SKT775 - Worth the Upgrade?

[bob4432]

i have been running the same rig for about 3-3 1/2 yrs now:
- Gigabyte P35 MB
- 4GB DDR800
- E2160 @ 3GHz
- 4850 / 512MB
- xp pro
- earthwatts 650

am looking forward to bf3 coming out and know i need to upgrade to win7 for dx10/dx11 - no problem. but the hardware part...is the skt775 worth an upgrade?

currently the 4850 is crippled by the E2160 - bfbc2 @ 1680x1050 the cpu is 100% where the gpu is 50%.

by going to win7/dx10/dx11 and moving to a Q8400 (o/c'd to ?) and moving up to a newer gpu be sufficient to play bfbc2 @ 1920x1200 and possibly bf3 @ 1680x1050 or 1920x1200?

or do i need to move up to some new hardware? this upgrade looks to be ~$350 or so.

i have been out of the loop for about a year, so shed some light please. also, fwiw, other uses of the machine will be ok if it can handle the gaming part.

thanks in advance,
bob

 

[nyker96]

I remember my p35+e2160 days. I'd suggest you just dish out the 400 or so and get a sandy bridge 2500K+mb+8gb ram. plus sell off your old gears on ebay, probably get about 75-100 bucks. that knock the upgrade down to 300-350 or so.

 

[bob4432]

what about gpu? is the current $150 unit going to smoke the 4850?

 

[nonameo]

I would skew towards the video card instead of the CPU. AM3+ and 1155 both have upgrade paths(assuming ivy bridge runs in 1155 which is the current assumption)

If you have a fry's or MC nearby, definitely go with some sort of combo. You should be able to get a fair amount of $$$ for your parts. As sad as it is, the i3 2100 is faster than the 965BE in most current games(the ones that aren't threaded for 4 cores) so it is difficult to not recommend intel at this point.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=289

That said, I don't have any reason to believe that games will become anything but more threaded in the future. However, CPU power really isn't the be all end all for gaming anyway(at least, not anymore)

focus on GPU power.

that said, I think that if you picked up a cheap intel quad and overclocked it, you'd be fine. However, since you have to buy win 7 and I assume you're getting the OEM version that ties itself to your motherboard, you might as well go ahead and upgrade.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Hmm, that's a tough one. Your rig is on the cusp of what is reasonable hardware for playability, if you upgraded to a C2Q chip.

Is your mobo capable of crossfire? I would say, if it is, then get a C2Q, overclock, and get another 4850, they should be cheap enough these days.

My Q9300 (2.5Ghz stock) chips overclock easily to 3.0Ghz at 400FSB. Don't think that my gigabyte P35 board would go much higher on the FSB, and I'm not really interested in overclocking my RAM.

My friend with a Q8200 (2.33Ghz stock) can overclock to 3.15Ghz at 450 FSB, on a EP45-UD3R board, and Gskill DDR2-800 1.8v RAM. (RAM is overclocked to DDR2-900)

So with a Q8400, I would say you could probably reach or exceed 3.2Ghz, without too much trouble. At least, 400FSB should be a nearly free overclock, like it was for me.

If you do get a C2Q, then if you cannot crossfire, then consider getting a HD6870 or something similar.

 

[bob4432]

no cf m/b on this rig, i do have a am2+ cf board in another build that is my htpc. i would need to see what cpu it supports...

 

[LoneNinja]

no cf m/b on this rig, i do have a am2+ cf board in another build that is my htpc. i would need to see what cpu it supports...

A lot of AM2+ boards support AM3 processors, which have much better price/performance than socket 775.

 

[bob4432]

A lot of AM2+ boards support AM3 processors, which have much better price/performance than socket 775.

unfortunately not mine, phenom I yes, phenom II - very spotty so i wouldn't chance it. probably will be on the lookout for a cheap q8400...and watch gpus for a bit.

appreciate the info all

 

[Binky]

I'd say your hardware is basically acceptable, other than the CPU. You could grab a used E8400 for maybe $100 and use it as long as you can stand it. This would give you a very significant performance improvement for very little cash and very little hassle. A Q9550 would be an even bigger improvement, but thats getting to the $200+ range which becomes a little crazy since you can upgrade the whole system for not a much more.

Even better, the E8400 CPU may be worth pretty close to $100 in a year or two! The E8400 was almost the top of the dual cores of that generation. People just like you have older systems that they want to slightly upgrade. That tends to keep the last of a generation CPUs priced very high after the indutry moves on.

 

[bob4432]

any idea what a used q8400 is going for? time to scour the misc hardware forums....

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Hmm. E2160 CPU. In '08, I built these systems for my Mom and younger Bro' with an E2140 and E2180 respectively. Kept up the maintenance for Mom, but she's gotten used to the hardware, and started complaining that it was "slow." It IS slow, even for OC'ing it past 2.1Ghz. The boards wouldn't let you adjust memory voltage, and because the systems were for family "mainstreamers," I didn't want to push it a lot by amping up the VCORE.

We replaced the E2140 with an E6700 (Wolfdale released early 2010) running stock at 3.2. Sooner or later, I'll sneak upstairs in the middle of the night and see if I can get it up to 4.0. But we were impressed with the change.

That may not be adequate for you, though. It seems meaningful to me to extend the life of working configurations where nobody complains. I'm getting rid of a Q6600 system because I've learned to hate-- even despise -- the motherboard. But I could probably squeeze another couple years out of it.

 

[Arkaign]

Hmm. BF3 is still a good ways off (and might be delayed, who knows).

I'd imagine getting a used C2Q to bide time with wouldn't be a bad idea. Even if you bought for say $150ish and sold it 6 months from now at $100ish, that's not a terrible deal. By the time BF3 comes out we could/should be seeing next-gen GPUs, and probably a new gen of chipsets as well. At the very least, you'll get more for your upgrade $$$ at that point, and can look at benchies to see what fits BF3 better.

Q8xxx/9xxx @ ~3ghz or so is more than enough to be a great match for the 4850 in delievering decent BFBC2 performance for now.

That's just me though. I never recommend buying upgrades with a big focus being an unreleased game/OS/etc.

 

[Gikaseixas]

Get a used Q9550 OC it (3.6 maybe), get a ATI 6870 and you'll still have a capable gaming machine. Just my opinion.

 

[bob4432]

put win7 on it...looks like my hdd is the weak link @ 5.9 according to their little user program (15k u320 hdd on a 64MB cache card), everything else was 6.3-7.x. am looking for a used qXXXX as i type, again thanks for all the input

 

[Crap Daddy]

I'd say move forward. I don't know what framerates you get with that machine in BFBC2, maybe the 16x10 res saves you a little bit plus lower graphic settings. If you want to play then go with what's good today. Tomorrow it will cost the same. If you keep your case, HDD, PSU, optical drive and for now even your outdated GPU you can bring in a Sandy Bridge with a quad, mobo and 4 Gigs at under 400$. You will imediately see an improvement in your game of choice, Then go with an AMD 6870 which is around 180$ and enjoy BF3.

5.9 for HDD is max in windows exp index for mechanical hard drives

 

[bob4432]

ouch, finally played a bit of bfbc2 last night. win7/dx10 sure does make a difference, looks like new build is on the horizon. had to drop res down to 1280x800 or so and still not what i like, and the gpu is not even warm, so it appears the cpu is even more limiting w/ win7 w/ this game.

probably going a i5-2500K/4GB setup...

 

[Necc]

probably going a i5-2500K/4GB setup...

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: