Best available LGA 775 CPU - price/performance

[sjwaste]

It's been way too long since I could be considered "informed" in the CPU game. I have an E2200 OC'ed to 3.2 GHz right now. I'd like to get the best value in a 775 CPU before they're largely off the market.

I could do dual or quad since I don't do a lot of CPU-intensive tasks. Price/performance is important and I would like hardware virtualization support. I do some gaming in addition.

Is the E8400 still the king of value, or should I be looking at the Q9400? Or something else entirely?

EDIT: I should add, I have a Gigabyte P35-DS3L that I'd like to drop it into. Pretty sure there aren't any 775 chips that it won't take, but just in case.

 

[nonameo]

cheapest CPU with virtualization is the E3200/E3300. It's a "celeron", however it has 1mb of cache and is clocked at 2.4(I think? or 2.5) ghz. It should do as well as E5300's for overclocking. CPU can be found for ~~~ 40$ reliably(read: value retailer on sale, ebay).

You may also find an E5300 with virtualization. you need to look for the right sSpec, which I think is SLGTL. You should be able to find one of these for ~~~ 55-60$ either on ebay or on sale at a value retailer. Personally I think you should go this route as if you get an E3300/3200, you're not gaining anything except the ability to go to higher clockspeeds, and virtualization.

If you want to go higher than this, your options are the E7xxx series and E8xxx series, which are both a lot more $$$ and only 1mb of cache extra over the E5300(well, the 7 series is only 1mb extra. the 8 series has 6mb L2). Newegg and ewiz don't have the E7200 around (you might find one on ebay for a likable price), and the cheapest thing they have is the E7500 for over 100$.

I would think your board should take 45nm cpus with a bios update. It may not even need that.

 

[konakona]

CM's hyper 212 plus got some great bang for buck. If you got microcenter nearby, they have some sales on good HSF (vendetta 1/2 stuff comes to mind) time to time. That's where I got my mugen 2 from

EDIT: oops, sorry. for some reason I thought you were asking about HSF. please disregard