Upgrade cpu (e4300) alone, or upgrade to SNB?

[marlinman]

Greetings all

I'm in the process of upgrading/replacing the rig in my sig. So far I've purchased an Intel 510 120Gb SSD, an HD6950 2Gb, and a WD Green 3Tb SATA 6Gb/s HDD.

I'm now trying to decide whether or not to upgrade to a Sandy Bridge-based setup. Among other advantages, such an upgrade would allow me to operate the new drives at SATA 6Gb/s (not SATA 3Gb/s), and potentially add a second HD6950 (m/b choice permitting, and assuming a monitor upgrade I guess).

I understand that my e4300 will hinder the HD6950, and my DS3 will hinder the SSD (and the new HDD, but I'm not too concerned about that).

I also have the option of 'merely' upgrading to a Q9400s and sticking with current RAM/MB/HSF. Would this allow the HD6950 to fully 'shine'? (Of course, every possible cycle/sec would be squeezed out of the chip!) Or is it time to let go and move on? Gaming performance is really the only issue I have with my current setup...

Edit: current rig:

Gigabyte 965P-DS3 rev. 3.3
Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1.8GHz @ 2.88GHz
Corsair DDR2 800 2x2Gb Dual Channel Kit
Palit GeForce 9600GT PCIE 512MB
WD Caviar Black 1Tb
Antec EarthWatts 650
Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme w/ Evercool 2000rpm 79.14CFM
Cooler Master Centurion 5
Windows 7 Pro SP1
IBM P202 21" CRT

 

[sangyup81]

As much as Core2Quads cost, I can't recommend them over a Sandy Bridge upgrade

 

[sm625]

Unfortunately the cheapest sb pentium would probably be faster than a q9400. It most certainly would be once you added the latest and greatest ddr3 to the mix.

 

[Spikesoldier]

thats a choice you are going to have to make on your budget. if you have the money, i would do a platform upgrade to SB.

if you are budget limited, then the q9400 makes sense. how much memory do you currently have? if you have 8GB ddr2 i would recommend the q9400.

i notice you are not in the US therefore prices may vary, otherwise if you were in the US i would insist on going to SB.

 

[lau808]

if u can afford it, u cant go wrong with sandy bridge.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

The DS3 won't hinder your SSD in any perceptible manner, especially for gaming.

How much can you get a Q9400 for? That's still a pretty capable CPU, again especially for gaming - compared to an i3-2100 it turns out comparable framerates. I'd say if you can snag the Q9400 for 20%+ less than the i3-2100, go for it. It would keep you going for at least another year or two. And in two years, it won't be worth that much less than it is now since most of the depreciation has already occurred.

 

[marlinman]

I can get the Q9400s for NZ$283 (US$246), while - wow, the i3-2100 is NZ$175. But throw in DDR3 RAM (NZ$142 for Corsair XMS3 Vengeance DDR1600 CL9 2x4GB) and a Z68 m/b [NZ$376 for the Asus P8Z68-V Pro - yeah, could cut costs here =) ] and the choice becomes harder...

Glad to learn the SSD won't noticeably suffer at 3Gb/s.

Am not budget limited, but don't wish to upgrade just for the sake of it; if I can enjoy Rage, Skyrim, and Witcher 2 with a q9400s/HD6950 then I'll be happy as Larry.

 

[Soundmanred]

if u can aford it, u cant go rong with sandy brige.

 

[sm625]

wow that is like $400 for the motherboard and ram. I bet you're freakin loving intel now eh? For that kind of money you should be able to buy a new G620 based machine, no?

 

[Gigantopithecus]

I can get the Q9400s for NZ$283 (US$246), while - wow, the i3-2100 is NZ$175. But throw in DDR3 RAM (NZ$142 for Corsair XMS3 Vengeance DDR1600 CL9 2x4GB) and a Z68 m/b [NZ$376 for the Asus P8Z68-V Pro - yeah, could cut costs here =) ] and the choice becomes harder...

