Sorry your browser is not supported!

You are using an outdated browser that does not support modern web technologies, in order to use this site please update to a new browser.

Browsers supported include Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer 10+ or Microsoft Edge.

Geek Culture / Need help selecting a new CPU

Author
Message
4125
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 3rd Feb 2008
Location: Bronx, New York
Posted: 12th Oct 2011 03:28
Link
So I'm trying to upgrade from my Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 2.80GHz LGA775 CPU to something more up to date.

However, I don't have the money for the newer Core I series or any other socket CPU since I would have to get a new motherboard + RAM which would equal more cash.

I only have about $250 atm and sadly it will take me another while to get more than that.

So tell me guys, what would be a good upgrade from my old E7400 for under $250 ? It does needs to give me an improvement but I want some of the "experts" here give me some ideas.

Thanks...

Saving up for my new gaming rig !
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Ocho Geek
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Aug 2007
Location: Manchester, UK
Posted: 12th Oct 2011 12:40
Link
you can't really get new processors for LGA775 sockets. The next best thing would be to get the top-of-the range Core 2 duo; though the improvement in performance would likely be negligible.

In short, wait until you have the money for a new motherboard

Try finding bundles like these (this one is from the UK)


Not Spanish, Not Eight, Just Ocho

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Daniel TGC
Retired Moderator
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 19th Feb 2007
Location: TGC
Posted: 12th Oct 2011 15:40 Edited at: 12th Oct 2011 15:45
Link
I agree, you need a motherboard update as well as a new CPU.

I had an ASUS motherboard, with a CPU core unlocking feature for AMD chips. I turned a £28 sempron CPU at 2.7Ghz into a dual core 2.7Ghz I also overclocked it to 3.0Ghz I've not found any stability problems so far, even using CGI rendering tools such as Blender, Vue and Poser. I've had no general operating system crashes or blue screens and it'll render a full HD, hour long video in PowerDirector 8 in a couple of hours.

When self building, I typically go for AMD chips, they aren't the fastest but the performances is decent, and it's pretty good value for money.

If your money is tight and you need a gateway system until you get more funding there are worse things you can do. The AMD3 socket allows for the phenom six core processors as well. That's more processing power that you'll ever need. Unless you intend to start rendering a pixar movie
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Crazy Acorn
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Mar 2009
Location: Stalking people...
Posted: 12th Oct 2011 15:59
Link
So you got about $250 right? Thats just enough for some top of the line stuff because the top ones are all in that range but heres the catch... I need to know what type of RAM your current motherboard takes... Some only take DDR2 and top of the line ones take DDR3. 4 GIG ram is about $25 but your might find it for cheaper prices but DDR3's are about $25 bucks. I got some motherboards/Proccesser bundles that you can look at that are only $207 and you could buy 1 4gig RAM or even 2 if you do mail and rebate.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=782606&csid=_22

Back to top
Profile PM Email
4125
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 3rd Feb 2008
Location: Bronx, New York
Posted: 12th Oct 2011 16:15
Link
Quote: "I agree, you need a motherboard update as well as a new CPU."


Well a motherboard upgrade isn't happening any time soon, and I'm not talking about 2 - 3 months I'm talking about like a longer time period than that (like maybe 6 months or more) and that's not a guarantee.

Quote: "I need to know what type of RAM your current motherboard takes"


DDR2 I believe up to 1066MHz. It's an XFX 780i SLi Motherboard.

Mail-in-rebates never ever work for me. I've done it since like 2007 when I first got this PC (only took me like 2 years to save up for a $700 PC). So I honestly doubt that's going to happen.

There is a cheap PC store like a few blocks away from where I live, and they was selling the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 for about $220. Looking online I couldn't really find a Q9650 that cheap and this one is brand new.

I think the Q9650 makes for a good upgrade IMO. I will still have some cash left for some food (Because I'm really that broke).

However, I may consider getting that AMD Bundle "Crazy Acorn" Showed me. But I would sort of push all of my cash into that and then I would also need to buy a new O/S because my Windows 7 Disc is cracked and I really don't feel like going through all of that Lol...

Saving up for my new gaming rig !
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Crazy Acorn
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Mar 2009
Location: Stalking people...
Posted: 12th Oct 2011 16:38
Link
Yeah it is quiet a pain because I need to get it but then I need windows 7 (I have vista) So my new motherboard can read the hard drive.

Back to top
Profile PM Email
Daniel TGC
Retired Moderator
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 19th Feb 2007
Location: TGC
Posted: 12th Oct 2011 18:59
Link
If you don't want to upgrade your motherboard, don't bother upgrading your CPU, that's my advice.

