Socket 775 and recommended CPU

[Jay420]

Hi there

New to the community. long time fan tho.

I have an old xp home ed desktop with parts from alot of other computers. Im at the end of my upgrade rope but i have a few hundred bucks and would like to squeeze a bit more gaming performance out of it until the end of the year.

My mobo is an old p965 intel chipset socket 775 and supports up to a 1066 fsb. I have a core 2 duo 6420 at 2.16ghz. ( my mobo is old and locked so i can oc nor am i comy doing so. I have 2 gigs of ram not sure what kind, sure its old tho. Windows xp home and an 8800gt vid card. My power supply is 450watts.

for a 300 bucks can anyone recommend a cpu and graphics card or another combo of upgrades thatll give me some more performance until year end. I was thinking of a gtx260 oc but then i also figured my 6420 cpu would bottleneck it so I have been looking at an E7400 or somthing since im limited to socket 775 chips at 1066 fsb.


ps
can i use a 1333fsb speed chip in my mobo that supports up to 1066? would it function just at a slower bus speed?

I dont know much about these things but im learning slowly.

THanks for your help.

 

[Raidur]

What is your motherboard's model #(name)?

 

[Jay420]

I beleive its a P58W-LA

Its from my old media center.

 

[sturm]

To be honest I would save the money and build a new one. You'll be better off.

 

[ksampanna]

If you plan on getting a new rig at the end of the year, then any upgrade you do now would be a waste of money. You'd be getting a ~$130 cpu for just a few months, which makes no sense. So stick around for a bit longer with your current one, & go for a wholly new upgrade with a decent budget.
If your motherboard supports upto 1066 Mhz, you won't be able to able to slip in a 1333 Mhz cpu.
If at all you do insist, then I'd say get the ATI Radeon 5770 + an e7600 ~~ $300

 

[Jay420]

I appreciate all your advice. I know itd be throwing money away since i plan on getting a new rig in 6 months or so. But I got a free 300 and if that gives me 6 months of entertainment on some of hot releases the rest of this year im ok with that i think.

Ive looked at the 5770 it looks like a good card. Im guessing the e7600 shouldnt really bottleneck the card? is my 2 gigs or ram which is prob pc4200 (533mhz) going to be a huge hinderance. I play at 1050x1650

ps
Chance of getting away with just the video card? or will th 6420 stock really hold it back?

 

[Raidur]

It may be best to stick with just a GPU. Maybe something you'd be able to take with you to your next setup. (Like a single 5770, then crossfire with your new setup)

Would your CPU bottleneck a 5770? Probably, but it should still be a worth while upgrade IMO, especially when you consider it isn't a part you have to scrap when you rebuild.

 

[saaiello]

For $300 I would say move to an AMD setup maybe an Athlon II x3 or a Phenom II x3 a nice AM3 mobo and grab 4 GB of DDR3 RAM. That will bring you up to about $300. The 8800GT still is a great performing card for its age and with a little more power behind it I think you will see some good game play with it til you can upgrade that too.

I would definitely not waist one cent on your socket 775 system. If it was a new motherboard and be able to handle a newer Core 2 Quad it would be a different story but the 965 chipset is just too old to do anything with time to move on. You should be able to at least get $75 to $100 for your motherboard CPU and RAM combo on ebay.

 

[ksampanna]

I appreciate all your advice. I know itd be throwing money away since i plan on getting a new rig in 6 months or so. But I got a free 300 and if that gives me 6 months of entertainment on some of hot releases the rest of this year im ok with that i think.

Ive looked at the 5770 it looks like a good card. Im guessing the e7600 shouldnt really bottleneck the card? is my 2 gigs or ram which is prob pc4200 (533mhz) going to be a huge hinderance. I play at 1050x1650

ps
Chance of getting away with just the video card? or will th 6420 stock really hold it back?

I'd still say, keep that free 300 with you till the year end. At that time, you could get a much better gpu than the 5770.
Anyway, your old cpu will bottleneck the card, but at the resolution you'r playing, it won't be much of a hindrance. Even your RAM will be a minor bottleneck, but you can't do anything about that, unless you plan on getting new DDR2.

 

[pepperman]

He couldn't upgrade his cpu very much anyway; it only supports conroe core 2's
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00748726&dlc=en

I agree with ksampanna et. al.: save the money for your new rig at the end of the year.

 

[isamuelson]

Just because you have 300 dollars now doesn't mean you have to spend it. I'd hold onto it since you plan on getting a new rig in 6 months. That way, you have that $300 + whatever money you have for the new rig to spend on the new rig.

Just makes better sense. If you can't wait, then why not get your new rig now?