infoiltrator
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- Feb 9, 2011
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I was actually looking at a used i5 750 with a motherboard for around $150. I dunno, I didn't look much into it. How does an i5 750 compare to an E8400 or Q9550?
Do you game? That's really the only reason to make that upgrade. For ordinary desktop tasks, 1080P movie watching, etc., the C2Q is totally sufficient.
With a CPU like that and a GTX 460, that would make the GPU the limiting factor, and for a budget-conscious gamer, that is a sign that your funds were not portioned out to your subsystems correctly. You should be looking for the cheapest balance you can get such that the GPU is not limited.
Lynnfield totally destroys the core2 chips. By huge noticeable margins. I went from a 3.2GHz Q6600 to the i5-750. Honestly clock speeds make absolutely no difference in the feel of the systems. The i5 at stock speeds blows away the overclocked Q6600. And when I overclock the i5? It still feels about the same in typical usage. It's the FSB and other interconnects that you really feel imo. I still have the Q6600 system running in my house and I dont like (or understand) how slow it feels in comparison. Both systems have SSDs.
Id throw down 50 - 75 on a Q9550, its old tech, not HT, locked multi, high power usage, low OC, low performance, no AVX (if thats what youre into) no L3 cache. Not to mention dead socket + DDR2.
Thinking I've definitely ruled out the big upgrade for a while.
OP, do you actually have a budget set out? That would help us give you advice. You were shopping for something new on Black Friday, and I assume you were going to spend more than $100.
I helped set up several forum users here with a z77 motherboard, 8GB of RAM, and a 3570k for $300. So there were definitely deals to be had...
Anyway, back on topic, if your budget is $200-300, you have many options, none of which should include a q9550. In fact, even an i3-2100 will outperform it in many games.
I previously had a GTX460-768 in an OC'd e8400 system. The truth is that it ran every game released in the past two years terribly. Bad Company 2 was barely playable, Batman: AC was capped at 30fps on high settings, Dirt2 was bottlenecked below 60fps. I wouldn't bother with BF3 on that CPU. Once I upgraded the system to an i7-860, everything ran so much more smoothly.
If you're on a really tight budget, go used. Otherwise, you can still get a locked i5 quad, H77 MB, and memory for under $300.
If you're on a budget, I'd say that's doing it wrong. i5-2500k has been $100 on sale at microcenter, wait for that, walk in and walk out with that and a motherboard for $160 and tax. 8gb DDR3-1600 ram is $25 or just re-use what you have, full upgrade for $185.
Ahh, I dunno. By the way, no Microcenter. I wouldn't be here if there was one!
I can get an i5 750 and decent motherboard for $90, I'd buy some $30 DDR3, a $120 upgrade ($30 of which is transferable assuming DDR3 doesn't go anywhere). Used, but it's from a friend who just decided to upgrade. What do you guys think? I think I'll go for it. I mean, it's a dead socket, but whatever, right? I bet I could even sell my current system for a good chunk of that $120. My cooler works on that socket, so I could OC for free.
Ahh, I dunno. By the way, no Microcenter. I wouldn't be here if there was one!
I can get an i5 750 and decent motherboard for $90, I'd buy some $30 DDR3, a $120 upgrade ($30 of which is transferable assuming DDR3 doesn't go anywhere). Used, but it's from a friend who just decided to upgrade. What do you guys think? I think I'll go for it. I mean, it's a dead socket, but whatever, right? I bet I could even sell my current system for a good chunk of that $120. My cooler works on that socket, so I could OC for free.
I can get an i5 750 and decent motherboard for $90, I'd buy some $30 DDR3, a $120 upgrade ($30 of which is transferable assuming DDR3 doesn't go anywhere). Used, but it's from a friend who just decided to upgrade. What do you guys think? I think I'll go for it. I mean, it's a dead socket, but whatever, right? I bet I could even sell my current system for a good chunk of that $120. My cooler works on that socket, so I could OC for free.