LGA 775 Upgrade recommendation?

C

Crowsnose

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Dec 2, 2008
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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?
 
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Silentbob343 said:
Microcenter has the Q9550 for $169
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Do it. (My C0 revision hits 3.6, though I had to up the V-Core. You may get an E0 revision, and they can OC very well.)

Being Antec, you may just get by with the 500w model. Personally, I'd prefer 650+ but I also prefer to play it safe. No sense saving money now, just to have to replace all my hardware when my being cheap fries my system. (Side opinion: NEVER skimp an a power supply. Anything else in a rig, fine, but NO cheap power supplies!!!!)
 
Well if you prefer 2 cores then why not pick up an E8400 3GHz chip? Arguably the best dual core gaming chip Intel released! As for your 500watt PSU you are not even coming close to your PSU limit with the specs you listed. Head over here: http://www.antec.outervision.com/ and see for yourself how much juice you are using. For my system for example listed in my sig, I'm only using a max of 280 to 300 watts give or take. You should be around that mark as well....
 
I've found my e6850 has hit a few walls here and there that my 9550 has not. Like being able to use multi-core support in TF2. It would hitch like crazy on my e6850, but smooth as butter on the q9550. TF2 is not multi-core optimized. It will use 100% of 2 cores, and that is what adds the hitching. The quad has room to spare and it really shows, for me. (Others may not get the hitching but I certainly did with a dual.)

Other than maybe price, I see no down side going quad vs dual.
 
Little_4nic8er said:
I've found my e6850 has hit a few walls here and there that my 9550 has not. Like being able to use multi-core support in TF2. It would hitch like crazy on my e6850, but smooth as butter on the q9550. TF2 is not multi-core optimized. It will use 100% of 2 cores, and that is what adds the hitching. The quad has room to spare and it really shows, for me. (Others may not get the hitching but I certainly did with a dual.)

Other than maybe price, I see no down side going quad vs dual.
Click to expand...

The hitching is a bug, not a processor speed problem.
 
SixtyWattMan said:
The hitching is a bug, not a processor speed problem.
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I know it's a bug with TF2. I wasn't saying it was a speed problem, but a core utilization problem. (Read: Bug.) I'd watch it on both CPUs, (G15) and the dual always maxed out and then bogged down, the 9550 doesn't, ever.

Other poorly optimized programs may be the same way.

It was just an observation I thought I'd share. Nothing wrong with being informed of potential issues.
 
wait another 2 weeks...Intel will be releasing their new dual core Clarkdale CPU's on January 7th (Westmere 32nm CPU)
 
Crowsnose said:
...I'd prefer to stick with 2 cores but am open to all suggestions especially if there's an awesome quad-core deal...
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Why? Price?

As has been suggested, if you have a MicroCenter close by, (Here's the list: http://microcenter.com/at_the_stores/index.html ) you should most definitely look into picking up a q9550.

Any of the higher multiplier 45nm chips will play nicely with your motherboard. Dual Core, Quad Core... The ep45-ud3r plays nicely with them all.

My e0 q9550 will hit 3.8ghz at stock voltage. I had to give the mch an extra 1/10th of a volt. I run 4 dimms.
 
Id suggest considering the E8500. This thing is a monster gaming CPU and overclocks like a bitch.
 
For $200 get a Q9550. If you have a Microcenter, then pick one up there. If you don't, check the forums and you can usually get them for about $205-210 shipped. If you can't get the Q9550, then get an e8400; it overclocks nicely and is pretty cheap. Sell your e6300 to help out with the cost.


I upgraded from an e6300 @ 2.8ghz to an e8400 and I can get his baby up to 3.8ghz pretty easy. I've done 4ghz, but I'm keeping 3.8ghz for now.
 
polonyc2 said:
wait another 2 weeks...Intel will be releasing their new dual core Clarkdale CPU's on January 7th (Westmere 32nm CPU)
Click to expand...

