Choosing between two CPUs

[yes plz]

Alright, I'm building a decidedly mid-range computer. I've gotten everything else squared away except for the CPU. So far the main specs of it are:
Radeon HD 4670 512MB
3.5 GB of RAM
500W PSU
AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX MOBO / 775 Intel P43 ATX MOBO (depending on which CPU I go with)

Now the two CPUs I have in mind are:
AMD Phenom 9600 Quad-Core
Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 Wolfdale
(I plan on overclocking both to about 3.00GHz)

I plan on using the computer mostly for gaming, but don't honestly care about running games like Crysis on super max settings.

So then, which of the two CPUs should I go with?

 

[Burning Bridges]

Maybe not the best time to build now, everything was much cheaper in August, when I built my system. At least if you're in Europe.

If you want the C2 mind that the E7400 has a reduced cpu cache. I would suggest getting a model with 3072 kb like the E8200 or E8400, price difference is ca. 10%

 

[Melcar]

If you plan to overclock and want to reach those speeds, then go with the Intel. The early Phenoms like that 9600 overclocked like shit and had a nasty bug on the silicon that usually kicked in when the chip was clocked at about +2.5GHz. If you want a Phenom go for the 9x50 series.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

4 > 2
Intel > AMD

 

[Kiree]

3.5 GB of RAM, WTF?

 

[NiM82]

4 > 2

No. Not always. It's entirely dependent on the application, with quadcores often offering worse performance for things that only use a single core (read most applications/games).

 

[Emotional Vampire]

No. Not always. It's entirely dependent on the application, with quadcores often offering worse performance for things that only use a single core (read most applications/games).

Future son. Future.

'sides modern CPUs hardly need to do anything when it comes to gaming. Even physics are being delegated to GPUs.

 

[GeneralSamov]

See: GTA 4

 

[Emotional Vampire]

I do not hate myself enough.

 

[GeneralSamov]

Fail @ staying in character

 

[rpgcodexusername]

real men build high-range computers

 

[Kraszu]

I would try to get HD4850 at least, e5200 cpu will be fine. It will be significantly better for gaming then e7200+HD4670 and not cost much more.

 

[goatvomit]

I would try to get HD4850 at least, e5200 cpu will be fine. It will be significantly better for gaming then e7200+HD4670 and not cost much more.

That makes perfect sense just be prepared to get decent cooling for the cpu since you'll probably have to crank the voltage quite a bit when going above 3.5ghz. Deciding what is safe for 24/7 usage is another matter. I'd stick to around 1.4 as max but if you have horrible vdroop you can go higher. People have done suicide shots with 1.5v.

 

[caliban]

AMD sux dwarf cock, unfortunately

 

[trais]

CPU is not that important performance wise. If you want better fps in games, it'd be better to buy cheaper CPU and put that extra money on some decent nvidia GPU. Radeons are shit. And you definitely don't need quad-core, as there ain't much software that can use them, nor there will be in near future.

 

[Melcar]

CPU is not that important performance wise. If you want better fps in games, it'd be better to buy cheaper CPU and put that extra money on some decent nvidia GPU. Radeons are shit. And you definitely don't need quad-core, as there ain't much software that can use them, nor there will be in near future.

Nvidias are shit...

 

[Burning Bridges]

I got E8400 + HD4850 + 4GB DDR2-800 on a cheap+solid board (Abit IP35-E) for ~ 500€. Interestingly, prices have risen since then. If I'd waited for the latest quads / X58 or even i7 I'd paid thrice.

 

[Antagonist]

Go with the Intel Core 2 Duo 8400. It has ridiculous overclocking capabilities without endangering the processor or requiring exotic cooling systems. Just don't use the cheapest fan you get and you are good to go. As others have already noted games currently don't scale well with the rising numbers of processor cores as it is very difficult to equally use the full capacity of all cores simultaneously and without good parallelism a higher clock frequency always beats multiple cores.

Actually, so many people buy cheap Core 2 Duo processors and overclock them that Intel felt the need to build an overclocking lock into their new Core i7 processors.

AMD currently offers better graphic cards than their nVidia from a price-performance ratio point of view, my next rig will sport a 4870 for mere 200 Euros (or 250 if I decide that I need 1 GB of video RAM).