This is where the processor market gets interesting - the grey area between value CPUs and second-mortgage-expensive ones.
Both Intel and AMD have invested in new architectures in this area, and both make very tight adversaries. After a slightly wobbly mid-decade, AMD seems to have got its act together, and Intel's Core architecture is going from strength to strength.
If there's a golden rule here, it's that Intel's CPUs are better in terms of games, while AMD's are more suited to multi-core processes like video encoding.
We've rounded up five of the best-scoring recently reviewed chips in the £150-£200 price bracket and given them a thorough run for their money.
1. Intel Core i5 760 - £147
For £9 more than the Core i5 750, you can pick up Intel's Core i5 760. What does that extra £9 get you? An extra .14GHz, which makes quite a bit of difference when you're gaming - in fact, it's the best gaming CPU at this price point. Eschewing the HyperThreading of Intel's i5 600 series in favour of four bona fide execution cores means it can handle all the gruntwork of modern games, but it's not so suited to highly threaded applications like video encoding. If you're after something more suited to many threads, look no further than the AMD Phenom chip below, but for sheer gaming performance the Core i5 760's your chip.
Read our Intel Core i5 760 review
2. AMD Phenom II X6 1055T - £153
We've only just got used to quad-core CPUs, and now AMD throws a couple more in for good measure with its six-core Phenom II X6 1055T. It's very reasonably priced for such a mammoth piece of micro-engineering, too, with 904 million transistors lurking in its silicon. It sounds like a bargain, but it's not cut out for gaming, with each core clocked at a mere 2.8GHz. However, when it comes to demanding multi-core performance, such as video editing, it's got to be the most cost-effective chip in the world. If you're not hugely fussed about gaming performance, you could do far, far worse.
Read our AMD Phenom II X6 1055T review
3. Intel Core i7 930 - £190
The first chip in our mid-range round up to pack the mighty Bloomfield architecture, Intel's Core i7 930 is identical in most respects to processors costing four times as much. The only thing that keeps it away from the upper echelons of processing power is the clock speed, which is a middling 2.8GHz. But you're still getting Intel's incredible chip design, which means the 930 will happily plough through any game you care to throw at it. It's not cheap to build a PC around this chip, and the LGA1,366 socket may be soon extinct, but if you've money to burn on fast thrills you will be very, very satisfied.
Read our Intel Core i7 930 review
4. Intel Core i7 920 - £200
The Intel Core i7 920 was priced at £250 when we first looked at it. Now it's dropped in price, but it's still - confusingly - more expensive than the Core i7 930, which clocks in at a higher speed. We'd recommend the Core i7 930 over the 920, but if you can find a bargailicious price for this beauty it's worth every penny. However, like the 930, you'll still have to stump up extra cash for a compatible motherboard and memory, and the LGA1,366 socket might not be with us in the imminent future. It's insanely fast for gaming, too.
Read our Intel Core i7 920 review
5. AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition - £205
Essentially a faster version of the Phenom II X6 1055T, the AMD Phenom X6 1090T is based on the Thuban architecture, which includes six cores and a 45nm production process. Those six cores - each clocked at 3.2GHz - mean that multi-threaded performance is absolutely incredible, although gaming performance is a slight, but not major, let down. Being a "Black Edition" CPU, it's got plenty of headroom for overclocking, and we managed to get it to the lofty peaks of 4GHz at low voltages with nothing but air cooling. Best of all, the AM3 architecture means building the rest of the PC is mightily cheap.
Read our AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition review
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Liked this? Then check outHow to buy the best processor for your PC
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