Core 2 duo/Athlon II vs Sandy/Ivy Dual cores?

[Silvgearx]

3.0 sandy/ivy vs 4ghz C2D 2mb cashe/ Athlons IIs

Gonna be using a gtx 260 or GT520

The G860 caught my eye for $60.

[MARSTG]

you might want to get a clearer picture installing Performance Test version 7 and then comparing the results you can download online, but from what I have seen, the Pentium G2120 at 3.1 GHz was about 25% faster than a Core 2 Duo at the same frequency.

[Bond007]

If you were on a tight budget starting from scratch you could definitely use the g860 (and I would suggest it over buying old tech). If you already have the c2d/athlon running at those speeds I would just keep it until you can jump to a higher end cpu. Here is a graph of c2d e8600 vs pentium g850...they are comparable in everything (though the g850 is a touch faster in most instances, except power consumption where it uses substantially less).

AnandTech - Bench - CPU

[Silvgearx]

Thanks for the charts, I think I use the g860 since its hard to find a matx lga 775 overclocking board. And since I already have an amd 785gm rig.

[Bond007]

Good call. Going with a g860 also gives you the option (if funds permit at some point) a drop in solution to go to an i5 and see substantial gains, whereas 775 is a dead platform.