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Who's struggling to justify upgrading their CPU?

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I'm using an Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (2 x 2.3GHz) and I play StarCraft 2...and I'm still having trouble justifying an upgrade :$.
 
i did just upgrade! but it won't seem at all impressive compared to most on here. had a c2d e4300. then in december got the microcenter deal, c2q 9300 at $100. dual to quad without changing anything else, i like. can run it at about 3.0-3.2ghz, but i prefer 2.25ghz at .975v. if i do a bunch of video encoding i can reset and change it. that's something i like about the newer stuff, better power features, and it can all be automatic.

my recent upgrades have been more storage related. i have all new hard drives, almost paid for by selling the old.
 
CTho9305 said:
I'm using an Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (2 x 2.3GHz) and I play StarCraft 2...and I'm still having trouble justifying an upgrade :$.
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i would say it would be hard to justify replacing most cpus today but at 2.3 ghz, you just dont know what youre missing...
 
I run a AMD 3600+ which is a x 2 oc'd to 2.6 with a 9600gt and a 19inch monitor. the only game I play has been MW2 now. I don't have a reason to build another although i am really itching to do so.

Once Bf3 comes out I'll do something. I'll see how it runs first.
 
Deanodarlo said:
Who's struggling to justify upgrading their CPU?
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I have an older AMD 620, which has a small cache and only runs at 2.6ghz. I'am not planning on upgrading for another 6+ months, or towards the end of 2011.

Even though there are faster cpus on the market, I can not justify spending $100, or even $200+ for a marginal boost in speed.

Back in the late 1990s, when my gaming buddies and I were using Pentium II and III systems, a buddy of mine told me something, and its stuck till this day - "I dont upgrade until the speeds double."

Right now I have a quad core 2.6ghz , I'am not planning on upgrading until I can almost double my current CPU speed or cores.
 
I had those considerations as well but a bit different when I planned to upgrade to an i7-950. My current system is not far from that as it runs a Phenom II 965 but I run quite performance hungry applications and upgrade often. I liked the possibility of 24 GByte of RAM in my system. And I planned to use several SSDs as well (with a board having at least 10 SATA). The decision of my current system was driven by the availability of boards with 10 SATA ports btw as I use 4 optical drives and 6 (2 TB) hard drives (my older systems have even 8-12 hard discs).

However the total system cost got quite high (~ 5000 USD) and I asked myself if my current one could do it somewhat longer and to wait for the next SSD generation to save some money.

So finally that was the decision and since the new SSDs aren't still there nothing changed. However I feel affected somewhat by my computer and I am experiencing especially memory problems as currently I have only 4 GByte of memory and the system gets extremly slow when it starts swapping. I feel also very affected by not having SSDs.

The CPU limitations are there as well but those are not affecting me too much so I could stay much longer with my current system regarding CPU power.

The dark side is, that when I will upgrade later that year this Socket 1366 will be even more legacy and in other platforms I will likly only be able to employ 16 GB of memory.

So for me it is more that the hardware (esp. the SSDs but also memory) I want is not available and I will not upgrade therefore.

Regarding CPU power I normally upgrade when there is double of CPU performance than what I have now, so regarding CPU I would upgrade e.g. to 8 core CPUs. It's just this memory/SSD thing why I want an upgrade "out-of-order".
 
i did not struggle at all today installing my i7 930 and new board!! :biggrin: quicker booting is first thing i have noticed over my old system. very happy with upgrade
 
toyota said:
2500k, mobo and 4gb ram are around 450 bucks. where do you live that 450 bucks buys a car?
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My last cars were $600 and $500, and I would need 8GB to not be downgrading.

BoomerD said:
You must drive crappy cars
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Pretty much. Doesn't make sense to be in debt for an appliance, IMO.
If you're waiting for "Bulldozer," you must be strictly an AMD fanboy...and while there's not really anything wrong with preferring one over the other, (I prefer Intel, but bought my wife a Dell with an Athlon processor) you MAY be waiting a while...and at this time, there's no knowing if you're going to get more from Bulldozer than the 1155 line offers. (only rumors so far)
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More in what way? If good enough, it could either (a) offer good midrange competition, such that it could be a good CPU family to buy, and/or (b) cause Intel to lower prices. Otherwise, prices are going only just inch down a wee bit, as more Intel SKUs come out.

