Upgrading LGA775 CPU -- how much faster?

lilacsh

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Aug 6, 2011
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I have a 4-year old Gigabyte P35-DSL3 mobo. It's running a Conroe dualcore E6550 2.33ghz that's overclocked to 3.2ghz, and DDR2-800 overclocked to 900.

I'd like to make the system faster but I'm hesistant about upgrading the mobo.

How much faster would the system be if I upgraded to a Wolfdale E8400 3.0Ghz and overclocked it to 3.8ghz (which seems to be realistic for that CPU)? What about upgrading to a Yorkfield quad 2.66Mhz overclocked to 3.2ghz?
 

lilacsh

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Those CPUs cost $175 .. I know that new CPUs are faster for the same price but I don't like upgrading motherboards. The system becomes unstable
 

tyrel

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Feb 10, 2011
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You will get a solid increase in single or dual threaded tasks but don't expect to make an unplayable game playable. Unfortunately these days the best games or rather the prettiest work best on a fast quadcore. I went from a e8400 @3.6Ghz to a I5 2500K and the difference was night and day.

Seriously though you will be wasting money going for that E8400 they are mediocre chips now.
 

lilacsh

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I know the E8400 is old but I hate motherboard upgrades.. The system and software become unstable afterwards and I end up reinstalling everything. I just want a faster CPU to extend the life of my system by another 2-3 years. At that time I'll build a new system w/ Windows 8, SSD drive, and any other new technology.