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CPU Upgrade

ExcaliburMM

ExcaliburMM

Senior member
Greetings Anandtech,
Currently I have an E2140 sitting comfortably at 3.2GHz beneath an Arctic 7 Freezer Pro. I have a G.Skill 2x1GB DDR2 800 kit at 5-5-5-15. My motherboard is the lovely DFI LP DK P35 T2RS. Build details are in the signature.

I've been very happy with my current system. I bought a 70$ CPU (at the time) and got a 100% overclock out of it. I made out like a bandit, because I came here, did some research, and considered my options before buying.

Anyway I wanted to upgrade, seeing as how Starcraft 2 and maybe even Diablo 3 will (probably) be here before or about the same time Sandy Bridge is. My question to you is how far do I go with this upgrade?
I could do an E6300 (45nm 😛) and in all probability get it to around 4GHz if its a good chip.
I could do a Q9550 and have a lesser clock but still have a quad CPU.

Obviously two very different CPUs at very different price points. Here are my current thoughts:

In all probability, the E6300@4GHz (or there abouts) would not give me any SC2/D3 limitations, which is my primary concern. However I want to last this wait comfortably and not be tempted to make any further upgrades on this system, and the Q9550 is impossible to beat on this socket. However for the Q9550 I may have to purchase a beefier heatsink and possibly a DDR2 1066 kit to get the highest overclock possible, which is also important to me. I don't like having my OC headroom limited by anything but the chip itself.

Another thought is I don't see the point in dual channel DDR3. If I'm not going to wait, I'll have to do the full out X58/triple channel/920 D0/Megahalem wallet breaker. 😛

And so Andantech, I come to you, and would like to ask anyone who's waiting for Sandy Bridge as well what they're doing in the mean time while we weather the i5/i7 storm. 😛
 
Best of all worlds and what I just bought: Core i5 750 with dual-channel DDR3. Turbo mode for the single-threaded apps, quad-core for multi-threaded apps. Everyone is happy. 🙂
 
I'm certainly waiting until AMD can REALLY bring the heat. Unless some 4ghz OC-guaranteed 6-core chip hits the market, i'm not going to budge. A s775 quad core at 3ghz is still much faster than the norm.
 
I would recommend the Q9550 and a good 4 GB kit for OCing. Might want a new cooler too. I wouldn't just plop in another 2 GB of RAM, it could cause stability issues when OCing or even at stock due to possible memory incompatibility or north bridge stress.
 
Originally posted by: biostud
Why not wait until these games are released to see if you even need an upgrade?
Click to expand...
Because I know that in all probability I will. I'm not going to be your typical SC2 user. I am a custom content creator and as such my system is going to have to go above and beyond the required specs.
 
I vote for the q9550, 4GB ram, and a new cooler.

I doubt the q9550 will get much, if any cheaper. It is pretty much the last, best upgrade for S775 and the only competition for the i5. For upgraders, that is. Meaning it wouldn't surprise me if Intel started clearing out the stock so that older S775 users are stuck having to move to S1156 if they want quad-cores.

I don't know how the RAM prices are going to go. DDR2 seems to me a little more expensive now than it was a few months ago, so now may be the best time to buy.

Pick your cooler wisely, and it might last you into the next build.
 
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