CPU Upgrade worth the cost?

[VigilanteCS]

Hi all.

I was originally going to upgrade my video card but I've decided to wait until this fall when the new cards come out. In the mean time, is it worth upgrading my CPU, and to what? My motherboard can run the 45nm processors (if only it had DDR3....). I was thinking maybe a Q9550 or an E8500.

Thanks for any opinions.

 

[Tip3r]

Personally I think it isn't worth it. I would stick with what you have right now and wait for next gen cards to come. Then possibly build an i5 0r i7 system with it.

 

[elconejito]

depends on what your trying to get an improvement on. If it's games, then I think the GPU upgrade will see more benefit. And e8500 will be faster (OC to3.6-3.8), but if all you're doing is surfing the internet and checking email then it's not worth it.

If you want to upgrade the CPU anyway, and the cost is the same, I'd go for the Q9550.

 

[VigilanteCS]

Thanks for the opinions. I think I'm going to buy a better HSF for the cpu and just overclock the shit out of it. I'm using the Intel OEM one right now. Any HSF suggestions? lol

 

[faxon]

get a megahalems, they are easy to install and perform on par with a TRUE. as for your GPU upgrade, you might want to look into a mobo upgrade at the same time as a CPU upgrade if you plan on doing a GPU upgrade at some point. since p35 chipset is only PCI-e 1.1 it has half the bandwidth of PCI-e 2.0, and unless next gen cards dont need much any extra bandwidth (they usually do) then your PCI-e slot may not be fast enough anymore to get the full performance out of a new GPU, unless you get a lower end one. just something to consider when you go and do your shopping for a cooler. my best recommendation would be to just OC your CPU for now with a megahalems, and then sell it and your mobo and do cpu/gpu/mobo at the same time, possibly tossing ram in as well

 

[VigilanteCS]

Originally posted by: faxon
get a megahalems, they are easy to install and perform on par with a TRUE. as for your GPU upgrade, you might want to look into a mobo upgrade at the same time as a CPU upgrade if you plan on doing a GPU upgrade at some point. since p35 chipset is only PCI-e 1.1 it has half the bandwidth of PCI-e 2.0, and unless next gen cards dont need much any extra bandwidth (they usually do) then your PCI-e slot may not be fast enough anymore to get the full performance out of a new GPU, unless you get a lower end one. just something to consider when you go and do your shopping for a cooler. my best recommendation would be to just OC your CPU for now with a megahalems, and then sell it and your mobo and do cpu/gpu/mobo at the same time, possibly tossing ram in as well

Cool. I read online somewhere that the Core i7 is actually already being phased out...so would that be a wise upgrade? Will the LGA1366 become intel's new socket for a while?

Maybe I'll just upgrade the CPU and Mobo now and wait for the next gen GPUs later. But it looks like i7's don't support DDR2 and I really don't want to buy new ram too right now.

EDIT: Holy crap though, DDR3 is cheap!

 

[filibusterman]

I would also be interested to see how my secondary Celeron E1400 currently at 2.8 would compare with your E6750. I mainly use it for folding so I don't know if cache matters for those type of calculations.

 

[angry hampster]

Buy an i7 and a USB3.0 motherboard when prices go down next year. e6750 is still very competitive, especially if overclocked.

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: VigilanteCS
Cool. I read online somewhere that the Core i7 is actually already being phased out...so would that be a wise upgrade? Will the LGA1366 become intel's new socket for a while?

Maybe I'll just upgrade the CPU and Mobo now and wait for the next gen GPUs later. But it looks like i7's don't support DDR2 and I really don't want to buy new ram too right now.

EDIT: Holy crap though, DDR3 is cheap!

Where do these rumors get started?

Intel has no intention of eliminating the 1366 socket. They are phasing out the i7 920 when i5 launches and 1366 CPUs will start with the $500 i7 950 (1366 will be aimed more at the server market than for desktop use). There will be both i7 and i5 CPUs on the 1156 socket which is what Intel targets to the desktop space.

 

[snouter]

I ran my E6750 all the time at 3.2 with no issues using the stock Intel HSF, so, if you're running at 2.8 there's a free 400MHz to go after...

I was in the same boat and decided not to put any money into the E6750 and turned it into my TV and 2nd gaming rig.

I built a nice i7 920 and plan to put a Gulftown 6 core in it next year sometime.

FWIW, the Q9550 sells at a nice price now, but do you need 4 cores? ie do you render 3d, compress video or stuff? If not really, then you have some time for the software programmers to catch up.

My vote is to spend no money now unless there is something specific you are trying to solve, as opposed to just itching to spend money.

 

[phexac]

Unless you are doing something where you are not getting the performance you need out of your chip, I would not upgrade. I am running E8400 at 3.6 right now, and it performs great in all tasks I throw at it. Granted, you run yours at a slightly lower clock speed, but I can't see that making too much of a difference.

 

[Tempered81]

q9650 + hd5870