Hmmm, Good question.

Whats better for gaming?

To my Understanding - Pentium D for multi aplications etc etc.

But Still Pentium 4 Gotta be the one for gaming......Hyper Threading Of course!

What does everyone else think?

I think it depends on what your motherboard supports since many use different sockets. But besides that, since the P4 came out in 2000 and the PD came out in 2005, it would seem the answer then becomes obvious!

That said, if the games you play support only single-threaded processing, then the P4 may be for you. Personally, I would go for a Core 2 Duo.

I agree with the core duo Part at the end there.

If we look at an example of a budget gamer,

What would be more suitable?

What would be better in the long run?

I would use socket LGA 775 for an example.

The reason being that i had a 3ghz P4 and changed to Pentium D 925 3Ghz, and cant say that i notice a difference beetween the two.

Especially when playing a non demanding game like World of warcraft.

I've set up (and briefly used) quite a few Pentium D systems and I think they're brilliant for general Windows use and business apps. They feel a little faster than Pentium 4s to me. I'm not a gamer though. However, the technical specs seem to also suggest that the Pentium D should be better. The Pentium 4 HT 3.0GHz has a single 1MB L2 cache, whereas the Pentium D 3.0GHz has two 2MB caches.

There are also the "Extreme" editions to be aware of, which I have no personal experience of but I've just been reading up on them to see exactly what the difference is. The Pentium 4 Extreme Edition is essentially a Xeon processor (oooooh!) that fits in a socket 775 board. It has a 2MB L3 cache. This actually makes it slightly slower in general Windows / office use but a bit faster in some games (which it was designed for), particularly those based on the Quake III and Unreal engines and the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition is notably faster in multimedia processing.

In a compatible motherboard, the Intel Pentium Extreme Edition (not the same as the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition) is apparently the 'mac daddy' of socket 775 processors but starts at 3.2GHz. It is essentially a dual core Pentium D with HT added, giving it two virtual processors for each of the two physical processor cores.

Hmmm Very nice.

How much do they retail for?

It's hard to say how much the Pentium Extreme 3.2 is because it is so hard to find! There is a guy in Canada selling a second-hand one on Ebay for about £70 including delivery to the UK.

I think you need to determine the exact model. I note there at least 3 Pentium Extreme 3.2 processors; Pentium E 540 Prescott, Pentium E 640 Prescott 2M, and the Pentium E 641 Ceder Mill.

I'd still go for the Core 2 Duo if your motherboard supports it. They offer better performance, while consuming less power and generating less heat - all at resonable prices.

I recommend you check out Tom's Hardware Interactive CPU Charts and do a comparison using any one of 30+ benchmarks they provide. I think you will fine the Core 2 Duos consistently come out at, or near the top.