Upgrade from E4400 to E8400?

[50]

Hello,

I was wondering what kind of performance upgrades I can get from upgrading. I spent extra money on my current computer to be able to overclock but I can't go above 3.0 ghz (I'm wondering if my Heatsink is crap). Is it worth it if I can pay maybe 100 or 125 to upgrade? thanks

 

[gorobei]

the P5K-VM should do a little better than 3.0. are you up to date on the bios? Do you have enough voltage on the cpu?
the n/b heatsink on that asus board always struck me as a little undersized for OC. you might try one of the zalman n/b sinks for $9(before you start spending the big money)
check to make sure the IGP is disabled. older IGP boards had problems OCing with a discrete GPU until the IGP was disabled in bios.

if nothing else works:
-while you may not be too keen on asus given your results, the P5E-VM HDMI (G35) has shown a lot better record of OCing than the G33 chipset.
-a P35 m/b usually does better at OC than the uATX. Look for a board that allows you to pick the voltage strap, since your running an Allendale. or BSEL mod your E4400

[an E8400 will generally require you to update the m/b BIOS unless it states support for the newer chips. start with the BIOS update since you would have to do it anyway if you got the 8400.]