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Upgrade CPU, or replace entirely?

Raduque

Raduque

Lifer
I'm usually the one handing out advice, but I need a little help on this one. My main gaming and general use desktop has the following hardware:

Core2Duo Wolfdale E8400 3ghz
Gigabyte EP45-UD3R
6gb DDR2 PC2-6400
Galaxy GeForce GTX460GC 768

I game at 1680x1050 and put the settings as high as I can, except AA. Antialiasing is usually 2x or off. I also do transcoding of movies and TV shows from my HDDVR so I can watch them on my tablet.

Would it be worth it to get around a 2.4 to 2.8ghz Quad for this system, or should I just scrap the whole thing and put in a new CPU/MB/RAM combo?
 
Raduque said:
I'm usually the one handing out advice, but I need a little help on this one. My main gaming and general use desktop has the following hardware:

Core2Duo Wolfdale E8400 3ghz
Gigabyte EP45-UD3R
6gb DDR2 PC2-6400
Galaxy GeForce GTX460GC 768

I game at 1680x1050 and put the settings as high as I can, except AA. Antialiasing is usually 2x or off. I also do transcoding of movies and TV shows from my HDDVR so I can watch them on my tablet.

Would it be worth it to get around a 2.4 to 2.8ghz Quad for this system, or should I just scrap the whole thing and put in a new CPU/MB/RAM combo?
Click to expand...
Getting a quad like that would be more of a lateral move than anything else.

For anything multithreaded you'd get less than double your current performance, and for anything single/double-threaded you'd get less performance than you do right now. (Most likely.)

In comparison, upgrading to even a midrange current-generation chip like the 3570K would more than double your performance. However, if you want it to keep up with current games you would need a better graphics card as well or you'd be holding the Ivy Bridge back.

To add another wrinkle, Haswell should be available relatively soon, depending on how long you're willing to wait.
 
Well, till mid last year, I had been running a 1.8ghz c2d at 2.8ghz since the Conroes came out, with an HD3870 1gb. Friend of mine sold me his old rig for the cost of shipping because he thought it was dead.

I can wait. My thing is budget. Im really cheap and I dont want to spend more than about $350 for a board cpu and ram.
 
That CPU is definitely holding you back. I used to run the exact same system - e8400/gtx460-768. When I upgraded the cpu to an I7-860, it made a huge difference.

The problem is that q9xxx processors are a terrible value. Newegg has three amazing combo deals with a 3570k/z77 for under $300. That and a memory upgrade will be a great investment.

Check in hot deals for details:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2312354
 
Imo depends on what you want. For single player action the cpu is fine, but online huge maps etc the cpu might hold you back. If you run a lot of games single player like me only a small faction utilizes more than the 2 cores. The big stress is on the gpu. A fast dual core will still get you far.

My cents. 🙂

Sli 2 gtx 460 in that system and you will be amazed ia.
 
Termie said:
That CPU is definitely holding you back. I used to run the exact same system - e8400/gtx460-768. When I upgraded the cpu to an I7-860, it made a huge difference.

The problem is that q9xxx processors are a terrible value. Newegg has three amazing combo deals with a 3570k/z77 for under $300. That and a memory upgrade will be a great investment.

Check in hot deals for details:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2312354
Click to expand...

Do I really need a K, though? I'm not going to overclock it. If I can save a few bucks by getting a non-K, that's a better option for me.

nightspydk said:
Imo depends on what you want. For single player action the cpu is fine, but online huge maps etc the cpu might hold you back. If you run a lot of games single player like me only a small faction utilizes more than the 2 cores. The big stress is on the gpu. A fast dual core will still get you far.

My cents. 🙂

Sli 2 gtx 460 in that system and you will be amazed ia.
Click to expand...

This isn't an SLI board. The other thing is, I don't think my PSU could handle it.

I don't play multiplayer games.
 
Raduque said:
Do I really need a K, though? I'm not going to overclock it. If I can save a few bucks by getting a non-K, that's a better option for me.



This isn't an SLI board. The other thing is, I don't think my PSU could handle it.

I don't play multiplayer games.
Click to expand...

You don't need a K, but if you can purchase from Newegg, you'll get a K processor plus overclocking motherboard for the same price as a non-K processor and non-overclocking board. At worst, you get higher resale value, but maybe you'll want to overclock a bit down the line.

Put it this way - the absolute least amount you could spend to get a functioning Intel quad core would be $170 for a i5-3330 and $50 for a completely stripped down B75 board with no HDMI, two RAM slots, 1 SATA3 port, 4 USB ports, etc. Basically, not a serious option. For $270 after rebate, though, you could have a 3570K plus a z77 motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...&SID=u00000687

Just a note on SLI - that is definitely the wrong approach for your system. You're already CPU-bottlenecked, even in single-player games.
 
Blain said:
$118 gets you the X3360 I linked above.
An X3360 is the Xeon version of the Q9550.
Click to expand...

That would be the best option for immediate gains at the lowest cost, however in the long run that CPU is only a stop gap, I would say it would give him another year, maybe 2.
 
Raduque said:
Core2Duo Wolfdale E8400 3ghz
Gigabyte EP45-UD3R
6gb DDR2 PC2-6400
Galaxy GeForce GTX460GC 768

I game at 1680x1050 and put the settings as high as I can, except AA. Antialiasing is usually 2x or off. I also do transcoding of movies and TV shows from my HDDVR so I can watch them on my tablet.

Would it be worth it to get around a 2.4 to 2.8ghz Quad for this system, or should I just scrap the whole thing and put in a new CPU/MB/RAM combo?
Click to expand...

My last build had the same motherboard, and I took it from a Core 2 Duo to quad (Q6600). Felt like a big difference, especially when I overclocked it from 2.4 to 3.6. It was hard to tell the difference in gaming specifically, as I had to replace the video card around the same time (old one died). At the time I was gaming at the same resolution as well.

So, I would guess many of the games you play are being somewhat crippled by your current CPU, something like a 6600 would make it faster, as well as making many other tasks snappier as well.
 
I still run a s775, Q9550. I went from the 8400 to the 9550, 4 years ago. The difference is noticeable, but at this point in time I would go to a newer platform instead of a lateral "side" grade.

This is just my opinion, and completely depends on your budget.
 
I'd only upgrade to Core 2-based quad core (C2Q or Xeon) if I could find a used one for cheap. $50 or so would probably be my limit, above that and you're starting to seriously cut in on money that could be used for a full platform upgrade.
 
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