In the mean time you can compair cpu's directly using this site:

http://cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

It lists their prices too.
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
4125
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 3rd Feb 2008
Location: Bronx, New York
Posted: 12th Oct 2011 21:21
Link
Quote: "If you don't want to upgrade your motherboard, don't bother upgrading your CPU, that's my advice.
"


I never really said I didn't want to upgrade my motherboard. I really do want to get the newer stuff from today, mostly a Intel Core i7 Setup or something like that. But with all the money I don't have, I can't do it. Buying that motherboard mentioned above would only make this upgrade more costly for me, since I would have to buy another copy of Windows 7. Saving up money is no problem for me, but I don't want to have to wait years again (which is likely going to be the case unless I do get a job which I won't anytime and believe me I have been trying).

Why not bother upgrading the CPU to a Q9650 ? Because according to:

Quote: "In the mean time you can compair cpu's directly using this site:

http://cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php"


:The Q9650 is fairly high up on the list. Where mine is on the High Mid Range List. I believe getting the Q9650 IMO for now until money gets better (don't know how long that will be) for some of the newer stuff out there...

Saving up for my new gaming rig !
Back to top
Profile PM Email
bitJericho
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 12th Oct 2011 23:08 Edited at: 12th Oct 2011 23:09
Link
What are you guys talking about. A core 2 quad would be a substantial upgrade to a core 2 duo. I'm starting to think all you guys are made of money. You can still get core 2 quads.

Check amazon (see code box) or ebay!




Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
4125
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 3rd Feb 2008
Location: Bronx, New York
Posted: 12th Oct 2011 23:31
Link
Quote: "A core 2 quad would be a substantial upgrade to a core 2 duo. I'm starting to think all you guys are made of money. You can still get core 2 quads."


That's what I figured. But I wasn't 100% sure, I did check that Benchmark list a few times but I sorta thought it was a bunch of bull.

The E7400 has a price of...$100,000.00 !?!?!

According to CPU benchmark that is Lol

I think I'll be getting the Q9650. I strongly believe that is a very decent upgrade from my E7400.

Saving up for my new gaming rig !
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Daniel TGC
Retired Moderator
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 19th Feb 2007
Location: TGC
Posted: 14th Oct 2011 20:43 Edited at: 14th Oct 2011 20:47
Link
Quote: "What are you guys talking about. A core 2 quad would be a substantial upgrade to a core 2 duo. I'm starting to think all you guys are made of money. You can still get core 2 quads."


I bought an am3 motherboard for £70 and a semphon for £28 quid, I then used the unlocked feature to turn It from a semphon into a dual core CPU.

Yeah I know how to spend the big bucks I do! I rebuilt my whole system for under £180 including hard drives, case, psu, optical drives, ram, and a memory card reader. I then shoved my old 8800gts 320mb board into it and called it Christmas.

Yep, big spender me!

He can get a reasonable motherboard that supports the new bulldozer series leaving him much better upgrade options in the future for well under his $250 price. He'll have to upgrade as some point, and AMD sockets have a far greater life span than intel processors do. So unless he's doing some major processing (and I render in poser and blender with mine happily) a quad core is largely a waste of money.
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
bitJericho
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 15th Oct 2011 07:07 Edited at: 15th Oct 2011 07:10
Link
Yes, AMD is much cheaper. However, without looking at any comparison charts, I would think a C2Q is faster than any 4 core AMD. As for upgradeability, I wouldn't worry about it. A c2q should last at least the next 2 years. By then, you'll probably be looking at new processor sockets anyway.

A c2q will offer VT which is becoming more and more important, there's not much else needed beside simply more cores or more cache or more clock speed. (A lot of progress can be made there I suppose...) AMD's offerings are on par with any c2q. IMO, the best upgrade path at this point is a c2q in an existing system with all other things being equal. It's a 200 dollar investment, vs a 3-400 or more dollar comparable system upgrade that might or might not be useful in 3 years time.


Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
charger bandit
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Nov 2009
Location: Slovenia
Posted: 15th Oct 2011 21:57
Link
I had a C2Q6600 before overclocked to 3,6ghz and it was very little/nothing faster than the Athlon X2 250 at 3,6ghz. Except in stuff that used the extra cores. The current CPU I have(Athlon X3 450 unlocked to Phenom X4) is about 40-50% faster than the Intel quad I had.


