New CPU

[Masterdog]

Hi all,

So my CPU, a C2D E6600, is currently the bottleneck in my system - haven't really had any noticeable problems with it but apparently it's going to be near the bottom of what Bad Company 2 needs when it comes out, which is pretty much the light in my gaming life at the moment.
I'd rather replace just the CPU, as I'm happy with everything else, so obv I don't want a new motherboard, which means sticking with a Socket 775 chip.
I'm looking to spend no more than £200, and not even that if the situation warrants it. I could either go for a low-end quad-core (a Q6700), or a high-end dual core (an E8600), both of which are around that price. Or I could go with a not-much-worse E8500, which is almost £70 less. OR, someone could tell me that this isn't going to improve my performance much and an E6600 is fine until I need to upgrade the whole machine.
For the purposes of this post, let's assume it's not going to be overclocked, because it probably isn't. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[antipacker]

go with a e8400

 

[cmndr_andi]

What is the make and model of your motherboard?

But to be honest, bad company 2 is a multiplatform game - so it needs to be scalable to crappy hardware like PS3 and Xbox360. With this in mind there is a very good chance that your CPU will play it very well, especially if you slap on a nice new cooler and overclock it (again, dependant on motherboard).

What Graphics card and monitor resolution are you currently using, I wager GPU power will limit you more than CPU power.

 

[Grimley]

The thing is have you checked to see if your motherboard will be able to take a 45nm dual or quad core cpu? I'd check the makers site to make sure 1st. If not just spend a bit of money on decent cooler & overclock your E6600 (to at least 3.5gig) There are plenty of people on here who would help you with your overclock.