Is E6300 an upgrade?

[carpenter20m]

Hey everyone,

I am thinking about upgrading my processor for now, before waiting for the new year to build a new system (you know, when Nvidia's cards are out, prices for ATi have dropped, better choices can be made).

Right now I have:
Core 2 Duo E6400 (the ooooold one) OCed @ 2.56 GHz
ATi 4850
Corsair 450 W
2 GB RAM (533 MHz)
Asus P5B mobo (oooold, but supports every single LGA775 cpu out there with the latest BIOS, even if it is beta support)
1440x900 monitor.

I am thinking about buying a E6300 (the new one obviously). It's at 2.8 GHz. For now my cpu is a major bottleneck and I was wondering if the E6300 is worth the small investment. I might even oc it a bit, just to take it above 3 GHz. For my resolution I guess this processor and GPU are powerful enough, but I'd like to hear your opin

 

[o1die]

Not worth it. If you've got the itch to buy, go to Fry's this coming week, where they're selling a few cpus at half price or giving a free board with purchase.

 

[Stardude82]

I went from an old E6300 to a new E6300. I get 3.5 Ghz just bumping the FSB to the frequency Wolfdales all should run at and it is big improvement. + the old E6300 stock heat sink is really beefy; no need for new cooling.

On the other hand, I noticed that 965 boards (okay maybe just the recently departed Abit) aren't 100% copacetic with all the functions on the new Wolfies and 32 nm is just round the corner.

But yeah, Fry's has a E7500 with Mobo (It's a decent P43 too) for $100... if you can get to one. I've also noticed their too-good-to-be-true combos are limited to just a couple per store now.

 

[sanchz]

With a 4850, I don't think the C2D at 2.5 GHz is a major bottleneck, at least in dual-threaded games.
If you want to get prepared for a new ATI 5xxx or Nvidia 3xx then consider either the Core i5, or the Phenom II (either X3 if you are on a budget, or the X4 if you want to spend less than on the i5).

 

[ryohei]

i recommend a e8400 at least