E5200 @ 3.3mhz Upgrade Options

[lastninja64]

RIght I have had my E5200 for a whilw now, recently clocked it at 3.3ghz without any problems (even goes to 3.5ghz stable but fan noise starts getting louder) Thanks to the advice form this forum with some bios tweaking. I have stuck a 5850 in the last few weeks and this was a massive difference compared to my 4850. Mobo is a Gigabyte 35 DS3L with XMS 4gb Ram I think!

What options would you look at upgrading to make a bigger difference?

• Upgrade motherboard to a Crossfire capable mobo and get another 5850 to run in crossfire mode?
• Get a 9550 to stick in this PC so I have quad core and better 12mb cache?
• Upgrade to a I5 750 with new memory and mobo for around £300 quid?
• Or wait until the new chips start coming out?

Any advice would be appreciated, I mostly use the PC for gaming with high end games, everything runs really nice at the moment in 19200 x 1200 and AA/AF etc etc but looking for something else that will make that next big difference without it been too costly...

Cheers

 

[Kanifee]

really looking forword to these answers, woundering weather to change my cpu for that few more mhz, buy a quad like a Q8300 and clock it or just upgrade the lot to i5, only really game though just upped my res to yours.

 

[reygjabla]

Get an after market cooler that is compatible to both 775, 1156 & 1366 Mobo and try to OC your CPU a bit higher. If you can do that, then, upgrade can be done a lot later when new cheaper stuff/tech comes in. Gaming difference is just a few frames per second and might not be noticeable, unless you play in the high res monitor.

 

[HangTime]

I wouldn't bother with the first option, that's a huge expense (new mobo AND gfx card) and will leave you with a big CPU bottleneck in most cases.

Upgrading to a quad on existing socket would be the most painless option, you have to ask yourself if it's a long-term solution though.

i5 upgrade path is a reasonable one, I did similar (E4300 @ 3.15ghz -> i5-750 @ 4.25ghz)

As for waiting for new chips, seems to me you are fairly happy with your current setup so worth considering. I only went for i5 because of the MSI launch promotion (GD65 @ £63).

 

[lastninja64]

Thanks for the input on this one.

I am tempted with the i5 setup for around£300 but some other forum said it would only make a 3fps difference?

I already have a good aftermarket cooler and asked about the overclocking on here before, got it to 3.5ghz before but kept it at 3.3, this doesnt seem to make a bi difference.

The 9550 Quad is now out the question cos it has gone up over £20 more!

 

[Vale]

I'm in the same boat, I was going to get one of those ADM Quad core Phenom II 810 chips and an AMD 2+ board and clock the chip, apparantly they are quite good chips and should be quicker than my E5200 at 3.43 gig.

 

[Arthalen]

Gf has a rig with a E5200 at 3.33 as well, interestingly, but anyways...

What options would you look at upgrading to make a bigger difference?

• Upgrade motherboard to a Crossfire capable mobo and get another 5850 to run in crossfire mode?
• Get a 9550 to stick in this PC so I have quad core and better 12mb cache?
• Upgrade to a I5 750 with new memory and mobo for around £300 quid?
• Or wait until the new chips start coming out?

1) Can your PSU handle this option? But with a 5850, you can handle everything thats currently out with some ease.

2) For gaming, this is a minor upgrade really. For Games, clock speed is king over amount of cores apart from in a few games where it gives a noticeable difference. DX11 engine based games in future will change this with native multitheaded support in the API.

3) Waste of cash imho. If you really want Nehalem, go I7 and X58 for Crossfire opportunity in the future. But see point 1

4) Your rig is fine as it is, especially if you could run at 3.5Ghz on the CPU with a new cooler to cut the noise

My Advice? If you really want to chuck some money at your PC to give it a 'noticeable upgrade', get a SSD.