Tom's Hardware > Forum > CPU & Components > CPUs > CPU Upgrade Opinions

CPU Upgrade Opinions

Forum CPU & Components : CPUs - CPU Upgrade Opinions

Tom's Hardware: Over 1.4 million members in 6 different countries available to answer all your high-tech questions. Sign up now! Its free!
Ask the community Add a reply
Word :    Username :           
 
pooflinger   01-07-2009 at 08:05:49 PM

I am currently running a Pentium D930 processor @3.75GHz. This is air-cooled using an Asus Lion Tower cooler.

I am contemplating upgrading to a Wolfdale chip with 45nm achitecture.

A budget of <$150 is my limit. This keeps my in range of the E7300 chips with the Q6600 quad core being just outside my price range.

Does anyone have opinions about this? Would this make any noticeable difference to me during normal operation of the PC? The PC is used for gaming, and sometimes for video compression. I sometimes am programming non-intensive C# applications and using SQL.

I am worried that there is not enough of a performance increase here to justify the purchase. Any advice will help.

Thanks!

Add a reply
Sponsored Links
Register or log in to remove.
smartel7070   01-07-2009 at 08:24:25 PM
- 0 +

Any Core2 cpu will be a huge increase in performance. Your PentiumD uses the older Netburst architecture and the Core2 is much more efficient clock per clock.

You should check with your motherboard manufacturer website to see what Core2 cpu your motherboard will support.

------------------------------ Intel Core i5 750 Asrock P55 Extreme 4GB OCZ DDR3-1333 BFG GTX275OC Benq 24" FP241vw Creative X-Fi Fatality pro OCZ Vertex 60gb 2x Seagate Sata2 500gb LG GGC H20L Blu-Ray/HDDVD TT Toughpower 650W Antec 1200
 Reply to smartel7070
einstein4pres   01-07-2009 at 08:38:08 PM
- 0 +

^+1 Buy a E7200 or E5200 if your mobo will take Nehalem, or any Conroe processor otherwise. The difference is supposedly quite large.

Message quoted 1 times
Reply to einstein4pres
festerovic   01-07-2009 at 08:48:10 PM
- 0 +

Considering the budget, definitely have to agree with the choice of a e7300. You may need a new mobo, as ^ mentioned. I have a 965 chipset board, and while it worked for the first batch of C2Ds (i had a e4400) it won't allow me to upgrade to any of the 45nm chips.

I saw an ad for a e8500 and ghetto mobo for $122 at Frys the other week. Giving them away...

Reply to festerovic
pooflinger   01-07-2009 at 08:55:56 PM
- 0 +

The motherboard definately supports all of the choices mentioned including the 45nm achitecture chips.

The e7300 only has a 3Mb cache which is small than that of the D930 which I am curently using. There is still a performance increase? If that is the case, would the 2Mb cache on the the e5200 also be better than what I currently have?

Sorry if this is a bit redundant, but I am a confused by this. It seems that some of the specification of the D930 are better than those of the newer chips.

Reply to pooflinger
o1die   01-07-2009 at 09:05:47 PM
- 0 +

D930 is an old Intel design. Longer pipeline, higher hertz, and running at a higher wattage producing more heat. The e7300 will run faster overall, and the e5200 may overclock well with the right board. I had a copper tape modded e4300, and it worked well on most boards. The "pin mod" doesn't effect memory timings. Mine booted up every time on an msi g31 (hp bios) motherboard at the default settings for an instant 33% overclock.

Reply to o1die
pooflinger   01-08-2009 at 02:55:14 PM
- 0 +

I have ordered an E7300 for $119. Thanks for the help folks.

Reply to pooflinger
jay_l_a   01-08-2009 at 11:27:04 PM
- 0 +

einstein4pres wrote :

^+1 Buy a E7200 or E5200 if your mobo will take Nehalem



Exxxx's are not Nehalems

------------------------------ GA-X38-DS4 (BIOS F3)||E8400 C2D (3.6GHz)||6Gb Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 4-4-4-12||320Gb WD Caviar||2x 750Gb WD Caviar||Cooler Master Real Power Pro 750W||2x HD4870 512Mb(Crossfire)||HT Omega Striker 7.1
 Reply to jay_l_a
pooflinger   01-08-2009 at 11:42:45 PM
- 0 +

They are Wolfdales.

Reply to pooflinger
cadder   01-09-2009 at 03:11:21 AM
- 0 +

The E7300 can usually be overclocked a lot. If you intend on doing this you should get a better cooler for it.

Reply to cadder
Outlander_04   01-09-2009 at 03:27:07 AM
- 0 +

back when e6700 had 4 mb of cache it was a lot , now people say an e7300 doesnt have enough because it has 3 mb .

Theyre wrong . The benefit of more cache isnt universal and when there is a gain its a couple of percentage points at best .

The e7300 benches higher than the e6700 in almost every task . Was the e6700 a dog? Dont think so .

Im happy with my e7300 .

Reply to Outlander_04
pooflinger   01-09-2009 at 06:21:36 AM
- 0 +

thanks for the input. I have an Asus lion tower cooler which seems to work better than the Zalman 9700 which I am rumming on a D805. The Asus cooler is about 10 degrees cooler on average. If this is capable of cooling my D930 to reasonable temperatures under heavy overclock, it should be more than sufficient for the e7300.

I am hoping that Crysis should run smoothly with my new chip! It should be arriving tomarrow.

Reply to pooflinger
Ask the community Add a reply
Tom's Hardware > Forum > CPU & Components > CPUs > CPU Upgrade Opinions
Go to:

There are 782 identified and unidentified users. To see the list of identified users, Click here.

Forum map
Bestofmedia Forum ©
2000-2009 Bestofmedia Group
Page generated in 0.548 seconds
Please mind

You are about to answer a thread that has been inactive for more than 6 months.
If you still wish to proceed, please ensure that your posting is original and does not duplicate or overlap any prior responses to this thread.

Add a reply Cancel
Sponsored links
  • Ask the community now
  • Publish
Ad
Related Topics
See all relatives topics
They won a badge
Join us in greeting them
How do I win badges?