About to buy a budget computer for gaming (wow and sims mainly) and this cpu is on a dell outlet computer w/ xp on it.

I know it's pretty budget, but afaik it was released early this year so I assumed it can get the job done for somewhat older games.

I just want to make sure buying this isn't like buying a Quadro GPU for gaming in the sense of gonna be worthless.

Quick stats pulled off of my good friend wiki:

2.3 GHz
L2-CACHE - 512 KiB
HyperTransport - 800 MHz
Multiplier - 11.5x
Voltage - 1.20/1.40 V
Thermal Design Power - 45W

My knowledge of computers is fairly small so any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

It's an low end single core processor. If you're comfortable with building, post a budget and people here will make suggestions for parts.

The part in question is designed for low energy consumption, not performance. I'd be wary for even low demanding gaming.

Whats the cost of that PC? Bytch is right about duel cores being better... but then again, better usually costs more. Usually with X2 type CPU's I like the even multis. Like 10,12,14... That helps out with the memory devider. It makes sure you get the full speed of the ram.

My guess why he is not talking about building...

Well the computer is only $270 at dell outlet which is a pretty damn cheap computer w/ OS included (and installed). I ran WoW on my P3 256 mb+64 mb pci card so i mean it can't be THAT bad, but it sounds like it's pretty bad from what you guys are saying.

I know I can mash everything together but i'm not very confident on troubleshooting. The whole reason I'm in this mess is because my old computer's AGP card started messing up w/ the ole ATI2dvag bug and when I went to screw around with it I believe I zapped my mobo (won't post anymore ) The computer is for my gf and for a budget pc that will at least run wow and sims I was hoping this would fit the bill.

So dell outlet is probably bad as is the sempron, but for $270 and my needs what do you guys thing?

(computer has 2 gig ram too)

hard to beat for the money... still, its hard to reconsile the idea of gaming and a lower end CPU. In all reality, it sounds like it will play what you want to play. The problem is this... it won't really go forward much at all. Any newer games are going to choke it. Buy it for word processing, checking e-mail and playing old games. Don't think you'll be doing any intensive apps, though... like newer games. It just won't go there.

Dont do it. Chek Ebay. If you have your own OS I could build you a good Dual core for $300. I'm sure you can find similar deals on Ebay.

It's too hard for me to know what to trust and to spend money not knowing I can trust it.

As far as going forward I'm not too concerned. In like 2 years I will just buy a new computer for myself and give my gf my current Q6600/8800GTS.

I'll have to think about this for a bit more either way.

roadrunner probably could build a nice low ender for close to three bills. I could too. The issue here is that the OP doesnt want a homebuilt. If this is for your girl and she isnt into tougher apps, then the cost is worth it. Simply put, if 270 bones buys a computer that will do what you want it to, then why spend more? Only other consderations should be warrenty and upgradability. Niether seem to apply here. Its not a long term service life with only 2 years projected.

Is it safe to assume that the cpu is at least the equivalent of a 2.0 GHz P4 processor?

Spore is the only other game that would be nice for her to be able to play even if everything is on low settings. Dell outlet has like 14 of these in stock so I can take a day or 2 to think it over.

Yes. It would faster then the 2.0 p4. OS is also important, though. I would stick with XP for that computer. Vista is an ok OS, but it is more power hungry then XP... like XP was over win 9X.

Well the sempron is based on the old Athlon Xp architecture , but with the cache removed, so it will run wow just fine, and if your gf is a noob, she wont know it's sloooow. Now if you wanna play supreme commander or crysis, or company of heroes and have it be fast, forget it ! Other than that, make your GF very happy an get her one !

I'd like to see that, or you have a different ebay from the one I use where ppl pay almost full price for used gear ? hehe

I used to love ebay back then, but now power sellers and noob bidding and reselling resold crap ruins the bargains imho.

No. The Sempron LE-1300 is a single-core 65 nm K8, NOT a K7 Athlon XP. It's essentially half of a Brisbane K8 with half of the L2 cache. The Sempron will not be all that slow compared to a dual-core in all but the newest and most-demanding games and will be MORE than fast enough in office apps and general usage (I use a 1.067 C2D ULV and a 1 GHz Coppermine Celeron for those tasks and they are plenty. The Sempron is far faster.) The 45 nm Semprons are very efficient and run very cool and quiet, which is far better for a mostly general-usage desktop machine than being able to run a little faster some of the time but being hotter and noisier all of the time.

just a thought on this... bet the dell has a crappy via chipset...

You're right, I see they did switch from k7 based to k8 based with socket 754. I am impressed that you got a 45 nm one though as they are all 65 atm