Thinking of upgrading Cpu

Sihero81

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I have a dell 8400 with a 3.0 Gig Intel 530 Lga775, 2Gb Corsair memory. Video card is an X850xt. The specs on the dell website shows that I can upgrade the processor to a 3.6Gig Intel 660 with 2mb L2 cache. Can anyone tell me if the improvement will be worth the $400 dollars I will have to dish out for it? My rig seems to run fine but I have never used anything faster than what I have. Any advise? 8)
 

Sihero81

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Thanks for confirming, I did not think so either. I will spend the dough on a bigger screen. I think I will also go Amd on my next rig, I hear there are not as many heat problems with them as there is with the Prescotts. :D
 

luminaris

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Well, as for any processor, if they're installed correctly, you won't have heat problems. I've been a long time Intel enthusiast and have very recently been building AMD machines and I do like them very much. I would highly recommend AMD to anyone at this point.
 

Sihero81

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I have always gone Intel and never really considered AMD. I just happened to go over to a friends house and gamed on his computer which sports a dual core 4800+. That thing was blazing and I was blown away. He says that the processor runs at 2.4Gigahertz but the 4800+ means that if Intel had a 4.8gig, it would equal or surpass its performance. How true is this?
 

luminaris

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Well, much like undergarments, it depends. :wink:

It depends on many different factors such as the board, RAM, Case, Cooling etc. all these things apply. If the machine is OC'd good and is very stable then yes, it will win out. Intels run hotter than AMDs do so they need more juice to make them work really good.

Also, Intels generally have more headroom for OC'ing than AMD. That can be an advantage for them.

I know my 630 Scotty runs pretty darn fast. However, there is a new sheriff in town and it is my opty. Its blazing fast. I'm still amazed by it.
 

parlee

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would u consider overclocking? i dont know if the dell mobo would support overclocking (if its an xps im guessing it should...) but like lum said p4 have a lot of headroom for overclocking... u could pretty easily overclock to 3.4, the max i bet is close to 4 with proper cooling (probably water cooling to hit 4.0) but like i said 3.4 isnt very hard to hit... my firned has a 2.4 oced to 3.2, he could go to 3.4 but it isnt worth it for him since it doesnt have HT... he made it 800 mhz, u should make 400 easy. try that out and see if it offers any perforamnce increase.

make note though! if ur new to overclocking research first, make sure u dont overvolt anything, and take baby steps when overclocking. overclocking voids ur warrenty so u might wanna keep that in the back of ur head, although its hard to fry stuff if u take baby steps and dont overvolt. also u have an x850, u can use ATItool to overclock that beast, they overclock very well that would help increase perforamnce a decent amount (probably 500-700 marks on 3dmark05) just make sure it doest get too hot (ati tool shows the temp)...
 

Sihero81

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I believe my mobo is locked for overclocking. It is an Intel mobo and I read somewhere that Intel locks its motherboards for overclocking. This is why I was considering upgrading to a 3.6 660. The x850xt's core is 520mhz, how much could I overclock it? This was a big upgrade from the x300se it originally came with.
 

endyen

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I use Rage 3D tweak. I have yet to meet an Ati card that I couldn't get 10% out of. After that, it is a game of heat and luck.
Your current rig should keep you happy for at least a year.
Dont try to decide now, whose chip to buy. There should be some hefty changes made in the next year.
BTW, I hope you didn't give that 300 a decent burial, even cremation is too good for them.
 

parlee

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rofl @ the x300 :p

520 core is fast, its stock speeds (or overclocked a bit, i forget) but usually when u overclock a video card, you overclock the memory until it artifacts, drop it down 5-10 mhz, then overclock the core till it starts running too hot. the reason is because the core is limited by heat, and the memory is limited by its ns rating

i got my 245/432 amd x700pro overclocked to 450/513 with no problems it still runs cool too, u could consider a pci can just to keep that x850 cool, they run a bit hot if i remember right. but theres no reason u wont hit at least 10% like endyen said
 

Sihero81

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Yeah, the card was a joke, but I installed it on my little girls 4700. It runs her hello kitty games really well, ha ha!! I will try overclocking the card a bit, I am still new to the trade but have done a lot of research on it. My rig does run very well, I have never had as much as a hiccup on it, has never crashed on me either. I have read a lot of bad things about dell systems but both of mine have ran flawlessly and both are over a year old.