Thread: Intel Core 2 Duo 7200 Processors

CHOICES ARE PLENTY in the CPU world - for every Rs.500 increment there are models from the two big daddies in the CPU business (of course, we are talking of Intel and AMD!). While the faster the better rule applies here also, the sweet spot for buying a CPU that will be reasonable future-proof (meaning, not likely to ham¬per your computing experience in the next couple of years), good performance, and not being too heavy on your budget is at the Rs.6,000 mark. Here the best choice is clearly the Intel Core 2 Duo E7200, based on the 45nm based Wolfdale platform.

Clocked at 2.53GHz with a FSB ofl066MHz and 3MB shared L2 cache, it packs enough performance for all everyday tasks as well as some CPU heavy jobs like 3D and media editing. As regards gaming, the perfor¬mance is likely to be bottlenecked by you video card, rather than by this CPU (unless of course, you are using the top of the line graphics card). At this budget, this is undoubtedly the best CPU you can get.



Runners-up: The older generation dual core from AMD has become attractive thanks to slew of price cuts by AMD to counter Intel's new CPUs. At 2.9 GHz, the AMD Ath¬Ion X2 5600+ is one fast CPU and costs about Rs.400 lesser than the Core 2 Duo E7200. At the same price point, the 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo E4600 is a good choice for the Intel platform.