There's no way BD will offer superior per-thread performance, except possibly in a handful of workstation and server workloads. Even then, it's a possibility of a handful, and while they could matter to me, it would just be one of many performance numbers, in which most will not be wins. OTOH, there is a fair chance that they could offer more compelling performance for $100-200, maybe even into $300, giving superior price pressure to what exists now.
 
where can you buy a car that actually runs and meets emission laws for 500 bucks? heck my tires cost more than that.
 
toyota said:
where can you buy a car that actually runs and meets emission laws for 500 bucks? heck my tires cost more than that.
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I bought a Buick Century 4 1/2 years ago for $750, still driving it today with 197,000 miles. Had 122,000 when I bought it, only broke down once so far and cost $3 to fix. Thing looks terrible, but runs great while pulling 29mpg. Bought it from some guy in one of those small towns where if you blink, you probably didn't see it as you drove by. lmao

Now in todays economy and inflated used car prices, I couldn't tell you where to find a reliable car for under $2,000. On the bright side, computers have become more powerful and cheaper in the last 4 years.
 
toyota said:
where can you buy a car that actually runs and meets emission laws for 500 bucks? heck my tires cost more than that.
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Funny you say that 😀

I drive a 97 Dodge Stratus that only cost $500. Passed deq and everything. Had it since 09 and i see no problems on the horizon!

However, my much more expensive Mercedes 420 SEL had tranny probs and my Subaru Impreza had intermittent nostart issues. I paid 5x as much for those cars, and didnt get the value I wanted.

YMMV on used cars, for sure.
 
Q6600 G0 Running at 3.2Ghz, I game at 1920x1080, I've researched a lot of benchmarks and seem'd like at that resolution the GPU starts to take over, thats why I'didnt pull the trigger on the 2500k yet, Ijust dont know how much iwould gain upgrading my cpu for that resolution ( GFX is a HD 5850 btw), im not into video/photo editing, just using my rig for gaming and school work + Internet.
 
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I bought the Athlon II X3 435 almost a year ago.
Unlocked it to a Phenom II X4 B35 (no L3 CACHE)
OCed it from 2.9GHz to 3.48GHz

5 months ago my consumer mind was telling me to get a Phenom II X4
A day later I fought the thought out of my head
4 months ago my consumer mind was telling me to get a Phenom II X4
A day later I fought the thought out of my head
3 months ago my consumer mind was telling me to get a Phenom II X4
A day later I fought the thought out of my head
2 months ago my consumer mind was telling me to get a Phenom II X4
A day later I fought the thought out of my head
1 months ago my consumer mind was telling me to get a Phenom II X4
A day later I fought the thought out of my head
Last week my consumer mind was telling me to get a Phenom II X4
A day later I bought the PHenom II X4 955 BE that was in the weeks specials on NCIX

Yesterday I installed it
Yesterday I OCed it to 3.6GHz

Today i'm laughing at myself but i'm happy 😛
 
I went from an E8500 to an i7 920 @ 3.6 to an i5 2500k @ 4.6. I don't think there was any reason to even go past the E8500. 😛 I upgrade because it's fun, not because I need to.
 
Axon said:
I went from an E8500 to an i7 920 @ 3.6 to an i5 2500k @ 4.6. I don't think there was any reason to even go past the E8500. 😛 I upgrade because it's fun, not because I need to.
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Heheh isn't that case in 90% of upgrades?!!?!?
 
toyota said:
where can you buy a car that actually runs and meets emission laws for 500 bucks? heck my tires cost more than that.
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In GA, apparently. Don't worry, you would not mistake it for a $5000 used car 🙂. Though, there are no inspections, here, which I'm sure skews the prices.
 
Great thread title, this is exactly how I feel too.

Q9650
6970
X38
4GB / Win 7 64

Only interested in Gaming. I know my cpu is SO OLD and people always say it’s holding your gpu back etc etc. right? Not according to benchmarks. I game at 1920 x 1200 so I looked at Anandtechs review of my gpu (6970) on a newer faster system. Anandtech used a Intel Core i7-920 @ 3.33GHz which will hammer my ancient Q9650 right? I even put my cpu back to stock speed to further exaggerate the difference (I have the upgrade itch). So, in Crysis Warhead, how many frames per second is my old cpu slower than Anand’s newer, faster, overclocked cpu? Answer: One FPS. One.

And I have people telling me to upgrade my ancient CPU because it’s holding my new graphics card back. Do your own research first people. Spend a grand on a cpu and it’ll make sod all difference in graphically intensive games. Even Sandy B which is even newer and faster (and cheaper) – looks amazing, but for gaming, I simply can’t justify it. And I can afford it.
 
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