Intel 641 HT vs E5800 Wolfdale Dual Core

[agent00kevin]

Hi all, its been a while but I have a question.

Ive been keeping my fisrt gaming rig in the game (pun intended) for some time now. We have two boys and both like to game; one just moved in recently with his mother. I refuse to buy another 360 since mine burned up 3x on me, so we are PC gamers.

In trying to keep things as fair as budget will allow, Im trying to make one more to the oldest gaming rig - my first rig. Right now it handles most games well enough; with Crysis 2 running surprisingly smooth on medium settings. It does get a little laggy on Skyrin still, and games meant for dual cores as required do run, albiet slowly. Heres the current system specs on it:

Intel Pentium 4 941 HT 3.2ghz CPU
4gb RAM
Zotac 9800 GT 512Mb GPU
400w PSU
Vista
Asus P5N Deluxe Mobo - I think. Its whatever came in the bargain Wal Mart rig in 2006. (Compaq Presario)

I know the 400w PSU is as low as I can go on power requirements; it was a spare that came in a case I bought in 2009. I wanted a 9800 1GB GPU but couldnt find one I felt comfortable buying. (must have warranty if used, new price too high for what it is)

I want to upgrade the CPU to an E5800 Wolfdale 3.2 Ghz CPU. Both are LGA775 sockets and 800mhz FSB. Both have 2mb L2 caches. The question is, just how much of a difference will it make with a Hyperthread CPU @ 3.2ghz already installed? The current CPU is 89w and the new one would only be 65w, which would ease the strain on the PSU.

Remember, Im just trying to breathe a little more life into this old 2006 gaming rig, built from an Email checker Wal Mart special. I can get the CPU with warranty for 65$. I dont want to build a new rig for him if I can avoid it...and if I can squeeze another year of gaming out of it Ill be happy. Even at 6 years old, it still runs smoother and looks better than a Xbox 360. Which is why I want to squeeze some more life out of it before building a new budget rig.

The next option is to get a 'new' LGA 775 CPU for my other son's rig and upgrade his from the E8500 3.2ghz to a Q series quad, then get a new Mobo for the other kid, put the E8500 in his rig and call it good. Even still, if I can avoid doing this, thats another 100$ I can save for school supplies, clothes, etc. I know in dealing with an old socket my options are limited, but I just built a new rig in Nov 2011 for me, (allowing me to pass the E8500 rig on to my son) so building another rig so soon isnt something I want to do financially. Im on a 3 year cycle as for building new rigs and I like it that way.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

The Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E8500 will be the better choice. When we released the Intel Core 2 Duo I brought an Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 at 2.13GHz. In a number of benchmarks it would outperform the Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 965 at 3.73GHz. You will be impressed with the difference from the Intel Pentium 4 to the Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (a little faster) or the Intel Pentium E5800.

 

[Guest]

stop buying old tech! you end up throwing money away for the performance you are getting. i understand things are tight but these 3 year upgrade cycles involving 6 year old tech will keep you down.

hand down the E5800 to the little guy and instead of getting a "new" 775 socket board and C2Q, get a sandy bridge set up. then when it comes to upgrading that it will be cheaper and much better performance. the initial cost will be close to the same because socket 775 motherboards, cpus, and DDR2 RAM is expensive for what performance you get.

 

[agent00kevin]

Thanks. Im leaning towards the cheapest of the two, which would be the E5800 since it should work in the old mobo. If I upgrade him to the E8500, Id have to get a new Mobo and a new CPU for the rig the E8500 comes out of.

The E5800 will run me 65$ but the new Q series Quad would run at least 100$t plus the cost of the Mobo that Id need to put in the old rig to be able to use the E8500 in.

I think at 800mhz FSB the E8500 only runs about 2.53 ghz whereas 1066 gives it the full 3.2ghz. (is that right?) Since the stock mobo in the wally world rig is only 800 mhz, I wouldnt fully utilize the E8500 without replacing it even though it will fit the socket.

...right?

Because if I can just get a Q series quad for the 2nd rig and stuff the E8500 in the 3rd, Id upgrade them both for just a little bit more than upgrading just one - and a better upgrade for the 2006 (3rd) machine.

