poor college student computer

[MiccyNarc]

Alright, my computer just died, I'm writing off my laptop which is relatively old and shitty. Deciding what kind of PC I want to build.

Looks like as far as cost goes, I might be better off with AMD, I'm trying to keep this cheap. I can't afford the Core 2 Quad processors, and I can get a dual core athlon OEM for less than $100 from newegg.

I'm an nvidia fan, leaning towards the 8600 series, and I can go SLI if I can afford to later. Was looking at : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130290

This thread is mostly to ask advice about the processor. Would the extra money for an intel processor really be worth it?

 

[3ssence]

This Core2Duo is within your budget:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116036

It is named Pentium, but it is a Core2Duo chip with reduced cache - 1mb

It isn't blindingly quick at stock, but is very fast when overclocked, out of reach of the athlon X2's. A reasonable overclock is easily achievable without having to touch the core voltage. Best bang per buck CPU out there atm imo.

Here is a page from an X-bit review focusing on the overclocking aspect of these chips:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/pentium-e2160_14.html#sect0

 

[MiccyNarc]

The stock fan is good for overclocking?

 

[3ssence]

Perfectly good enough for a reasonable overclock with a small voltage increase on the core. The main reason to replace them imo is because they can make a bit of a racket. Sure 3rd party coolers do cool significantly better in some cases, but the intel stock cooler should keep one of those cool enough with a moderate overclock.

If it were me then i'd go with something 3rd party, but then again that's because i'd most likely overclock it to the very limit of what the chip could achieve. However, reports suggest that these chips are capable of a fairly large overclock with no increase in core voltage, which would bring about very little temperature increase.

Hope that's of some help !