How much of an increase?

Leeroy123

Leeroy123

Leeroy123

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Hi guys time to upgrade for me. Everything apart from the graphics card nvidia 295 ( change that next ), and also the psu, case, hdd are all new so they are fine. So im looking for a mobo, ram, cpu and cooler. My current specs are...

E8400 wolfdale dualcore [email protected]
Asus P5q motherboard
8 gig ddr2 1066 corsair dominator
Arctic extreme cooler

I am looking at 3 bundles , these are....

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-042-OE&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-010-OB&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-008-OB&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=

Just wondering what type of performance increase i would get with each bundle and which one you guys recommended before i order. I could spend a little more and get the best i7 package but i don't think ill need that. These 3 seem powerful bundles and i'm sure they all would be a big improvement, but i need to be certain of the best one first.

Thanks guys hope u can help :)
 
It's very subjective, depending on what you want to do with it. If you can give some more info on what you actually do with the computer, we can give better answers. I'd be interested to know what you're doing that an E8400 can't handle though.

The i3 530 will give barely any increase. You're already running a dual core at 3.9gHz. i3 is a more efficient architechture than core2, but it won't be noticeably faster for most (if any) tasks. This would be little more than a £340 step sideways, don't bother.

The i5 750 is a quad core, so you'll find noticeable improvements in certain tasks - video encoding, compression/decompression of large files, multi tasking. In games you'll notice very little difference. I'd go for this if your games run fine but you're finding your machine lags in CPU intensive tasks.

The AMD Phenom II 955 will be very comparable to the i5 750. I believe (check this first, however, as it's very much based on my memory - I've not checked for this post) that the 955 will tend to be a little faster than the 750 in games, while slightly slower in encoding and similar. It's basically the AMD option to the 750 bundle. You get a slightly higher default clock, but Phenom II is less efficient than i5 - overall meaning it will likely be very similar for a little less money.

I'd go for the Phenom II if you're looking to do it for slightly less, or you're going for an improvement in games. The i5 if you're looking to get improvements in CPU tasks such as video encoding etc. My guess would be that you're looking for improvements in encoding, as none of these upgrades would be much use for improving framerates in games. As such, I'd reccommend the i5. Ignore the i3
 
Hi audigex, thanks for the reply. My system now runs things great, but a few games that are out like grand theft auto 4 and crysis are more cpu needy than gpu. This is pretty much the reason i am going to change to the better cpu bundle. So you say the i3 would not be worth the upgrade, so ill count that one out. I do prefare intel as i have never had problems with them before. Im looking at that i5 then, surely that would give me that little extra push in gaming to rather than my dual core E8400. I know its not the graphics card holding the system back, surely the 295 would have more room to stretch it legs with an i5 , i7 wouldnt it?
 
The problem here is that your current cpu is at 3.9.

In order to get a decent boost from sticking an i5 in there, you're gonna need it running at about 3.5 to get the same kind of FPS in games. If you can get an i5 up to 4Ghz, you'll be laughing, as that will literally eat anything you throw at it.

The DDR3 would help too, as you currently have DDR2. Get some nice 1600Mhz RAM (not that much more expensive than 1333) and you'll either get it running at low latency 1333, or normal at 1600. Either way you'll get a difference from the RAM alone.

Graphics card is absolutely fine. The 295 is still in the top 5% of available cards.
 
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