 

[agent00kevin]

stop buying old tech! you end up throwing money away for the performance you are getting. i understand things are tight but these 3 year upgrade cycles involving 6 year old tech will keep you down.

hand down the E8500 to the little guy and instead of getting a "new" 775 socket board and C2Q, get a sandy bridge set up. then when it comes to upgrading that it will be cheaper and much better performance. the initial cost will be close to the same because socket 775 motherboards, cpus, and DDR2 RAM is expensive for what performance you get.

I havent bought anything related to the LGA 775 socket since 2009, when I built my 2nd rig. There are two kids, one (thats mine by blood) uses the E8500, and the one that just moved in is using the old 941 HT. I upgrade a little more often than 3 years; thats just the new build cycle. (2006 - 2009 - LATE 2011/2012) I pretty much upgrade the old stuff as needed until it comes time to build me a new rig - then I pass on the previous one to one of the kids.

I dont make much money, so building new stuff can be tough. The difference in 65$ for a new CPU or 165$ for a new mobo and CPU can make or break the budget. Its that tight. Even the rig I built in late 2011 is a AMD Phenom XII Black Edition unlocked to a 955 Quad, GTX 460. Im never at top of the line, but I do have a knack for choosing what will last the longest.

The main query was what kind of performance gain Ill see with putting a E5800 Wolfdale in a locked mobo currently running a Pentium 4 941 Hyperthread at the same clock speed. (3.2 GHZ) I appreciate the advice on old tech, but budget is budget and even if I get 10x the performance from spending more doesnt mean I have more to spend.

 

[Guest]

the E5800 will blow the P4 941 out of the water.
sorry that my post was a reaction to believing that you were considering buying another socket 775 mobo with a C2Q.

 

[agent00kevin]

the E5800 will blow the P4 941 out of the water.
sorry that my post was a reaction to believing that you were considering buying another socket 775 mobo with a C2Q.

The post was kind of convoluted. If I bought a new mobo, it wouldnt be a LGA 775 or even 1165 - it would be an AMD board and CPU for budget reasons. We would recycle all of the parts onto the new mobo/cpu combo - but thats what i want to avoid by installing the E5800 in the oldest of the rigs.

The E8500 would stay where its at in the 2nd oldest rig. If I did swap the E8500 in, I believe that it would only run at 2.53 ghz instead of 3.2 with the old rig running an 800mhz FSB board. Which is the reason to buy an E5800 instead; its an 800mhz FSb chip.

The Q series would only come into play if I moved the E8500 to the 941 PC. And even then, no new mobo would be needed as its the same socket and supported by the P5B-SE in the E8500 rig.

Buying a new mobo is what im trying to avoid here by upgrading the old LGA 775 sockets to last long enough to be able to build a new rig. SO my choices were as follows:

1) buy the E5800, install in 941 rig, save for new build.

2) buy a Q series, put the E8500 in the 941 rig, spend a little more but get a little less out of the E8500 as it would be running at 2.53 ghz instead of 3.2 like it should - and the E5800 would run - but upgrade 2 rigs instead of just one.

The only reason a new mobo was mentioned is because of the 800mhz Asus P5N Deluxe mobo - locked, no OC options. It cant run the E8500 at its full potential and a LGA 775 board that CAN do that would be dirt cheap right now. if I could find a good Q series and a cheap mobo, then Id still be spending ~ 100$ for the setup, which is much cheaper than Id get an up to date CPu and Mobo combo for. And it would do what i want it to just fine. Amazon and Newegg have both for about that price. I shouldnt have even mentioned it though, since Id rather get a new AMD mobo and CPU instead.

Option 1 seems the best as the second rig does not need an upgrade yet. Its going strong with Skyrim, GTA IV and Crysis with the E8500/9800 Ultra 1Gb. For a 3 year old gaming rig, it still performs excellently. The main point is to get the 941 rig up to par - or close to being on par with the E8500 rig. that way both kids get the same gaming experience and I still pwn them both with my superior rig. (and skillz)

FYI sarcasm is not appreciated nor liked, and does not make me respect you.

 

[agent00kevin]

Best answer selected by agent00kevin.