Considering a CPU upgrade

[judasmachine]

The specs are in the sig...

My question is now the time to upgrade? I'd like to keep my mobo for now, and just want a CPU. I also don't want to spend much more than $150. Checking my specs what would you recommend? Is there anything in that price range that would boost me nicely, taking my OC into consideration?

Oh and I am using the 13X BIOS that supposedly supports 1333 FSB, and 45nm.

Pic of OC

edit I think I'll wait and see what tricks Nehalem has up it's sleeve (HyperThreading on a multi-core!) and pick up a new mobo, and ram then...

 

[Drsignguy]

What do you like to do? Play games, encoding, word processing. So far for the price / performance ratio, you cant go wrong with the E7200 with its 45nm technology and lower power consumption. Also you will be adding another 1024Mb of L2 Cache. I checked out your Motherboard and with this revision, it will handle the This chip among others. But in your price range, I would tend to think this would be a good all around choice.

 

[judasmachine]

I game mostly, but do a lot of TV/movie watching. My most modern game is Oblivion, and Quake 4, but plan on grabbing Crysis or Unreal Tourney 3 soon. I just don't want my CPU to be a bottleneck, since I just laid down $165 for the 3870 (a month before the 4850 came out...). Nice OC on that e7200 of yours, that is tempting.

 

[RallyMaster]

I say the only thing you could upgrade on that system would be the video card. You can grab a HD4850 on Newegg with promo code for 144.99AR and it would last you for quite a while.

 

[Drsignguy]

Originally posted by: judasmachine
I game mostly, but do a lot of TV/movie watching. My most modern game is Oblivion, and Quake 4, but plan on grabbing Crysis or Unreal Tourney 3 soon. I just don't want my CPU to be a bottleneck, since I just laid down $165 for the 3870 (a month before the 4850 came out...). Nice OC on that e7200 of yours, that is tempting.

Thanks I can get to 3.6 but I liked the voltage better at this setting ( 3.4 ). As for your vid card, it will very much handle what your intentions are so, For what you have in your system, an E7200 wolfie will be an added bonus.

 

[DSF]

I'd stand pat. Nothing you do is going to be a night and day difference. A Core2Duo at 2.8 is a pretty speedy chip, and your video card is pretty new as well. If nothing else, try your new games before you shell out money for an upgrade that might not be worth it.

 

[judasmachine]

Originally posted by: DSF
I'd stand pat. Nothing you do is going to be a night and day difference. A Core2Duo at 2.8 is a pretty speedy chip, and your video card is pretty new as well. If nothing else, try your new games before you shell out money for an upgrade that might not be worth it.

yeah so far, it's really quick. i played the crysis demo and it ran smooth enough. i guess i just don't feel happy unless i'm changing something...

 

[KlokWyze]

Originally posted by: judasmachine

Originally posted by: DSF
I'd stand pat. Nothing you do is going to be a night and day difference. A Core2Duo at 2.8 is a pretty speedy chip, and your video card is pretty new as well. If nothing else, try your new games before you shell out money for an upgrade that might not be worth it.

yeah so far, it's really quick. i played the crysis demo and it ran smooth enough. i guess i just don't feel happy unless i'm changing something...

Yeah, that's the normal gearhead attitude. A lot of people simply enjoy modifying machines, talking about modifying them or having the latest & greatest more than using them. I realized after awhile I do this a lot.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I hate to break your 150 barrier but UT3 benefits from the more L2 cache I don't remember where i seen the article about this but the comparison between a 3mb l2 cache and a 6mb l2 cache was about a 14% difference in favor of course of the 6mb l2 cache... I game at 1280x1024 and with most things turned off, my 8400 and 3870 combined are smokin fast in UT3... I put my 3870 in my 8400 just for kicks and it was no less than amazing compared to my 1900XTX... I took, my character to the toughest spot for my 1900XTX in Ocrimon Dawn, a ctf map, where my drops were at 60's, and with the 3870, i was pullin 100's (same spot) I could just imagine what the 4870 would do with 800 sp's

 

[kenny0813]

Reading this just makes me wanna upgrade my own rig =P

If you're gonna be playing those higher end games, you might wanna consider upgrading the video card though, to a 4850 or 4870, it'll really give you the extra fps if you're gonna be doing high-res gaming too

 

[Drsignguy]

Originally posted by: judasmachine

Originally posted by: DSF
I'd stand pat. Nothing you do is going to be a night and day difference. A Core2Duo at 2.8 is a pretty speedy chip, and your video card is pretty new as well. If nothing else, try your new games before you shell out money for an upgrade that might not be worth it.

yeah so far, it's really quick. i played the crysis demo and it ran smooth enough. i guess i just don't feel happy unless i'm changing something...

Hehe, For some strange reason, I knew you are getting the itch to make some changes.

 

[judasmachine]

yeah i think i will sit on it for a while, and check out the e8xx series, and perhaps a 48xx in a another month or two when i can scrape up some more dough to blow. it just gets hard to wait sometimes. whats coming down the pipe?

 

[iBPJohn]

There's rumor of Intel price drop very soon
http://xtreview.com/addcomment...3-2008-price-drop.html

 

[judasmachine]

Originally posted by: iBPJohn
There's rumor of Intel price drop very soon
http://xtreview.com/addcomment...3-2008-price-drop.html

sweet, hope it pans out. that e8400 is looking better and better.

 

[aigomorla]

*sigh*

Does the P965 even support 45nm without problems? I thought the P35 was the floor for 45nm.

You need to see if P965 can handle a 45nm chip. Otherwise, it maybe your best choice to stick with what you got.

Maybe ugprade cooling and give it a bit more overclocking.

 

[imported_Woody]

Another thing you could do is replace those mismatched 512MB sticks of RAM with an inexpensive pair of 2GB sticks bringing you up to 4GB RAM. If you run XP it wouldn't be a big deal but Vista really likes the extra ram and you may get better overclocks. Overall though, I don't think you need to upgrade that CPU because you won't be limited with today's games. You would be better off selling the video card and getting a new Radeon HD 4850. You won't be bottlenecked by the CPU with your current overclock.

 

[Drsignguy]

Originally posted by: aigomorla
*sigh*

Does the P965 even support 45nm without problems? I thought the P35 was the floor for 45nm.

You need to see if P965 can handle a 45nm chip. Otherwise, it maybe your best choice to stick with what you got.

Maybe ugprade cooling and give it a bit more overclocking.

It shows that it does, but I haven't seen any solid feedbacks (personally) to how well it overclocks?

 

[Cheesetogo]

I seriously doubt that you'll notice any real improvement. Your current processor should not be much of a bottleneck at all, at least in most of your applications.