Upgrade Processor?

[Outlaw]

I have a thread started in the Vid cards for that upgrade and that lead me to here (didn't want to get too off topic there). Go cheap or go BIG

My current system is in the system specs and sig.

At a bare minimum I will be getting the GTX 460, would like 2 but we'll see.

My next issue is the C2D at the center of everything. Playing Crysis 2 Demo, both cores were maxed at lowest setting (Gamer) and 1280x720 res and still get choppyness and "motion blur" where it shouldn't be. My main games are CS:S and FarCry 2. I am unable to play FC at High as well without doing a modified High.

I was told in the other post that the C2Quad would be a pretty good investment. The one they have on the egg I considered is the Q8400 for $150.

Should I just buy the C2Q right away with the gfx card/s or wait and see how performance is with the C2D?

[slaveofconvention]

Anything 775 is kinda an expensive upgrade as you're heading up a road with a definite dead end. I have a Q6700 on 775 so I'm not just being a snob lol. If you're thinking about an upgrade, I'd seriously consider putting the money to one side and going low-end AM3 or i7 when you have a little more money to spend. Having said that, if your board will take it, you will almost definitely see some serious benefit from going from 2 to 4 cores, and you can always toss the C2D onto ebay to make back some of that $150 so it may work out more cost effective than you think.

[Outlaw]

Since you bring up the i7, is the i7 really worth it over the i5? I know the biggest things for the i7 vs i5 is HT and L3 Cache. Using the newegg compare, The only differences is the 130mhz and HT. Does that really give that much performance to justify 80 bucks? Plus, I would like to keep my H50 since it isn't that old and I would have to upgrade to an AM3 or socket 1366.

Socket 1156 (Lowest Price)
i5-760: 95W, L3-8mb, 2.8Ghz (210-Newegg)
i7-870: 95W, L3-8mb, 2.93Ghz (290-Newegg)

Socket 1366 (Lowest Price)
i7-940: 130W, L3-8mb, 2.93Ghz (270-Newegg)

AM3 Quad Core(Lowest Price)
*OEM*Phenom II x4 820: HT Support, 95W, L3-4mb, 2.8Ghz (104-Newegg)
Phenom II x4 955 BE: HT Support, 125W, L3-6mb, 3.2Ghz (140-Newegg)
Phenom II x4 975 BE: HT Support, 125W, L3-6mb, 3.6Ghz (200-Newegg)

AM3 Six Core(Lowest Price)
Phenom II x6 1055T: HT Support, 125W, L3-6mb, 3.2Ghz (180-Newegg)
Phenom II x6 1100T BE: HT Support, 125W, L3-6mb, 3.2Ghz (230-Newegg)

It seems that the AM3 with a board would be cheaper then the i series chip alone in most cases.

Does the 2mb L3 cache make that much of a performance difference? That AM3 quad core OEM looks tempting. I am going to go and do more research now.

Thanks,
Outlaw


*oh yeah, I would also need to buy new RAM.

[x88x]

What slave said, pretty much. I rather doubt that your CPU is your bottleneck right now, tbh. Personally, I would get the new GPU, upgrade to a 64-bit OS, and then see if I was still having problems.

[Outlaw]

I agree with that but maybe it's the pc addiction or something else.. I want the new stuff. lol

I did look up the sys board and an Phenom x6, plus 8gb ddr3 for 500 bucks on top of the 550 i'm already at on the egg.

Sys board I was looking at:
ASUS M4N98TD EVO AM3 NVIDIA nForce 980a SLI ATX

i7 1366
Cheapest board- 165
Cheapest i7 - 280
8GB DDR3 10600 - 80-120

The guys here at work aren't helping my case. lol They said I should get the 2x 2gb 460's, to "up one" on them. They have CF mobility 5870's and CF HD 5850

[x88x]

If you're considering an AMD CPU, personally I would wait until after the Bulldozer chips come out. Either you get a Bulldozer, or the price of the Phenom II's will probably drop, so you could get one of those even cheaper.

[Outlaw]

Cool thanks.

[Outlaw]

Like in my gpu one, sorry to waste everyone's time. I did go cheap and got the 8800gts off ebay for 59 bucks including shipping.

Since I am just going to try and push this system till it can't go anymore game wise, is a CPU upgrade worth it and which should I look for in the socket 775 if it is?

When the system is no longer game capable in a yr or 2, I will do a full system build and probably re-purpose this to an htpc or server, or just sell it. Right now, it functions as game rig and htpc (the dual DVI is nice).

There are some CPU's that look good on ebay but honestly I'm not sure which to get.

q6600
qx6700
q9300
qx9650 (200 bucks right now)

Any of those worth the 100-150 range? Or would I be better off with a new q8300 or q8400 off newegg?

Thanks again,
Outlaw

[diluzio91]

from what i remember, that 6600 is an overclocking champ. Also, the i7 IMHO isnt worth the extra unless you are going for A) epeen, B) you upgrade once every 3~ years, or C) you do some extremely CPU intensive tasks with your PC. The i5 when OC'd is more than many systems need.

[Outlaw]

For the q6600, I think it is the SLACR version that seems to be the "winner" nto sure on that though.. they make it seem that way on ebay. But is ist still in the 100-150 range.

Thanks for the i-core info.. That is what I thought. I was going to do the upgrade which would be almost 4yrs but decided to go cheap and use the money elsewhere.

if replied in next 20min, the q8400s is going for 115, 2.66ghz quad core 4mb L2 and 65watts... Good deal? According to Intel, only difference is 65w on S version vs 95w on non.

OR

Should I look to OC this one as I will just have 8800gts SLI?

*update- didn't win the q8400s