Not for LGA775..

I agree.. Pick up a Q9550. If you overclock it you can reach into i7 strength at stock speeds. If you get some 800 CL4 stuff it will prob help a lot with the OCing.. that RAM is pretty low end.

500W is way more than needed for that setup. As long as the power supply is running as it should, you're more than fine.
 
Alright, I've decided to buy a q9550 and just have one more question.

Will it be compatible with my pc2-5300 (ddr2 667mhz) ram sticks?

Do I need to upgrade to at least pc2-6400?
 
Crowsnose said:
Alright, I've decided to buy a q9550 and just have one more question.

Will it be compatible with my pc2-5300 (ddr2 667mhz) ram sticks?

Do I need to upgrade to at least pc2-6400?
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Running at stock speed your FSB will be 333, so your memory will be at 667 and you'll be fine. If you plan to overclock (and it's a crime not to overclock) you might need pc2-6400 ram to allow you to get up to at least FSB of 400 (which would run your memory at 800 speed), which would get you a nice 3.4ghz overclock.
 
If you are going to buy a Q9550, you need good ram to go with it. If money is an issue, then spend $100 on an E8400 and spend another $65 (Ebay or HardForum) and get some used/high quality G.Skill, etc. 4gb (2x2gb) 1066 ram. This would be the same price as the Microcenter Q9550, and would be a much better set-up than Q9550 + 677 ram. Don't run 600 speed ram with a Q9550. Come on!
 
KingerXI said:
If you are going to buy a Q9550, you need good ram to go with it. If money is an issue, then spend $100 on an E8400 and spend another $65 (Ebay or HardForum) and get some used/high quality G.Skill, etc. 4gb (2x2gb) 1066 ram. This would be the same price as the Microcenter Q9550, and would be a much better set-up than Q9550 + 677 ram. Don't run 600 speed ram with a Q9550. Come on!
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The Q9550 and E8400 both have the same stock FSB speed which is the same speed as DDR2-667. Unless he's overclocking, the having faster RAM isn't going to make much of a difference. Hell, I only have DDR2-800 and have been running my Q9550 at 3.4GHz for over a year and a half without a single issue. So even if he DOES overclock, he may not even need DDR2-1066, unless he's reaching for the stars.
 
Crowsnose said:
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?
Click to expand...

1) I think your choice of the Q9550 is a good one. If I remember correctly, I believe quad core OC pretty nice on that Gigabyte MB.

2) As other's have noted, if you plan to OC your memory will probably hold you back. You can get some nice CAS4 DDR2800 2x1GB kit at Newegg for ~$50, which would only put you a little over budget. This would allow you to OC up to 3.4GHz while running the RAM up to rated specs.
Here are two examples that have good reviews:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220144

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231087
I have this set of G.Skill memory in my home server.

3) As for the power supply, I would suggest it is good enough. I have a Q9450 (very similar to the CPU you plan to get) OC'ed to 3.3GHz, 8GB of DDR2 800 (4x2GB), four harddrives, 2 optical drives, and an ATi HD4870 graphics card on a Asus P5E MB and even at full load I'm only pulling ~330-350 for the wall socket as measured with a Kill-A-Watt meter. My PSU is ~80% efficient so that mean the computer is only using ~275-300 watts total. So unless you plan to do a major GPU upgrade, I think your 500W unit will be fine for the time being. You can always upgrade that later.

4) As for you computer making a beeping noise when the extra power connector is not on your GPU. My 5 year old back up rig with an nVidia Geforce 5950 GPU does the exact same thing if I don't plug in the extra power connector. I think this is just a standard warning noise due to low voltage, not anything to do with your PSU.
 
Yea I figured I'd be ok as long as I didn't overclock it. I'm just going to run it on my 667 sticks until I get some more money to upgrade them.

I'm running my e6300 at 333 fsb now and all is well...

Thanks for all your input sdsdv.
 
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