- Dec 4, 2009
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I'm currently in the process of trying to figure out what to upgrade on my system next. Performance so far is pretty good, but I still have to hold back in some games - I want to be able to crank full settings without fear. So I'm unsure - what should I upgrade next? Computer specs:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale @ 3.00GHz and 1333 FSB
Memory: 2048MB OCZ DDR2 RAM (2 x 1 GB) + 2048MB Corsair XMS DDR2 RAM (2 x 1 GB)
Hard Drive: 500 GB Western Digital 32MB cache SATA II + 320 GB Western Digital SE16 SATA II both @ 7,200 RPM
Video Card: EVGA GTX 260 PCI-E 2.0 896 MB DDR3
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Motherboard: EVGA Nvidia nForce 750i FTW
As it stands I'm between buying another GTX 260 to SLI as I see it scores at the top of benchmarks up there with the GTX 295 and such when used in SLI - or buying more ram (Maxmium supported 8 GB I think). So my question, which will I see more benefit from and in what way? I only wish so much I had bought more DDR2 ram when it was cheap - I bought the Corsair XMS pair for $20 new after rebates and the OCZ pair was like $25 after rebates. Now memory is expensive as hell...
Anyway, my upgrade plans do not include the possibility of a motherboard/CPU upgrade. If I could I'd buy a Core i7 and do that whole shebang - but that's not in the budget right now. My CPU scores a 6.5 on the WEI, my memory and GPU 7.1 and the lowest is actually my hard drives at 5.9 - but I just bought the 500 GB WD and I'm not going to the hassle of buying another hard drive (What do I have to do to up that score - buy a 10k RPM? No thanks...). But I have a question regarding the Intel chipsets since I've been out of the loop on the newer Core i5 and Core i3 processors - do we have any indicators between the LGA 1156 or the LGA 1366 socket which is going to be the longer lived series? My CPU upgrades would include a quad core, but I'm curious if I wouldn't see a big improvement simply from getting a Core 2 Quad - something like a Q9550 would be ideal but now you're talking the same money pretty much as a Core i7 920 or 860.
Now I understand a great deal about computers and stuff, but can someone explain to me what it is about Core i7 that makes them much faster - or just faster - than the Core 2 series? I mean between a Q9550 and a Core i7 920 how big is the performance difference? Given the higher overall cost of upgrade including the mobo and ram it would be nice if the Q9550 performed close enough to the i7 920 that it would be the more worthwhile upgrade. But then again, what effect would this have on my gaming performance - or would it noticably? I'm no overclocker, but I would definitely bump both quad cores to 3 GHz.
Anyway, anyone care to weigh their opinion in (or explain the newer Intel processors to me vs the older)? I'd appreciate it.
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale @ 3.00GHz and 1333 FSB
Memory: 2048MB OCZ DDR2 RAM (2 x 1 GB) + 2048MB Corsair XMS DDR2 RAM (2 x 1 GB)
Hard Drive: 500 GB Western Digital 32MB cache SATA II + 320 GB Western Digital SE16 SATA II both @ 7,200 RPM
Video Card: EVGA GTX 260 PCI-E 2.0 896 MB DDR3
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Motherboard: EVGA Nvidia nForce 750i FTW
As it stands I'm between buying another GTX 260 to SLI as I see it scores at the top of benchmarks up there with the GTX 295 and such when used in SLI - or buying more ram (Maxmium supported 8 GB I think). So my question, which will I see more benefit from and in what way? I only wish so much I had bought more DDR2 ram when it was cheap - I bought the Corsair XMS pair for $20 new after rebates and the OCZ pair was like $25 after rebates. Now memory is expensive as hell...
Anyway, my upgrade plans do not include the possibility of a motherboard/CPU upgrade. If I could I'd buy a Core i7 and do that whole shebang - but that's not in the budget right now. My CPU scores a 6.5 on the WEI, my memory and GPU 7.1 and the lowest is actually my hard drives at 5.9 - but I just bought the 500 GB WD and I'm not going to the hassle of buying another hard drive (What do I have to do to up that score - buy a 10k RPM? No thanks...). But I have a question regarding the Intel chipsets since I've been out of the loop on the newer Core i5 and Core i3 processors - do we have any indicators between the LGA 1156 or the LGA 1366 socket which is going to be the longer lived series? My CPU upgrades would include a quad core, but I'm curious if I wouldn't see a big improvement simply from getting a Core 2 Quad - something like a Q9550 would be ideal but now you're talking the same money pretty much as a Core i7 920 or 860.
Now I understand a great deal about computers and stuff, but can someone explain to me what it is about Core i7 that makes them much faster - or just faster - than the Core 2 series? I mean between a Q9550 and a Core i7 920 how big is the performance difference? Given the higher overall cost of upgrade including the mobo and ram it would be nice if the Q9550 performed close enough to the i7 920 that it would be the more worthwhile upgrade. But then again, what effect would this have on my gaming performance - or would it noticably? I'm no overclocker, but I would definitely bump both quad cores to 3 GHz.
Anyway, anyone care to weigh their opinion in (or explain the newer Intel processors to me vs the older)? I'd appreciate it.
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