Glad to learn the SSD won't noticeably suffer at 3Gb/s.

Am not budget limited, but don't wish to upgrade just for the sake of it; if I can enjoy Rage, Skyrim, and Witcher 2 with a q9400s/HD6950 then I'll be happy as Larry.

I'd be really surprised if you couldn't find someone here in the FS/T forums to ship a bare CPU to NZ. I see Q6600s go for $100 (US) frequently, and can't imagine a used Q9400 costing more than $150/160 US shipped to NZ.

 

[Ratman6161]

I'd be really surprised if you couldn't find someone here in the FS/T forums to ship a bare CPU to NZ. I see Q6600s go for $100 (US) frequently, and can't imagine a used Q9400 costing more than $150/160 US shipped to NZ.

I'm seeing several on E-bay $137 (US) and up. You could probably contact the seller and negotiate a reasonable shipping charge and still wind up way ahead.

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=in...+2+quad&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

 

[marlinman]

I've only been eyeing the q9400s as it's the gruntiest LGA775 CPU currently available in stores here. Given the great ideas contained in the last two posts, is there an even more powerful chip I could whack in?

Edit: Just checked out ATBench and the answer (game performance-wise) seems to be the q9650 (my m/b can't handle the qx9770)...

 

[Spikesoldier]

the Q9550 and other 12MB L2 C2Q variants are probably the only chips worth upgrading to on the LGA775 platform now. I would definitely move to 8GB of memory as well if you haven't already.

A lot of people knock them, but a Q9550 is still a good chip, especially for gaming. Its up there but short of a i5 750. When OC'ed, both of these CPU's shine and while the i5 will get the best OC, the Q9550 is just right there behind it in terms of average potential OC, especially if you get your hands on a E0 stepping.

 

[marlinman]

if u can afford it, u cant go wrong with sandy bridge.

if u can aford it, u cant go rong with sandy brige.

Make up your minds! =)

 

[nonameo]

EDIT: looks like dynamite screwed up my links.

Okay, some ways you can save some money. #1 - you probably don't need 8gb of ram, and it doesn't need to be corsair or DDR3-1600. 1333 will do fine.

http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspeci...?ItemID=393707 4gb 54$

That will save you almost 100$ right there.

http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspeci...?ItemID=395060

100$ motherboard - That's the cheapest I can find. There is a huge premium on anything intel that can overclock(this will cost you 100$ more will and be OOS), otherwise getting a H67 motherboard only nets you features and ram slots. If you want 4 ram slots it will cost you another 50+$, however you'll also get a H67 motherboard and its features.

http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspeci...?ItemID=394694

Now, from here you can decide which CPU you might want.

http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspeci...?ItemID=394694 2100 - 178

http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspeci...?ItemID=393283 2500 - 302$

So, we're talking about...

100 + 54 + 178 = 332$. VS 283 for the Q9400. I think most everyone will agree that you should go with the setup I just prescribed vs the Q9400, it's an upgrade path and it will perform better in probably anything you care about. HT will help mitigate disadvantages in multithreaded apps.

If you want, you could go AMD and could get a much beefier motherboard. However, Even the X4 955 will lag behind the 2100 in some cases(read: most everything single threaded and sometimes in games). It will be fine for gaming though, and will meet or beat it in pretty much all multithreaded cases. Also, getting something you can overclock will be within shooting distance.

So here's my vote: No overclock, go with what I listed. Overclock: look at AMD. Or you could get an i5 2500, and it will be faster or on-par with an overclocked AMD cpu anyway, except in certain cases.

If you can find a decent deal on an AM2+ motherboard, then you could reuse your DDR2, however I would not recommend this as AM2+ is pretty much on its last leg, and it will save you 54$ at best. Try to sell your old stuff and get some $$ out of it, too.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/76?vs=289 2100 vs 9400
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/88?vs=289 2100 vs 955