Intel Core 2 Quad 9650 - Worth an upgrade? E5200 to 9650

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Necromonger

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Dec 13, 2013
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My girlfriend has an old computer that she brought over when she moved in with me. Its an old Dell Inspiron 537s. She wanted to throw it away, but I asked her not to. I wanted to use it for a super low budget gaming PC build. This will be a guest PC for when friends or family are over.

So, my question is if it would be worth to upgrade the CPU from the Intel Core 2 Duo E5200 to the Intel Core 2 Quad 9650, both LGA 775. And no I do not want to go overboard with the 771 Xeon mod thing. I will be pairing this with a low budget GPU, RX 470, RX 460, or GTX 1050, and a 250 or 500GB SSD plus Windows 10 upgrade.

Also how much should I pay for this CPU? I've seen it go for around $50. Thanks
 
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InvalidError
You really need to find the CPU support list for that motherboard. Since the Pentium E5200 is a 45nm chip, the board is more likely to be compatible with the 9000 series quads than the 6000 ones.
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weberdarren97

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They're both 64-bit CPUs, so the only advantages here are core count and clock speed.

It's worth noting that the 30 watts higher power draw from the Core 2 Quad may strain the MOSFETs on the motherboard. You could give it a go, but I can't guarantee that the motherboard will be happy with the increased power draw.
 
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InvalidError

InvalidError

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First, you need to check if whatever motherboard is in there actually supports the Q9650. Most OEM motherboards have very limited CPU support beyond the CPU list from the PC model range the motherboard was designed for.

If you have already double-checked that, then $50 doesn't sound half bad. For any sort of gaming, you may want to toss 8GB of RAM in there if it doesn't have that already. It will also stop Windows from nuking the SSD with swapfile writes.
 
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Dugimodo

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Also is the power supply up to it or can it be upgraded, will a graphics card fit?
I ask just to make sure you've checked because some name brand Pcs use custom PSU's, MBs, and cases and don't allow space for large expansion /graphics cards.

I've recycled a couple of old SFF Dell OptiPlex PCs for home use and the only upgrade that was possible on them was HDD and RAM and they didn't support quad core CPUs. Still very capable machines for general internet use though.
 
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neblogai

neblogai

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I feel the components like RX470 and a 500GB SSD would be a waste with stock Q9650. It was a great CPU, and still does well in cinebench, but less good in games. It's speed in games is approximately that of AMD APUs of the same clock (3GHz)- at least, it is so in Q9650@ 4.0 (as Xeon 5450) vs x4 860 vs fx4300 vs i3 6100: https://youtu.be/huhq1yNdjj4?t=261
I would either spend minimal amount on Q9650 PC for playing older games at high quality, or get i3 6100 or older i5/i7 instead.
 
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Necromonger

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Huh... Does tomshardware support multiquote?

@ Webber & Invalid - I did check the website and it does state that it does have support for Intel Core 2 Duo Quad, however it does not give a list of supported CPUs. The E5200 came out much earlier than the Q9650.

Only reason why I wanted to throw in the Q9650 is because of some newer games requiring quad core cpus. I also don't just want to throw this PC away as I have a niece who would probably enjoy playing some games on it.

@Dugi - The OEM PSU is rated at 350W from what I remember seeing which is why I listed those notso-powerful GPUs. As for space, I think they would fit. I've looked up some modded builds on this PC and have seen some full length cards on the case.Its about 4" clearing on the height.
 
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