Motherboard or CPU?

[sa_ill]

Just bought a new desktop
I bought the G31 motherboard and the E5200 processor
I overclocked my processor to 3.5 ghz

Actually im not satisfied and want to upgrade something
Should I upgrade my motherboard to P45, so that I can overclock till 4 Ghz
or
Should I upgrade my processor to E8400, which has a 6MB cache compared to the 2Mb cache of the e5200?

Anyways, what difference does cache make in gaming?

 

[roadrunner197069]

Well being a guy of tons of builds of all kinds, I can honestly say a motherboard or cpu probably wont make you happy.

3.5 is a awsome oc. Its about standard for the e5200. I doubt a better board would get you much higher at all, the chip probably hit its wall.

One thing you could do is drop your multi down from 12.5 to 9 or 10, so you get a faster bus speed through your entire system. (Big Help)

The second thing you can do is run HD tune on your hard drive, because I suspect your hard drive is the main bottleneck.

I built my mom a e1200 OC to 3.2 and it was snappier then my e8400 rig @ 4.0, and I was like WTF. Turned out her HDD was twice as fast as mine. I upgraded my HDDs and viola, the performance I knew I should have.

You need a HDD reading around 90MB/s or higher, after you run the test if you are @50MB/s or less, you definately need a new HDD.

I recommend
ocz core series SSD
Western digital 640 black
or velociraptor.

Cache makes no difference except a minute one in games. With a proper HDD and a fast FSB your system will fly!!!

 

[sa_ill]

Well but right now...I have two options, either motherboard or CPU

If its CPU, then its E8400
If its mobo, then then its P45

What should I go for for better gaming performance

 

[richardscott]

both then a second hd for raid0

 

[sa_ill]

huh??

 

[richardscott]

buy both! then oc

 

[sa_ill]

jokes apart....what should i go for??

 

[richardscott]

id say go for e8400 clock for clock its quite a bit faster in games etc than the e5200 but then you will be limited by ure mobo as to how far you can oc the e8400.

 

[jsc]

You have a pretty well balanced system now. Your current motherboard will not be able to use all the capabilities of an E8400 and a P45 motherboard probably help the E5200 much.

 

[sa_ill]

hmm I've decided not to go for an upgrade.
I'm going for a nice after market cooler and a sound card!
When the cooler arrives, I can probably OC till 3.8 or 4!!

 

[assasin32]

I hope your not skimping out on the sound system or headphones than. Get yourself something nice while your at it, something under warrenty as well. And if I may make a suggestion from my personal experience, avoid headsets and get yourself a pair of headphones and than a nice area mic. I say this since I have gone through too many headsets in my time, and it is usually the mic or the mic mute/volume adjust button that is the point of failure. Which also brings me to another thing avoid headphones with a volume control, it adds another annoying point of failure.

I heard sennheiser makes good headphones, and from when I was looking into headphones I narrowed it down to the HD 280 pro, and the HD 555. Both looked extremely good, and if you wait around you can probably pick up the HD 280's for $99 (normal price, though listed at $200) on newegg with another $80 set of headphones for free, which happens every now and than. Hopefully I can scrounge up enough money to pick up a pair around christmas when I see a good deal on them, along with a good sound card.