best bang for my buck

Sniipe

Hey I've the following:
E6600
Asus P5N-E SLI (run of the mill board)
4gig of Geil RAM
Radeon 4870

I was wondering with a budget limit of 230 euro, what would I get the most out of?

Q9300
New 775 Motherboard?
other?

Sniipe

If I mainly use the machine for gaming and PS3 then it looks like processor wise I'm better suited to something like an E8500 for 193euro ?

uberpixie

Sniipe wrote: »

If I mainly use the machine for gaming and PS3 then it looks like processor wise I'm better suited to something like an E8500 for 193euro ?

Either will serve you well: you can't loose either way.

ATM a 3.0ghz dual core will be a bit faster in most games, the only game that really makes use of a quad is Supreme Commander, most games really only use dual core.

I have a 2.4 GHz quad, my mate has the 3.0Ghz dual core, we both have radeon 4870's: we can both play all the same games equally well.

If you feel more comfortable with a dual core, go dual core. Personally I went quad as I feel I might be able to drag a little extra life out of the machine if and when games go proper quad core support plus the extra 2 cores for multi tasking is nice.

Also be aware that a lot of the cheaper 1333Mhz quad cores only have 1mb of cache per core Vs the older Q6600 which has 2mb per core....

Sniipe

good advise thanks uberpixie, I think I'll go for the Quad with the 2mb per core. Thanks

Sqaull20

Keep your money!!!!

The difference between a 2.4ghz dual and 2.40ghz quad is barely noticable, I wouldnt give 20e for the privilege.

Auvers

you should to keep the cash as your not going to see any noticeable increase in speed then wait for the new x58 chipset and i7 cpus to drop in price, sell your old gear on adverts and then do a complete upgrade in the coming months.

or just get another 4870 and crossfire them

uberpixie

Sqaull20 wrote: »

Keep your money!!!!

The difference between a 2.4ghz dual and 2.40ghz quad is barely noticable, I wouldnt give 20e for the privilege.

Ahhh. I misread the users original post...(thought you were building from scratch for some stupid reason, I blame today being Monday:o)

Would agree 100% with Squall, if you are already on a dualcore 2.4 ghz: don't bother changing.

TBH I would leave your pc alone for the next 6 months to a year:there is nothing in your pc that needs to be changed really.

Wouldn't even bother with crossfire unless you have a monitor bigger than 24".

Also bear in mind the new Intel stuff is not faster than the present core2duos in present games. (the new Intel stuff does pwn multimedia content creation/movie editing/3d animation etc....)

"What is more interesting to me than our quadcore performance is how well the dual core E8500 stacked up against both the quadcore processors. We can clearly see where FarCry 2 was dual core CPU limited until we hit the 1600x1200 mark with AA turned on. From 1600x1200 with 2xAA up in FarCry 2 I think it is safe to say the game is GPU limited in our GeForce GTX 280 configuration. There is room to argue about 1920x1400 0xAA still being CPU limited, but not much. From our results here we can say that the Core i7 at 3.2GHz is not as good a performer as the Core 2 at 3.2GHz in FarCry 2 and once you cross the 1600x1200 0xAA mark, you are going to have a hard time discerning the 965EE from the QX9770 and even the E8500 with this graphics card configuration."
http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTU4MCwyLCxoZW50aGlzdWFzdA==

In short, in a little while maybe pop in a better core2duo or a better core2quad when they fall a LOT in price.

ATM with a 2.4ghz dualcore, 4gig of ram and a 4870 you are set for gaming for the next year or so.

There is no compelling reason for you to upgrade at all. Maybe pick up a cheap quad when the fall in price if games start coming out that actually support quads.

TerrorFirmer

The biggest difference in that setup with that budget would be a new video card. Sell the 4870, and with the - roughly - 400 combined you'd get a much faster 4850x2 and plenty of change.

But if you're on a 22" or similar, then nothing would really benefit you much.