CPU upgrade advice needed (Pentium 4 -> Core 2)

[bluemist]

As you can see in my sig I have a "serious" cpu bottleneck considering how powerful the 8800GT video card can be. Personally I was disappointed to find out that some of my games (esp. Team Fortress 2) didn't improve frame rates 'at all' when I upgraded from my 7600GT.

Frankly I'm not too knowledgeable on Core 2 CPUs, and my reading on forums like this and on Anandtech is currently ongoing. Upgrading to Core 2 though will require a massive overhaul of mobo+cpu+ram, so I need to get this right the first time through. For now please tell me if I made the right choice:

Core 2 Duo E4500 (2.2GHz)
P35 motherboard
2GB DDR2-800

I have some questions:
- Is that cpu enough to match my video card? My budget is tight, can I go lower? I can't overclock because I live in a hot country, besides I don't know about that at all.
- E4000 series have an FSB of 800, same as the ram. If I were to upgrade to a higher FSB CPU, 1066 or 1333, what should my ram be? How does this work? Do I need to lower it to 533 or 667 respectively (in dual-channel) for optimum performance? There are no DDR2-1066 or 1333 modules right?

 

[blackersabbath]

If you want you could probably go with an E21xx. If you overclock a little without changing the voltage you should be ok as far as heat goes. The DDR2 800 RAM should be fine too as there are dividers. The dividers make it so you won't have to overclock the RAM.

 

[myocardia]

Actually, there are no memory dividers, with the P35 chipset, only memory multipliers. Not that it makes any difference, since he could overclock either an E21xx or E4x00 to twice it's stock speed, using PC6400/800 DDR2 RAM.

I have some questions:
- Is that cpu enough to match my video card? My budget is tight, can I go lower? I can't overclock because I live in a hot country, besides I don't know about that at all.
- E4000 series have an FSB of 800, same as the ram. If I were to upgrade to a higher FSB CPU, 1066 or 1333, what should my ram be? How does this work? Do I need to lower it to 533 or 667 respectively (in dual-channel) for optimum performance? There are no DDR2-1066 or 1333 modules right?

An E4500 is faster than your P4 630, but not all that much so, at least in single-theaded applications/games. Of course, it will make a large difference in anything that's multi-threaded, since it has twice as many cores. You'd probably want to overclock it a little. And yeah, you could, even with the stock heatsink, in a hot country. They run cool, their TDP is only 65 watts, compared to the processor you have now, which has an 84 watt TDP.

 

[RussianSensation]

You have to remember that FSB of 800 means the processor runs at stock speed of 200, since it is quad-pumped. Since DDR2 is double data rate, that would mean ram running (200x2 = 400mhz) at DDR2 400 speeds to match a FSB of 800.

Therefore, if say you overclocked the processor to 1066FSB that would require ram of 1066/4*2 = 533. The shortcut calculation then is to simply divide the FSB by 2 to get the DDR2 speed. DDR2-800 would let you overclock the processor to 1600FSB without overclocking the ram.

Since E4500 has a multiplier of 11 to get to 3.6ghz for example you would just increase the FSB to 327 (or DDR2 654).

As you are on a budget, in these types of situations I would spend less $ on the motherboard (i.e. $100 P35 Gigabyte DS3L) and put the difference into a faster processor. Another mistake often made by those on a budget is spending too much $ on the ram. In your case, you shouldn't spend more than $30-50 on DDR2 800 2gb. Some examples are:

OCZ OCZ2P800R22GK 2GB Kit DDR2 PC2-6400 Platinum Revision 2 - $34
or
DDR2 2GB PC2-6400 (800MHz) Dual Channel (2x1GB) 5-5-5-12-T1 Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400 - $25

Once you have finalized the motherboard and ram, you should gauge how much budget you have left for the cpu. There are varying degrees of overclocking as well. To get to some speeds you only need to raise the FSB and there is no need to mess with voltages of any kind. These types of overclocks will be done within minutes.

Something else to keep in mind is that Intel will release new processors in Q1 of 2008. LINK. At this point E8200 will replace E6550 at $163. That would be significantly faster than the $130 E4500 you are looking at today. The only issue of course is that Q1 is Jan - March....Perhaps if you can sell your current mobo and cpu and ram for even $50 together, you could step up to a faster processor with that $.

 

[magreen]

@BlackerSabbath: You're wrong about needing memory dividers. You really shouldn't post advice until you know what you're talking about. No offense intended, but you do a real disservice by doing so.

@myo: an e4500 is a lot faster than a p4 3ghz, even in single-threaded tasks. It will perform in single-threaded apps like a p4 @4.2ghz.

 

[bluemist]

@RussianSensation
Interesting CPU lineup there, well Q1 2008 is still months away, and usually prices are jacked up at that early stage. I have not seen the E4600 anywhere in here, but it would seem like a proper midrange. If ever I would think about changing the CPU for Q1 2008, I shouldn't look at the Duos anymore. If I read correctly two Penryn Quads will replace the Q6600 right?