Specs are:
500W Antec Smartpower
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R
C2D e6300 OC'd to 2.33GHz
2x1gb corsair ddr2 667
8800gt 512mb
I'm looking for a decent, affordable upgrade that will work on my current motherboard. I'd prefer to stick with 2 cores but am open to all suggestions especially if there's an awesome quad-core deal. I'm really not looking to spend more than $200 and would love something in the $120-160 range. I don't even know how much of a performance boost you can expect out of a CPU upgrade alone but I just want something that will run well with the next graphics card I purchase. I'm sure any gfx card I'd purchase now would be bottlenecked greatly by my current e6300.
Also to take into consideration is my power supply. Should I buy a more powerful PSU when I upgrade? I'm paranoid about having a good enough PSU since an old mobo of mine fried because of insufficient wattage. I think 500W is close to the limit with what I'm running now. (My computer makes a very loud BEEP sound if I don't plug in the extra powercord on the end of my 8800gt) So how many watts should I go for to guarantee adequate power for my upgrades in the future?
500W Antec Smartpower
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R
C2D e6300 OC'd to 2.33GHz
2x1gb corsair ddr2 667
8800gt 512mb
I'm looking for a decent, affordable upgrade that will work on my current motherboard. I'd prefer to stick with 2 cores but am open to all suggestions especially if there's an awesome quad-core deal. I'm really not looking to spend more than $200 and would love something in the $120-160 range. I don't even know how much of a performance boost you can expect out of a CPU upgrade alone but I just want something that will run well with the next graphics card I purchase. I'm sure any gfx card I'd purchase now would be bottlenecked greatly by my current e6300.
Also to take into consideration is my power supply. Should I buy a more powerful PSU when I upgrade? I'm paranoid about having a good enough PSU since an old mobo of mine fried because of insufficient wattage. I think 500W is close to the limit with what I'm running now. (My computer makes a very loud BEEP sound if I don't plug in the extra powercord on the end of my 8800gt) So how many watts should I go for to guarantee adequate power for my upgrades in the future?
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