Best Budget Intel Chipset?

[Classified95]

E5200 or E2200?

Hey Everyone! Once Black Friday is here my friend wants me to build him a new gaming rig because his current one has a P4 2.6, GeForce 4400 Ti, Loudd PSU (Must be over 50 dbA).

Anyway's, he needs a budget gaming rig for less than $350, so here's what I came up with. EVGA 9600GT, 2 GB Corsair PC6400 Ram, WD 250Gig SATA.

Anyways, now I was was wondering what the best of these chipsets for overclocking, temps, and overclocking stability, and also gaming with my setup. On Newegg the E5200 is only $7 more than the E2200, so I'm not sure what to pick. I'm leaning more towards the E2200 cause overclocking is a snap on that, and because I hear 45nm isn't stable overclocking on G31 motherboards. But I like the E5200 because of it'd higher default clock, it has a 2mb Cache instead of 1mb that the E2200 has, and because it's 45nm. Then 65nm has a little more heat disipation. So really I really don't know what's better. If you could help me on this it'd e great.

Also here's the 4 Intel G31 chipsets I was looking at:

MSI G31M3-F Intel G31

GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L Intel G31

GIGABYTE GA-EG31M-S2 Intel G31

ASUS P5KPL-CM Intel G31

Thanks Again! :worship:

 

[Ham]

The G31 without a doubt. G31 is (at least based) on P35.

 

[MeltedDuron]

If you can stretch to a Gigabyte G33 board, I had a great time with my GA-G33M DS2R, at the time it was the only micro atx board you could run crossfire on, not that it'd matter much to you i guess.



This Gigabyte G31 board would probably be great for the money otherwise. I think I owned one for a couple of days once, only used it for testing but all the basic OCing tricks were there and I dont doubt that you could have a lot of fun with an e2180 on there :yumyum:

On a side note, WOOT 100th post! :worship:

Best of luck with the new build mate, they're always fun!

Alex

 

[ikan dugong]

if you don't need the onboard graphic, go for the P31 (cheap, good performance, slightly better than G series), I've used it for a year or so and performs well. make sure to get the latest BIOS (since intel 3 series is outdated).

I'll go for E5200, since it's 45nm, it should produce less heat than others with 65nm fabrication. many people reach 3GHz+ easily with E5200, but please be noted to put some additional trusted cooler such Arctic Cooling Freezer series, than just stock cooler to keep your processor from being toasted.

 

[GigaMan]

Regarding the two different Gigabyte G31 boards you mentioned.

Just to let you know that there is not much difference between the two boards.

Here is the main spec difference:

GA-G31M-ES2L / GA-EG31M-S2 - Audio: 8ch ALC883 / 8ch ALC888

GA-G31M-ES2L / GA-EG31M-S2 - BIOS: Physical Dual BIOS / Virtual Dual BIOS

GA-G31M-ES2L / GA-EG31M-S2 - Easy Energy Saving / Dynamic Energy Saving

Honestly, that not much of a difference, so you will be okay.

I do agree with some of the comments made, the P31 is a better chipset, but no VGA , which should not affect you anyway.

The G31 is a good entry-level board, packed with features, plus allowing you to add that extra 9600GT card.

But, it is an entry-level chipset, so except limitations.