Should i upgrade?

[unipablo]

Hi. I live in Argentina, and i'm travelling to the US in about a month. The prices there are aprox 30% cheaper, so i'm thinking on taking advantage of the situation.

I'm currently running an athlonx2 3600 (90nm model), with a 9600gt and 2gb of memory. I play ocassional games (COD4, CIV, future diablo) at 1440x900, watch movies and stuff like that.

I'm planning on getting an intel dual or quad core (45nm). What do you recommend? will i see an improvement in every day use and games if i get, for example, an e8500 or a q9300?

What processor do you recommend? my priorities are energy efficency, silence, longevity (not planning on upgrading for at least 3-4 years) and, of course, performance. I'm not overclocking, so that is not an option.

90% of the time the PC is idling, so energy efficiency is extremely important.

Thank you to everyone, and i'm sorry for my poor english.

 

[Nik_I]

for games and every day use, the E8500 would be quite a lot faster. in terms of silence, that'll depend on the cooler. the arctic cooling freezer 7 is very quiet for a very good price (roughly $30). if energy efficiency is a concern for you, make sure you get an 80+ certified power supply. that means that 80% of the electricity it consumes will actually be used for powering the computer instead of ending up as heat.

 

[zero3one]

Keep in mind that you will need a new motherboard as well. You can salvage the ram if it's DDR2 (800 mhz is the best for price vs performance) and video card if it's PCI-E.

The E8500 is a good choice for you depending on your budget. It's a pretty good all ound performer. If you lean towards a little more multi-tasking or editing maybe consider a quad like a Q9450 or Q550. The Q6600 is also a pretty good performer for the money.

For a mobo, I'd go with a P45 from either Asus or Gigabyte with my personal preference towards the Gigabyte models.

And since you don't plan on OCing I'd opt for just the stock cooler instead of getting an aftermarket one.

 

[Grant1872x]

err... can you run an intel CPU on your (I presume) AMD motherboard...?

"I'm currently running an athlonx2 3600" and then... "I'm planning on getting an intel dual or quad core"

 

[unipablo]

Of course i'm buying a new mother. I'm thinking on an asus p5ql-e (p43). What do you guys think??
And will a Quad core last longer?? thanks