• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

CPU upgrade worth it?

manveruppd

manveruppd

manveruppd

Associate
Joined
24 Feb 2004
Posts
1,083
Location
Leeds/Cyprus
I'm currently on a piddly little E2180, but it's clocking reasonably well, got it running at 3.2GHz atm. It's served me reasonably well, a loyal little hamster with a surprisingly brutal eye-gouging bite :) However, I've just bought a GTX260 from someone at the MM, and I figure that with the E2180 I'll be CPU limited, so I'm thinking of upgrading. I don't want a new motherboard just yet, and my P35-based clunker won't take any of the fancy new i5s or i7s etc.

So, I'm looking through its compatibility list, thinking what can I upgrade to. Since the point of the upgrade is gaming, I'm not seriously looking at the quad cores, since I doubt any of the games I play would thread very efficiently. But, on the other hand, most of the dual cores I can upgrade to are about the same speed as my overclocked E2180 is running at now! Sure, the bigger cache will give a bit of a boost, but would that amount to anything more than, say, 5FPS? I doubt it.

Is there a decent CPU upgrade path open to me, one that won't cost the earth and will deliver a noticeable speed boost, or will I have to wait until I'm ready to get a new mobo?
 
showmethemoneytshirtp23.jpg
 
e8400 for about 70 quid would be the best move. With effort you're likely to see 4ghz, spending a few hours on it is likely to show 3.6ghz. If your ram can't run over 800mhz then 3.6ghz would be your limit, meaning either new ram, more care overclocking the ram, or the e8600 makes sense.

Whether you'll be able to tell the difference, I wouldn't like to guess. I don't really know what difference processor makes to gaming. A 4ghz c2d really is lovely though.
 
I'd go for a q6600 now that more games are multi threaded, you can get them for under 100 quid now, and with a decent cooler and a little effort you can easily get it to run at 3.2 -3.6Ghz.

The cpu JonJ678 suggested is also a good choice, it just depends on if you want the extra cores or extra Ghz.
 
Well, I'm not really that hardcore a gamer, I rarely buy the latest and most demanding titles. Still haven't played Dragon Age for instance, that's likely to be my next big game and it would probably run at near-max settings even with my current setup! :) That's why I think a quad would be overkill, and for some games that don't thread as efficiently might actually be slower than a dual core cause it just won't clock as high.

I think JonJ678 has the best idea, an oc'ed E8400 would be my best bet, but I'll wait till I get my hands on my new graphics and see whether I actually am CPU-limited.
 
manveruppd, an E2180 @ 3.2GHz is in truth a very capable processor, I had a similar E2140 a while back and found it was a real Bang-for-buck gem . . . . PastyMuncher did a brilliant comparison between a heap of LGA775 processors and concluded there wasn't a great difference between the various chips (all dual cores I think?) . .

So with that said, your probably fine as you are although there is no-doubt "gains" to be had from getting a better chip (Wolfdale/Kentsfield) if the price is right . . . worth it? . . . well apart from the performance aspect there is always the "enthusiast" aspect of swapping out chips! :p

Some people may laugh but there are quite a lot of posters here who quite enjoy the "tinkering" process . . . few beers, bit of stress testing, followed by a benchmark session and a few suicide screenies, it's all part of the Overclocking Culture and I find it very relaxing! :o . . . . I suspect if I had a bike or car and actually new anything about bikes or cars I would be quite content to spend a few hours every week "Tinkering" with it and trying to make it a little better . . . would it be worth it?

[Off Topic:]

To anyone that has trouble understanding people that are a bit "obsessed" with their machines and benchmarking then I highly recommend you watch this film (if you didn't see it already!) . . . Anthony Hopkins at his finest! :cool:

 
Last edited:
Here is my thread for you to have a look at. Can't believe that the last update was a year ago today. Does'nt seem that long ago now. Anyway, there are massive gains to be had by overclocking a E2000 series but at the end of the day, it is still a budget cpu and get's murdered by the E8000 series.

You have a difficult choice really. If someone had a high end dual core such as the E8000 series it would make more sense to stick with it as LGA775 is nearing the end of it's life (although a roadmap showed it outlasting 1156!!). As you are at the low end it's more difficult. A new E8000 series is still a lot of money to splash out on a socket with practically no further upgrade path. A quad would seem more logical as it would give you the maximum longevity as more and more things support multi threading. The cheapest E8000 series on here is the E8400 at £125 and i can't help but feel that's too much money to spend at this late stage in 775's life. Looking at completed listings on the bay they are still averaging mid £80's to mid £90's which is a lot of money for a second hand cpu. You should be able to get one a little cheaper from the MM but they usually get snapped up pretty quickly.
 
Last edited:
Pastymuncher and Big.Wayne, you both articulated my dilemma pretty much perfectly, ie. I know (deep down) that the difference won't be that great, but I'm tempted anyway because I like tinkering with my chips and would love to get an E8xxx up to 4GHz! I do think that the gains will be greater than what Pastymuncher's thread suggests though cause, as you say in it, you're probably GPU-limited for some of those games. Then again, I don't think anything I'm playing currently would be THAT held back by my current CPU, so I think the thing to do is wait until I buy a game that brings my system down to its knees (and then decide whether to go for a faster dual core or to switch over to a quad depending on how well that specific game would thread).

OTOH, I've started getting into video editing and DVD authoring lately, so it's likely I'll give in to the temptation even if the gaming gods continue to smile favourably on my humble E2800! ;)
 
I would say a cheap Q6600 or wait untill you get a new motherboard etc. I went from an e2180 @3.2GHz to an E8500 @4GHz and apart from a couple of games, there wasn't that much in it.
 
E2180 @ 3.2 should be able to keep with the GTX260 just fine, if you were going ati 5850 or for fermi then i would suggest a new quad, otherwise stick with the E2180 for now.
 
Q6600, or wait for 1156 mobo to drop price.

There isnt much game out that can bottle neck by ur duel. I say wait for it unless you really want it now.
 
pastymuncher said:
You have a difficult choice really. If someone had a high end dual core such as the E8000 series it would make more sense to stick with it as LGA775 is nearing the end of it's life (although a roadmap showed it outlasting 1156!!). As you are at the low end it's more difficult. A new E8000 series is still a lot of money to splash out on a socket with practically no further upgrade path. A quad would seem more logical as it would give you the maximum longevity as more and more things support multi threading. The cheapest E8000 series on here is the E8400 at £125 and i can't help but feel that's too much money to spend at this late stage in 775's life. Looking at completed listings on the bay they are still averaging mid £80's to mid £90's which is a lot of money for a second hand cpu. You should be able to get one a little cheaper from the MM but they usually get snapped up pretty quickly.
Click to expand...

Had this same conundrum but decided to bite the bullet and buy a Q9550 to replace my e4300 since ebay were offering 20% off on 1 purchase. Bought the 9550 for £126 from hong kong. 100% feedback and thousands of feed back allthough still a bit nervous. Paid by paypal so should be all insured I spose. Lets see what happens! I will probably do a full system upgrade 2012 providing this cpu gives me a nice performance increase. Wonder what will be around then.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom