Celeron processors, and integrated graphics

[ionlylooklazy]

being a poor, broke college student, I am forced to buy an entry level pc

more specifically a computer with a semperon or celeron processor

ideally, i would like this computer to be able to play games reasonably
what i want to know is;

is there a big difference between the celeron and celeron d?
are there any complications to installing a new graphics card over an integrated one?
if not, how will a celeron preform with a nice graphics card?

 

[Townsend]

is there a big difference between the celeron and celeron d?

Not sure about that...

are there any complications to installing a new graphics card over an integrated one?

More often than not, if your graphic board is integrated with the north bridge you will not have an option for a grapic card unless you want a pci card. I am assuming your getting an agp powered motherboard.

if not, how will a celeron preform with a nice graphics card?

Not that good but since most of the work is done by the graphics card you should still be able to enjoy most games.

 

[yu_wing_sin]

being a poor, broke college student, I am forced to buy an entry level pc

more specifically a computer with a semperon or celeron processor

ideally, i would like this computer to be able to play games reasonably
what i want to know is;

is there a big difference between the celeron and celeron d?
are there any complications to installing a new graphics card over an integrated one?
if not, how will a celeron preform with a nice graphics card?



MOD: can you please move my post to hardware forum? didn't notice it

I don't suggest Celeron D, if you like to play games.
Celeron D's Float Point efficacy is very poor, slower than Sempron 1.5 times!
I suggest Sempron.

 

[dduardo]

The problem with the the celeron/sempron processors is that the cache is half of the regular P4/Athlon XP processors which can really take a toll on performance, epecially when playing games.

If you give us a bugdget we can help you. I could easily build a good computer with a budget of $350. Of course you have to put it all togther yourself which is a piece of cake.

------------------

Barbones Kit:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1232708&Tab=0&NoMapp=0

$90

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AMD Athlon XP 2600+

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103417

$75

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Curcial 512MB RAM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145485

$40

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WD 80GB Hard drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144102

$52

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Toshiba DVD Burner

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827130034

$39

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Total $296

Throw in shipping and you got a good computer for easily under $350.


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You could also add this video card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814145095

$38.00

 

[ionlylooklazy]

thanks for the suggestions, 350-400 is about as high as id be willing to go,

i was asking about celerons because my initial plan was to by a dell 2400 for $299, primarily because it comes with everything, particuarly a monitor (which would significantly add to the pricetage of a home-built computer)

i also could not find out why type of motherboard dell uses, ill have to contact them about that

the system would be good enough to satisfy my immediate demands, but looking long term I was just curious as to how much i could upgrade this system

 

[dduardo]

Do you know dell has student discounts on PCs. If your going to contact dell you should ask them about it. I know I can get a 10% discount. Same with Apple.

 

[ionlylooklazy]

no, ill have to look into that, thanks

after talking with my parents, they might be able to throw me some money, so i was thinking about an entry level laptop (a laptop would be approaching infinite in terms of convienience), but am not sure the price hike is totally justifiable

i was noticing that there are generally two different types of laptops,
ones with mobile processors, and ones without

i was under the impression that for any laptop you can go out and buy a wireless card, install it, then be able to access the internet in wi-fi areas? (for places such as on campus and in libraries)

if this is so, then what is the advantage of buying an M class processor over a more powerful one such as a P4 with a wireless card?


one last question, on laptops vs desktops

how does the cheapest laptop compare to the cheapest desktop if i wanted to play world of warcraft on them? (i would buy extra ram for either)
(i only ask this because the laptop seems to have significantly more cache, although it doesn't specify which type)

laptop specs:
Intel® Celeron® M 350 Processor (1.30 GHz, 400MHz FSB, 1MB Cache)
256 or 512 MB shared1 DDR SDRAM
shared graphics (depending on ram amount)

desktop specs:
Intel® Celeron® processor ( 2.40GHz, 400mhz FSB, 128k L2 cache)
256MB Single-channel
Integrated Intel® Extreme 3D Graphics


world of warcraft system requirements:

Processor: 800MHz or higher CPU.
RAM: 256Mb or more.
Video: GeForce 2 or better
Hard Drive Space: 3Gb or more available.
DirectX 9.0 or above.

 

[russ_watters]

i was noticing that there are generally two different types of laptops,
ones with mobile processors, and ones without

i was under the impression that for any laptop you can go out and buy a wireless card, install it, then be able to access the internet in wi-fi areas? (for places such as on campus and in libraries)

if this is so, then what is the advantage of buying an M class processor over a more powerful one such as a P4 with a wireless card?

Heat dissipation/power usage and therefore battery life. I highly recommend a Centrino laptop or an AMD mobile. Either way, most laptops these days come with wireless pre-installed.

one last question, on laptops vs desktops

how does the cheapest laptop compare to the cheapest desktop if i wanted to play world of warcraft on them? (i would buy extra ram for either)
(i only ask this because the laptop seems to have significantly more cache, although it doesn't specify which type)

Playing Warcraft you should be ok with either as long as it doesn't have integrated graphics (both of the ones you have below have integrated graphics with shared ram). Shared ram is many times slower than ram dedicated to a video card and you really can't play any recent 3d game with a computer with integrated graphics. Warcraft would probably run, but it wouldn't look good (you'd have to turn the detail levels down) and be choppy. If money is that much of an issue, the only integrated graphics I'd even think of getting would be on an Nforce motherboard. HERE is an article comparing integrated graphics cards to stand-alone. Its 2 years old, so it only has the Nforce2 and the Intel Extreme of the time, but you can see the Nforce2 is several times faster.