load between two processors. it makes it a hell of a lot faster even at a slower gigahertz speed.

i just want to clear that up so there are no misconceptions there. that's a key thing.

if you want game and play something like the half life series or gears of war, you're going to want a fairly hefty processor. not to mention a good graphics card.

the processors you'll want to look at are the Intel E6750 Core 2 duo, and hte Intel Q6600 quad core. you can even look up some benchmarks to show you how they perform as compared to other chips here:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html

for the rest of the system, make sure you have a quality power supply, at least 2 gigs of RAM from a good manufacturer, and a graphics chip that was very recently introduced.

in terms of power supplies, i suggest the Antec Earthwatts 500watt, the Antec NeoHE 500watt, or an Enermax Liberty power supply. those are very powerful for the price, and are certified to give at least 80% efficiency if not better. so you'll get vast amounts of power, and you'll save on your electricity bill.

for the RAM, get some from Crucial, Mushkin, Corsair, G. Skill, or OCZ technologies. those are the top brands in the business. or at least make sure it comes with it. and get at least 2 gigs worth.

for the graphics chip, i recommend at least an 8800gt or better for gaming. or if you're into ATI, go with the 3850/3870 models.

everything else is up to you. i just recommend those bits as a minimum for a good gaming experience.

 

[Berzer]

Thanks for the help and the explanation about the dual core. i'm glad i asked, i was really wrong on that one. i ended up purchasing the E6750 core 2 duo 2.66 ghz with 2gb ram. i got a decent setup for about 542.00 so i feel like its a solid buy. i didn't get a video card with it because i'll add my radeon 9250 to it, but its coming with vista and a 600watt power supply dual core certified. Thanks for the help. it's times like this i'm glad websites like this exist. I would have ended up buying that intel celeron 3.6ghz instead thinking its better.

 

[SNGX1275]

I am not sure your video card is going to work. That 9250 is at best AGP. There aren't many boards out there that can take a Core2Duo and an AGP card. The new stuff is all PCIe. You still probably made a solid buy for $542, but you'll need to look into whether you can actually reuse your video card. You can get some PCIe cards cheap that will be as good as that 9250, but while you are at it you might as well get something decent if you can afford.

 

[link590o]

nah. the 9250 is the card i have. i have the 128 megabyte version. its a PCI card. piece of crap, meant for 2 dimensional rendering for an office computer or something. NOTHING of a gaming computer.

luckily, almost every motherboard you can buy has at least 1 PCI slot. so that card will most likely work.

and yeah. i made the same assumption you did with dual cores when i first started out. it's odd how it works.