Best Value 775 LGA Upgrade: Dual vs Quad?

[gregoryvg]

Depends on what he's playing. The stock Q8400 in multi-threaded apps will beat the stock E8400 across the board, but for gaming it's not quite as cut and dry. AT's own bench has different results for a few games than that xbit link:

Dude, I hear you, but you're living in the past. There is no need to go dual-core atm if you are a gamer. Anyone who buys a dual-core for a gaming machine right now would be making a mistake. Respectfully, I submit that yes, it is cut and dry - Quads over Duals.

 

[gregoryvg]

The most taxing games I currently play are Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age, Empire: Total War, and I will probably end up with their upcoming sequels (Dragon Age II, Mass Effect 3, Shogun II: Total War). I also use a 1080p 21.5'' monitor.

All those game benefit from Quad cores over Dual cores.

 

[zagood]

Dude, I hear you, but you're living in the past. There is no need to go dual-core atm if you are a gamer. Anyone who buys a dual-core for a gaming machine right now would be making a mistake. Respectfully, I submit that yes, it is cut and dry - Quads over Duals.

I'm living in Thriftyville. It's not worth spending what he was planning on spending, no. But for under $90 an e8400, especially if overclocked, would be an excellent short term upgrade in his system (if the motherboard were compatible). What would I do in his specific situation? Buy a new video card now with the original quoted budget, buy a new platform cpu/mobo/ram when the money is available for it, bring the new video card over, sell old stuff, and repeat a year later.

 

[jihe]

I'm living in Thriftyville. It's not worth spending what he was planning on spending, no. But for under $90 an e8400, especially if overclocked, would be an excellent short term upgrade in his system (if the motherboard were compatible). What would I do in his specific situation? Buy a new video card now with the original quoted budget, buy a new platform cpu/mobo/ram when the money is available for it, bring the new video card over, sell old stuff, and repeat a year later.

An Athlonlon x4 + MB goes for the same price as the the E8400. In no situation would I recommend an E8400 now, it is just horribly overpriced.

 

[gregoryvg]

I'm living in Thriftyville. It's not worth spending what he was planning on spending, no. But for under $90 an e8400, especially if overclocked, would be an excellent short term upgrade in his system (if the motherboard were compatible). What would I do in his specific situation? Buy a new video card now with the original quoted budget, buy a new platform cpu/mobo/ram when the money is available for it, bring the new video card over, sell old stuff, and repeat a year later.

I disagree with that totally. Thriftyville doesn't work when your CPU can't cut it. I stand by my assertion that Dual core's are not worth it now under any situation. (Okay, maybe if you only play older games).

 

[killster1]

Sounds good. Just for your information, I found an even better deal at Newegg on a build-your-own system:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...-_-592734-LM2A

This has everything you need, including Athlon quad-core, 4GB ram, 1TB drive, case, PSU, motherboard, and DVD burner, for $280 after rebate.

Compared to spending $167 on a q6600, the value proposition is just exceptional. Even if you don't have the money/desire for this now, you should look for this kind of deal when you do choose to upgrade.

I dont think anyone on earth would spend 170$ on a q6600 i see them for 90 bucks all the time. I think 775 is fine. Sure i7 920 would be nice but why not just wait little longer till i20 is out and eats everything for few bux more.. Q6600 for90 would be fine or if you know your mobo will work with q9300 for 100 would be nice as well (not sure if they are on sale at that price still or not)

As far as used cpu its fine just dont buy it from someone that overclocked the hell out of it at super high volts.


As far as spending money on the cpu being a waste.. What ever cpu he buys will still be worth good money when he goes to sell it. (come on really cpu's dont drop in price much ever unless you buy it new on launch day) if he spends 80 on e8400 on forums he can prob sell it for 70 on ebay a year later (forum prices always way better than ebay) Most games also play fine with dual core only thing you have to worry about is huge armys or if you have SLI or crossfire. check out most bench's e8400 is just as good as i7 920 on most stuff.

 

[nenforcer]

The thread title is misleading and should be considered an oxymoron.

There is no best value Socket LGA775 CPU at any level, dual or quad core.

They are simply overpriced at every level especially now that DDR3 memory actually costs less than DDR2. Its less cost effective to maintain a legacy system than it is to purchase a new one.

 

[Arkaign]

The thread title is misleading and should be considered an oxymoron.

There is no best value Socket LGA775 CPU at any level, dual or quad core.

They are simply overpriced at every level especially now that DDR3 memory actually costs less than DDR2. Its less cost effective to maintain a legacy system than it is to purchase a new one.

I agree with this overall sentiment, but there are some exceptions. Someone who already has 4gb of fast ddr2, decent psu/mobo/gpu/etc could benefit from a cheap used quad upgrade. They can be hard to come by though. It's hard to quantify the time savings that you get from a drop-in upgrade where you don't have to reload all your stuff, swap out mobos, etc. Some people enjoy that process though, you YMMV.

Whoever compared Athlon II X4, yeah it might be decent in some games/apps compared to E8400, but it's gonna lose bigtime to Phenom II or Core 2 Quad. The lack of L3 cache just punishes that architechture. Nobody would or should build a AII-X4 system for gaming, when an i3 will murder it for around the same $, when the PhII is miles better, or when for a little more you can build an i5 or i7 quad system that will last much longer.