I think my CPU is limiting my hand-me-down system.

[balane]

The second machine in my signature. It gets the hand me downs from the top computer in my signature. Kind of a long story with some free DDR2 and a good deal with a video card, blah, blah, but that's where it sits.

Definitely the weak link in the system is the CPU, wouldn't you say? I play LOTRO and WoW on it and Fallout 3. Also Office, internet, Paint Shop Pro, various windows apps. No video editing or movie ripping or anything like that. It's in the garage. I use it maybe 10-12 hours a week.

Anyway, is there a LGA775 I can stick in there for $100-125 that would be worth it? That CPU is ancient. I don't want to change out anything else really because when it comes time to upgrade the main machine all that i7 gear will be in the garage.

It's going to be a while so I would like my MMO's to run well in the mean time. It seems to me that I would want a fast dual core for this but maybe I'm wrong. I'm definitely looking for improvements today and have no interest in the future on it. I just want it faster right now.

Thanks for any advice.

PS I have a $100 New Egg gift card I got for Christmas that I'll be using and I can add a little cash if needed. Not that this information matters in the outcome.

 

[BD231]

Soooo, you have an i7 and you'd rather play games on your LGA 775 system?

....

 

[balane]

Soooo, you have an i7 and you'd rather play games on your LGA 775 system?

....

Why would you assume I'd rather play games on my backup system?

 

[WildW]

Any of the Pentium-Dual-Core chips (E5200, E5300, E5400, and other newer ones I'm less familiar with) should be a fine drop-in replacement. They're wolfdale cored Core2Duos with 2MB L2 Cache. I've had several, and although the default speeds are 2.5, 2.6, 2.7GHz respectively, they all overclock really easily. Minimum I've got out of any of them was 3.5GHz with a cheap 3rd party cooler.

Once overclocked the performance is plenty for the price, and gaming performance is great. Alternatively, pay a little more and the E6700, E6800 have > 3GHz default clocks.

 

[BD231]

Why would you assume I'd rather play games on my backup system?

Because you do.

 

[balane]

Because you do.

Prove it.

 

[balane]

Any of the Pentium-Dual-Core chips (E5200, E5300, E5400, and other newer ones I'm less familiar with) should be a fine drop-in replacement. They're wolfdale cored Core2Duos with 2MB L2 Cache. I've had several, and although the default speeds are 2.5, 2.6, 2.7GHz respectively, they all overclock really easily. Minimum I've got out of any of them was 3.5GHz with a cheap 3rd party cooler.

Once overclocked the performance is plenty for the price, and gaming performance is great. Alternatively, pay a little more and the E6700, E6800 have > 3GHz default clocks.

Price-wise this is right on the money.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116371

Seems like it might create a decent boost in speed.

 

[BD231]

I see your emphasis on " rather " but you know very well I was asking you why you're even playing games on it in the first place with an i7 in your house. You can answer the question or leave it alone.

 

[balane]

The kid likes to play WoW in my office at times.

 

[WildW]

E6800 looks perfect. 50% speed boost, plus the benefit of extra cache. I'll bet it will easily overclock a little with minimal effort too.

 

[betasub]

The kid likes to play WoW in my office at times.

Heh, them pesky kids. They don't know what an office is for.

 

[exar333]

The kid likes to play WoW in my office at times.

Sounds like the kid should go to the garage and leave the office for you?

 

[balane]

I actually like it out in the garage so I don't mind. Nice and quiet out there. Only rarely is it too hot or too cold in Seattle. If I could get a few more FPS in LOTRO on that machine I would be a happy man.

 

[Zap]

OIC, the garage is your "man cave." :thumbsup:

Have you tried overclocking your CPU? Seems to me your only choice at Newegg would be the Core 2 Duo E7500. It would be a decent upgrade for you once overclocked.

 

[Arkaign]

The E7500 would be a giant upgrade. I ran mine at 3.6ghz on a cheap G31 board with a cheap tower 92mm cooler, and it was icy and rock stable (prime/burn in). Great little chip, with my old GTS250 it played anything I wanted with great settings at 1680x1050. With the 5770 it's got, I imagine it would be perfect.

 

[Arkaign]

The E7500 at $120 is a way overpriced though. (Newegg prices)

The E5300 at $66 is a much better buy. Overclock it to 3.5GHz+ and it'll be an awesome match with a HD5770.

You know, I agree. I got a free upgrade from an E5200 to an E7500, and with my GTS250 I really didn't notice any difference in almost everything, both clocked into the mid 3ghz range.

 

[balane]

So all of these would be superior to the E6800? I had just about made up my mind on it.

 

[balane]

OK, thanks. That gift card has been sitting at the back of my drawer for a long time, I think this would be a good time to use it. I honestly just want the fastest $100-125 775 I can stick in there for games so I'll probably pick up the E6800 and see how fast I can get it. I have some old Rosewell heatpipe cooler sitting around here somewhere. I'll use that with some Shin-Etsu and see what happens.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[balane]

Well crap, I found an E6750 G0 on Craig's for $50 and picked it up. I hope it OC's well. I would like to get 3.2-3.33 on stock voltage/stock cooling (Shin Etsu compound.)

I know it's a Conroe but it's just too cheap to pass up and it's still going to bring a very nice performance increase over the E2160.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

The E7500 at $120 is a way overpriced though. (Newegg prices)

The E5300 at $66 is a much better buy. Overclock it to 3.5GHz+ and it'll be an awesome match with a HD5770.

the 7500 is 89 at microcenter

his best bet would have been the 6800 though, getting the 6750 was stupid even at 50

 

[balane]

I can resell it easily. Why is it so bad?

Edit: Just checked on ebay and it looks like completed auctions show the E6750 sell for $65-70 It was just really close to my house and seemed very cheap but I'm not opposed to dumping it and getting the E6800, maybe make a few bucks.

It's just an awful upgrade for me regardless of price? I really don't understand.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

I can resell it easily. Why is it so bad?

Edit: Just checked on ebay and it looks like completed auctions show the E6750 sell for $65-70 It was just really close to my house and seemed very cheap but I'm not opposed to dumping it and getting the E6800, maybe make a few bucks.

It's just an awful upgrade for me regardless of price? I really don't understand.

because that is much slower, is probably a heavily abused chip, is 65nm, and not that much cheaper

 

[balane]

OK, I don't really understand all the differences between processors, not fully comprehending Intel's numbering system. I'll stick it up on eBay and go ahead with the 6800. It seemed to me that at half the price it would be a decent upgrade for me. I was going to install it after work today but I'll just flip it.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

if you have it you might as well go ahead and try it out now

 

[nenforcer]

I personally would not try and sell the Core 2 Duo E6750 you just purchased since it has the higher cache (4MB) vs. the 2MB in the E6800, even though the Pentium has a much higher clock speed.

I'm big on cache and there is a reason why the E6750 is a Core 2 Duo while the E6800 is branded as a Pentium.

You may not notice this difference in games, however.