Worth upgrading my 5-6 year old hardware?

[timaishu]

I built my PC back in 2007 when the 8800GTX and the Dualcore Conroe CPU was king.

I have since upgraded my ram to 2gb of ram to 8gb and my evga 8800GTS to a Asus DirectCU 5850 and dropped in a 1tb hdd.

The only original parts left are: Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus mobo, E6600 Conroe OC'd to 3.00ghz with a 120mm cpu cooler, and my creative soundcard.

So here is my question.

About a year ago, I was aggressively trying to get my CPU as high as possible and I found out that with my configuration, I could only get it stable to 3.00ghz. Anything beyond and I have issues. It still runs all games pretty good, but I am now considering swapping it with a more powerful LGA 775 quad core. I feel that my CPU bottle necks my GPU, I want to remove the bottle neck so I can OC my GPU and get more power out of it(heard it is an amazing overclocker).

According to Asus, these are what I can use:


Core 2 Extreme QX6700(revB3,2.66GHz,1066FSB,L2:2X4MB)

Core 2 Extreme QX6800 (rev.G0,2.93GHz,1066FSB,L2:2X4MB,4 cores)

Core 2 Extreme QX6850(revG0,3.00GHz,1333FSB,L2:2X4MB)

Core 2 Extreme X6800(2.93GHz,1066FSB,L2:4MB,revB2)

Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.40GHz,1066FSB,L2:2X4MB,rev.B3,4 cores)

Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.40GHz,1066FSB,L2:2X4MB,rev.G0,4 cores)

Core 2 Quad Q6700 (2.66GHz,1066FSB,L2:2X4MB,rev.G0,4 cores)

I am wondering what you folks would think is the best bang for the buck, or if it is even worth it at all. My plan would be to overclock it, but here is my concern. I always heard about people being able to OC their E6600's beyond what I was able to achieve. Do you guys think my mobo is the limitation, or was my CPU the issue? Would there even be that much of a difference, if say, I bought a X6800, but only could bring it to 3.00ghz?

If my mobo is the issue, I could always harvest my brothers evga 680i board if that would open up my OCing limits.

 

[daswilhelm]

best bang for the buck would be to replace your motherbaord/cpu/ram.

 

[timaishu]

^^^ I realise that, but that is more than I am willing to spend atm. So are you saying it wouldn't be worth buying one of those CPUs to replace mine?

 

[daswilhelm]

not unless you are getting them for around $20.

 

[shanky887614]

to be honest, the core 2 quads are not that great compared to the e6600

i used to be running an e7600 till a year ago.

most games are gpu dependant rather than cpu so it shouldnt be bottlenecking it that much.

you would be better off saving for a core i5,motherboard+ram

or go the amd route, i would tell you what to go for but i havent looked at amd processor's in a year but i here the new ones (piledriver was it) is quite good

 

[daswilhelm]

you can get a cheap z77 motherboard for under 100, a pentium g2120 for under 80, and 8gig ram for about 40. leaving you a decent upgrade path for the future.

 

[timaishu]

Hmmmm. So I was looking on ebay and found that the extreme/QX versions are still in the 150-200+ range, which isn't worth it imo. I see that the Q6700 could be had for around 70 on ebay.

Do you think there would be any noticeable performace boost going from what I have to the Q6700?

I guess what I am trying to do is extend the life of my computer a bit longer. I'm not ready to do a full upgrade yet.

 

[daswilhelm]

save your $70 for a new build, thats most of what a new mb or cpu costs.

 

[RetiredChief]

If your MB is limiting your Currnet CPU, it will be even less likely to achieve an equal OC using a quad CPU.

I had NO problem running my E6400 @ 3.2 GHz.

Next: going from say 3.0 OC to a 3.2 OC is NOT even noticable in real life anyway.
0.2/3 = 7%. Min bumb in speed to even detect outside of benchmark is 10->15%.

What you could Do is invest in a Good PSU and a GPU (even if it is currently bottlenecked by current CP), but that you can later transfer to a NEW build.
New Build is not just about the CPU, it is all the improvements that have been added to the MB.

 

[timaishu]

Roger. I will sleep on the idea for now.

It seemed like a smart move, but after hearing you guys, maybe it isn't.

Thanks again.

 

[spawnkiller]

I've use an Q6600 @ 4.05ghz and it's only as fast as an I3-3220 @ 3.3ghz so plan on an upgrade, it'll really worth it...

 

[simon12]

If $70 is going to be all you have for a year then its worth it if you play games or use other applications that can really use 4 cores.

 

[timaishu]

If $70 is going to be all you have for a year then its worth it if you play games or use other applications that can really use 4 cores.

Yeah, I have a job now, but computer parts arent really my priority atm.

I wouldnt want to just get a cheap mobo + cpu so I could upgrade later on as suggested above. If I were to do it, I'd get athleast an i5 and whatever mobo for it, which is way more than I want to spend.

Im thinking Im just gonna keep messing around to see if I can get my CPU oc'd higher.