Back to top
Profile PM Email
Ocho Geek
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Aug 2007
Location: Manchester, UK
Posted: 16th Oct 2011 17:44
Link
Quote: "I'm starting to think all you guys are made of money"

The processors you listed on ebay looked more expensive than the entire bundles I was suggesting


Not Spanish, Not Eight, Just Ocho

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
PAGAN_old
19
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Jan 2006
Location: Capital of the Evil Empire
Posted: 16th Oct 2011 20:04
Link
i guess ill pitch in a bit even tho it was proboly mentioned already.
For a 775 socket a good upgrade would be a q9650 or qx9650 (i have one) They are both around 300 bucks used these days. You just need to make sure the chipset suppoerts these which most modern 775 bourds should. (dont buy an evga board they tend to have issues with some quadcores)

As for AMD the CPUs are the best bang for a buck. A top of the line phenomx4 black edition-around 200 bucks. they are great quadcore 3.4 GHz (i own this too) But if your board has AM3+ socket and depending on your boards revision it might even support the top of the line Hexacore AMD cpu which is also like 3.2-3.4 GHz six cores. Should be also somewhere around 200-300 bucks.

If you still didnt buy a cpu and if you are thinking of going AMD right now is actually a VERY good time because a new line of CPUs came out. Core is dubbed- Bulldozer. These are also really cheap peaking at $300 and go all the way up to 3.8GHz 8CORES and L1+L2 cache= 16Mb. (vs 8 mb cache on phenoms) Unfourtunatley from what i read, they are not a lot better than the top of the line hexacore phenoms. They are a bit better but not by a lot (i would have expected a significant increase in performance from 8 cores 3.8GHz each and 16mb of cache)
SO!... these new Bulldozer CPUS should force a PRICE DROP ON THE OLD TOP OF THE LINE PHENOM QUAD AND HEXACORES, which are still very good.

one think i am not sure about the new Bulldozer CPUS in terms of the socket they take. I read it was AM3+ socket, but i cant remember what the AM3+ socket looks like (my AM3+ sustem hasnt been taken apart in over 2 years so i havent seen an AM3+ socket for at least 2 years now) Its just that these new bulldozer CPUs pins like more like the socket for their new mobile A6-A8 CPUs for laptops (i have an A6 laptop) Well I dont know, Your best bet is to research this stuff because i just quickly skimmed the article out of curiosity.

So anyway Good luck with choosing the CPU.


dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
Back to top
Profile PM Email
XanthorXIII
AGK Gold Backer
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th May 2011
Location:
Posted: 16th Oct 2011 20:31
Link
What OS are you running? I'd almost say if you are still running XP or Vista you should really give 7 a try, especially if it is Vista you have on that rig.
Back to top
Profile PM
MrValentine
AGK Backer
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Dec 2010
Playing: FFVII
Posted: 17th Oct 2011 06:47
Link
My words... Intel for Chipset thats motherboard and cpu...

You can easily get a cheap intel board with core i3 or even i5... if your not too fussed about quad core get an i3 theyre dual core... and then throw in 4gig ram...

Why would you need a new licence? you mean the disk right? microsoft does a replacement disk service for something like $35 you just use your original licence to licence it...

And to be honest... just keep your current hard drive it will make no difference... just make sure you keep your current licence key.

Core i5 2500 is a beautiful chip, and it overclocks by itself from 3.3 to 3.7 even with a stock cooler stays pretty cool! but of course your case would also be a factor to this... I have a SilverStoneTech Raven RV01-V2 Black.

Hope this was helpful.

Back to top
Profile PM
Daniel TGC
Retired Moderator
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 19th Feb 2007
Location: TGC
Posted: 17th Oct 2011 13:26
Link
The earily release of the bulldozer looks a bit disappointing to me. They are not much cheaper than the intel version and offer no extra performance. From what I understand from 3rd party sources (I've never had my grubby mitts on one) the second generation i range performs better for a similar price.

Having said that bulldozer was just released, so it's possible AMD will drop their prices down to something we'd expect from them. When they do that I'll happily recommend the bulldozer.
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
charger bandit
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Nov 2009
Location: Slovenia
Posted: 17th Oct 2011 13:41
Link
I am hoping for some good price on the 6-core AMD's so I can upgrade to it.


Back to top
Profile PM Email
4125
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 3rd Feb 2008
Location: Bronx, New York
Posted: 17th Oct 2011 22:39
Link
Thanks guys for all the info !

I just got the Q9650 from Ebay for about $200. The performance in my games are much better than I expect them to be.

I'll be getting a New GPU upgrade next, Since money is starting to pick up (Family chipping in now and I sorta have a part time job), I'll be able to get a new GPU next.

I'll make a new thread about it in a few. I just wished I would've waited a bit more, then maybe I could have gotten something better, but I never expected this part time job so yeah sorry about that

Anyways, what I want is on my sig atm but I'll make a new thread so I can be sure. I can only spend about $220 again on the GPU. I'll get the RAM later, then save up for an entire rig in the future...

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650, ECS Nvidia Gefocre GTX 560 Ti 1024MB*, 8192MB Corsair XMS2, XfX Nforce 780i, Windows 7 Home Premium x64
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Back to top

Login to post a reply

Server time is: 2025-05-20 12:29:08
Your offset time is: 2025-05-20 12:29:08