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Faster C2D or Quad upgrade?

Dogbreath

Dogbreath

Dogbreath

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
16,661
Location
Devon
My desktop is currently an E4300 on an Asrock 945G ConRoe uATX board, a crappy old 7300GS all in a Sugo SG02 with a pretty decent Antec PSU (can't remember model). It's got a 2x1GB sticks of decent branded memory...need to check speed though.

I want to use it for some gaming, and I'd like to significantly improve on video transcoding speed if possible. Obviously a decent graphics card is a given, but wondering about CPU upgrades. The uATX form factor is a bit limiting, but this case fits perfectly into my setup so want to keep it.

The Asrock mobo is not compatible with quad core CPUs, so do I just get the fastest C2D I can afford (E8600?) or get new mobo and a quad core CPU, and if so, Intel or AMD? I don't have a fortune to spend, excluding gfx card I'd like to budget around £250 if possible, perhaps a bit more if I can get something worthwhile. Seems that would get me a Phenom II 940 and an AM2+ board, or a Q6600 and board, or should I be looking elswhere?
 
Q6600 has my vote its older tech now but that is why it is cheap and it overclocks like a champ. Not sure how the AMD offer fairs interms of performance or value I am afraid.
 
Check out my cpu comparison thread here. All Intel dual cores apart from the E7000 series. You could get a decent motherboard and clock the E4300. If your going to do lot's of video stuff a quad will be handy though.
 
I would buy the E8400, E8500 or E8600 if I were you.
That way you could use your current motherboard.
Overclocked to 4ghz+ these chips perform better than most quads in current games.

So not only is getting a dual core the cheaper option for you, it is arguably the best option as well (for gaming at least).

Always make sure that the CPU is definitely compatible with your motherboard before purchase, some boards may require you to flash the bios to a newer version to be compatible with a E8600.
 
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