Socket 775 Upgrade: CPU or Video Card?

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enc0re

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 6, 2007
Messages
146
I want to drop $200ish on a nice upgrade for my B-Day.

Current config:

E5200 @ 2.5GHz
GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L
G.SKILL2 x 2GB DDR2 800
Xigmatek 120MM Copper Heatsink
Asus Radeon 4830
Antec P100 Full Tower
PC Power & Cooling 610W

The CPU is a terrible overclocker, failing Prime95 in a few minutes on as little as 2.8GHz. Luck of the draw I guess.

Purpose: Gaming at 1080p. While I play Civ 5, it's the FPS side that needs a boost.

So CPU or Video Card? Video Card appeals to me, because I can use it on the next rig, while socket 775 is obviously dead. Then again, my current CPU is terrible.

Advice?
 
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Heres the problem: I think you're going to pretty CPU limited with a newer graphics card. You not only have 2 cores, but also a low clock speed. On the flip side, you're going to be pretty GPU limited with a faster CPU.

If you plan on moving to a new build soon, I'd say go with a GPU. If not, you'll probably see more improvement in both games and day-to-day use with a better CPU. I went from an E2180 recently to a Q9300 @ 3.1ghz and have seen a healthy increase in performance. You can get a Q9300 or Q8400 new at microcenter for ~$150, or a used 9550 for $200ish
 
Sadly, you'll need both. Having only one or the other exposes a performance bottleneck either way.

Out of curiosity, when would you start building a new system? If it's not too long from now, you may be better off waiting until that time.
 
I use a 1.5 year tick-tock cycle. 1.5 years ago I built this system as a low-end socket 775 system to have headroom. The plan was to upgrade now and get another 1 to 1.5 years out of it.

Since it's my B-Day, I could be talked into upgrading CPU and GPU. Or perhaps I should stick it out and wait until my next build.
 
This is my first Intel build since my 80286 (12 MHz !!!). I now kinda wish I would have gone AMD. I considered an AM3 motherboard, which would be golden for upgrading right now.

Meanwhile Intel's socket 1156 itself is almost succeeded by now.
 
sell your cpu for $30-ish, buy a q6600 for $100-ish.

keep the current video card for now
 
Furystrike said:
Q8400: $170 (and overclock it)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115057&cm_re=q8400-_-19-115-057-_-Product
Click to expand...

At $170, the Q8400 is simply way too overpriced for the performance it offers.

@ enc0re
Upgrading to the Q6600 for $100 used would be a decent enough stop gap upgrade. Besides pretty much trying to get the Intel C2Q CPUs at used or extremely discounted prices, if you want a cost effective upgrade, you're basically looking at a new mobo, new CPU, and possibly new DDR3 RAM. Upgrading to a C2Q CPU at their current prices is not a good idea.
 
get the cpu
it will help with your video card
but if you can afford 250
you can get both
cpu and video card
happy bday btw
great time great time
 
Yeah, you'll definitely need both.

If you can find a used Q6600 and push it to 3.2GHz or higher (though I believe that its overclocking limit is 3.6GHz) and get something along the lines of an HD 4890 or HD 5770 (or better, again used), you might be able to eke out a decent upgrade for around $200. Most likely, however, you'll have to spend a bit over your $200 limit.
 
Your CPU isn't that bad for most games, so I wouldn't usually recommend you go for it yet, but Civ V is one game that takes a lot of CPU. I think that your CPU is good enough for you to wait for Sandy Bridge or AMD Bulldozer. For the CPU side, just try to overclock more for now. Q6600 is not a good upgrade because it's not more efficient clock-for-clock and very few games are going to use all four cores to begin with. You want a higher frequency and/or better IPC, not more cores.
 
The other thing you need to consider, is how well your motherboard will overclock a quad core.
Your m/b is worth about 40 bucks, your cpu is worth 50-60, and the same for your gpu 60.
You would probably see the largest increase by upgrading your video card.
If possible you could upgrade your cpu also. e7400 maybe in the sub 100 dollar range, and will allow you to stay in your budget, assuming you went for a gtx460 1gb.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Intel-Core-2-Duo-E7400-SLB9Y2-80-GHz-3M-1066-SLB9Y-/290493978720?pt=CPUs&hash=item43a2ca5860#ht_1984wt_1135 CPU
Sell you Cpu for 50-60 for 20- 30 dollar net upgrade cost.

Sell your GPU for 50-60, assuming you started out with 200 dollars, you have 230 dollars.
At 230, you are within spitting distance of a 6870, gtx 470, or save a few and go down to 6850/gtx460 1GB

If your motherboard can handle over clocking a quad core, i would track down a q9400, q9450 (the q6600 may be to difficult to o/c from a power draw perspective). You would have to get one used and they run up to 150. But I think you'll be fine with the e7400, for the most part. It's a nominal upgrade, and it's a great band aide until sandy bridge.
 
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