Recommend me a worthwhile 775 cpu?

[sastusbulbas]

Hi

I had recently bought a Gigabyte EP45-DS3P 775 to put an E5200 and 4gb of PC6400 in, I have these parts in my old PC which I was thinking of breaking up.

I am now thinking of leaving the old PC running with some older parts so would be building up the Gigabyte with a new processor, but what processor should I be looking at? Would I be better off with a quad core? Something eailly overclocked? Is a Q9550 worthwhile and is the 65w version better? or is this way too much and would I be better with a budget decent overclocker?

Games/music/movies/photo's/open office/web n stuff uses.

I have,
Sapphire Toxic 1gb 4870
4Gb (2x2Gb) Corsair PC-6400
Scythe Kama Angle cooler
Silverstone L13 case

Would be buying,
Corsair 650w modular PSU
Samsung 500Gb or 1Tb F3
Processor?

 

[bigsharn]

Depending on "games" played
High end:
Q6600 G0
Q9550 (Not sure about the 65w version making a difference, should overclock higher though)

E8400 (more basic gaming, o/c to 3.4 and you're sorted)

 

[vian_siu]

if you just want to game then e8400 is a good choice without spending tooo much. it should break the 4ghz barrier easily, and with decent cooling it should almost reach the 4.5 mark.

 

[sastusbulbas]

I have heard the standard Q9550 overclocks as well as the E8400?

It is only £50 more?

Or am I better off saving my cash with something like another E5200 or the E6500 or such?

I will be using it to store and play movies and music too.

 

[Ducky Spud]

The Q9550 should be able to hit 4GHz with a bit of work, think somebody on here has one running 4.6GHz or so but most arent that good!

For gaming, if your buying new then I'd suggest the E8400. Had one for a good while myself clocked up to 4.2GHz easily and handled everything I threw at it, a very good dual core CPU. However, you have access to the members market, so i'd ask around in there. Can probably get a Q9550 or similar quite cheap and would be worth the little bit extra I'd think

 

[sastusbulbas]

After reading about the E6300 I am tempted to go for that? Budget, but would it overclock higher than an E5200 with my Gigabyte P45 board?

I do like the idea of a better processor, but I am still thinking of an i5/i7 after Xmas anyway.

 

[gurusan]

If you are planning of going i5 or i7 in a bit then just save your money. The E5200 is a fine processor and should do 3.5-3.6GHz

 

[Rroff]

I would highly reccomend the Q9550 if you can stretch to one - especially if you get it upto 3.8+gig - should easily see out the current generations of CPUs before it gets long in the tooth... I'm having great results from mine having upgraded from a well clocked Q6600.

 

[Nocky24]

I'd overclock what you've got for now and maybe look into i5/i7 or whatever in the future. Either that or if what you're doing now will get the benefit out of a quad i can't recommend the q9550 enough.

 

[marley82]

After reading about the E6300 I am tempted to go for that? Budget, but would it overclock higher than an E5200 with my Gigabyte P45 board?

I do like the idea of a better processor, but I am still thinking of an i5/i7 after Xmas anyway.

e6300 is an excellent CPU, overclocked past 3ghz and it handles any game you throw at it coupled with a decent vdeo card. My e6300 is 3 years old the 1 you'd get if purchased new now would probably be 45nm and have higher OC potential.

 

[SkodaMart]

I have just picked up a cheap E8500 E0 Brand new, straight to 4.0 Ghz on stock VID (1.3v) Fantastic for gaming.
I would say E8400, E8500 or E8600 it all depends how stable your mobo is with high FSB.

 

[ps3ud0]

On a related note Ive got a E5200 which I think might be holding my system back - think its worth upgrading? System is based on P5Q Deluxe, GTX280 and 4Gb RAM. Its not really overclocked - not sure what I should be able to get out of it...

Mainly play games, dont encode stuff (except music) - normal office use. Would love a Q9550 E0 but the cost seems stupid for my uses, other than a very few taxing games I cant see what use a Quad would be to me...

Unsure if Ill move to i* as I dont think Ill want to keep my PC as current considering my PS3 is now my main gaming toy. Realised I dont need to keep up with the Jones'...

ps3ud0

 

[pig_dog]

I'm in a similar situation as well. I've got an E5300 running at 3.4GHz with a 4890 as my GPU. Is it possible that this CPU would be holding that card back? I've noticed drops every now and again when things get hectic in OF2 and NFS: Shift. Would a Q9550 improve things or would there be no point in that upgrade?

 

[AMG]

Q9550

its a quad and can hit 3.8Ghz with little work

although "its a quad" is a little out as hardly anything can take advantage of it