Best value used (ebay) Intel socket LGA775 CPU?

[jrichrds]

I have a couple older systems running Core2Duo E7200 (overclocked to 3.4Ghz) and Core2Duo E4500 in an HP system that can't be overclocked. Any recommendations on which used Socket 775 CPUs are the best value for a cheap upgrade in both (can/cannot overclock) situations?

 

[djw39]

I upgraded an e2200 to an e8600 last year for like $50 and felt like a winner. But from the chips you have I think it's not worth it. Maybe the quads but they are much more expensive.

 

[SunRe]

Probably Q9550..

 

[LagunaX]

Cheap quad as above of the penryn architecture.

Sadly a lowly i3-2100 is about powerful as a q9650.

 

[shoman24v]

Q9550 if you can find a good deal.

I just came from an E8400 and after looking at prices on that... my old machine isn't worth anything. Giving it to my father since he's using an old Dell P4 from 2001...

 

[Matt1970]

Most of the Core 2 Duo and Quads have dropped quite a bit in the last year. The Q6600's are going for around $40 on ebay when less that a year ago they were easily near $100.

 

[jrichrds]

Most of the Core 2 Duo and Quads have dropped quite a bit in the last year. The Q6600's are going for around $40 on ebay when less that a year ago they were easily near $100.

Yes, I used to be surprised at how well they held their value. But checked recently and found E8400 going for $20-25 (yet the E8600 goes for a lot more). Which prompted me to look into upgrading the CPUs in my older systems.

 

[jrichrds]

Q9550 if you can find a good deal.

I just came from an E8400 and after looking at prices on that... my old machine isn't worth anything. Giving it to my father since he's using an old Dell P4 from 2001...

I was actually looking at the E8400 since it can be had for less than $25 shipped. Q9550 still close to $100...wouldn't make sense to put that much into an older system.

 

[jrichrds]

I upgraded an e2200 to an e8600 last year for like $50 and felt like a winner. But from the chips you have I think it's not worth it. Maybe the quads but they are much more expensive.

E4500 -> E8400 (in a system that doesn't overclock) would not be a noticeable difference? I put SSD in there already, which helped.

 

[Burpo]

This is what I chose and proved to be much faster than the Q6600 it replaced (less power & heat too).


STILL using it & Worth it (no overclock)

 

[LOUISSSSS]

I have a q6600 up for grabs if anyone wants! Last oc I had it on was 3.6ghz and took the computer apart 2 -3 years ago

 

[sm625]

Yeah the old quads are really pretty much worthless now. They are merely two dualcores stitched together, so they have two large blocks of unshared cache. Every time windows has to do a context switch, it is going to transfer a whole load of garbage over the FSB making it really pretty slow. Between the cache bandwidth and the memory bandwidth... I can really feel the difference when I look at the two run side by side. (I have a 3GHz Q6600 and an i5-750 and I can tell you without a doubt the i5-750 feels soooo much faster even when I underclock it to 2GHz. Even if it was 1.6GHz I would rather have the i5.)

I would just get a E8600 or possibly an E8500 and live with that. Unluss you can find a QX977x for dirt cheap. A deal on such a chip is not totally unreasonable given the fact that even a QX9775 cant outperform a lowly i3 while consuming 3-4X the power.

 

[RiDE]

I would just get a E8600 or possibly an E8500 and live with that. Unluss you can find a QX977x for dirt cheap. A deal on such a chip is not totally unreasonable given the fact that even a QX9775 cant outperform a lowly i3 while consuming 3-4X the power.

I have a QX9770 in my second rig... I would go with a Q9550 or Q9650 instead if I really had to have a 775 cpu at this point. One year ago nobody would let these go cheap but they seem to pop out everyday now.

 

[mindbomb]

probably a q6600

 

[aigomorla]

new board and cpu...

at this point there is no value in a 775 machine, unless u already have the CPU board and Ram.

A 775 Machine vs a 1155 machine... the 1155 will give u noticable savings on the power saving side in a span of less then 4 months.

Meaning... overall the inital budget maybe a little more... like 30-40 dollars more... however the end savings will be greater due to the much more evolved sleep / power saving states the cpu has evolved from.

Also assumption that u will buy the cpu for roughly 30-60 dollars... you could get a LGA1155 pentium for that price... a motherboard for about 50-70... and ram for 40 and jump on a completely new platform.

Finally the board being that old... i dont expect it to survive much longer, as motherboard and ram is the first 2 piece of hardware to give out in a PC system.

E4500 -> E8400 (in a system that doesn't overclock) would not be a noticeable difference? I put SSD in there already, which helped.

Issue is the board and bios may not accept it.
Ive done that to dell's, and failed horribly, because the bios didnt accept the newer gen CPU's.

I would honestly GUT the HP, and rebuild a new PC at this point.
I have been in your shoes trying to fiddle arround with lga775 hardware... and well... its only a temporary solution to a issue your trying to push aside.... and a very temporary one at it too.

 

[Yuriman]

Generally I would agree with letting 775 lie, but you can probably drop a Q8300 in with nearly nothing out of pocket. They're one of the cheapest 775 quads on ebay, though definitely inferior to Q9xxx's. I would only recommend this for certain scenarios though.

A smallish SSD would probably have a larger impact on usability and can be migrated to a new system later on. Though a Core2Quad can still be used with modern games, it's at the tail end of "ok".

 

[aigomorla]

Edited as i misread the original topic:

OP the Board on the HP is probably not a great board to begin with...
(its a prefab board... probably entry level Foxconn if its from HP)

But not only that on your desktop there is a ton of problems with LGA775.
LGA775 also had poor voltage regulators... VRMS werent a importance until after we got deep into quad knowledge.
Infact even Caps were poor on the older boards, with massively failing caps until board vendors started to get serious and brought out solid caps.
(which u wont see on many LGA775 until u get into the DFI Lanparty X38 class or the ASUS Rampage. Not even on the enterprise side until after the introduction of Bloomfield...)
Which is why im not even recommending him upgrade the desktop at all...

Get a SSD... im all with the post above on getting something else like a SSD if u want a speed noticeable speed increase.
And when you lay down the 775 system, you can migrate the SSD with you and not lose out on any budget.

 

[nickbits]

I have a Q9300 on auction right now, so that would be my vote

 

[aigomorla]

For his older desktop possibly depending on what his board is..

The HP... no...

And Ebay links are not allowed by TOS standards... id get rid of your link b4 a mod for this section comes and spanks you.

 

[seitur]

Seriously. Don't invest in LGA 775 anymore. Seriously wait a bit more, save just a few dollars more.Sell your old mobos + CPUs and add those saved dollars. Diffrence in performance and energy effeficiency is just collosal.

Hell propably even Haswell Pentiums will be much better choice.
Or an used old i5 / i7 like an i5-750 or similar.

Just don't go with old Core2Duo or Quads if you can avoid it.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Seriously. Don't invest in LGA 775 anymore.
Or an used old i5 / i7 like an i5-750 or similar.
Just don't go with old Core2Duo or Quads if you can avoid it.

I wouldn't really go for 1156 either.

 

[PontiacGTX]

Q8400 or Q6600

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

X58 and L5639 would make a fun toy

 

[TB13]

Why not mod your board and toss in a Xeon? There is a mod that allows LGA 771 Xeons to run in LGA 775 motherboards. You can get a X5460 which is a quad core clocked at 3.16GHz with 12mb of cache for around $45.