New CPU, what would you suggest.

[Adrian]

Hi all

I hope that admin will allow this to run for a while. I love Windows 7 and have just sold my motherboard, CPU and RAM last night, so today is upgrade day. The situation is that I would like some advice on what to upgrade to. I currently have an extra Intel D965LT motherboard at home but I am unsure if I should use it and go for a higher end Core 2 Duo CPU or if I should buy an entry level Core 2 Duo, but then buy a motherboard that supports Quad Processors. Also, I am unsure how the Intel board will support W7 as looking at their Bios updates it is not showing anything for Vista or W7.
Thanks All

DAran, Dzom is saying very correctly that the mobo is the heart of the system, don't forget that you also will need to visit the power supply. Before you can even look at a MOBO you will need the juice to run your rig. If you are using old parts from your previous system chances are that your psu will be from 300 to 350 watts. So if you plan on major upgrades n processor, vid card drives and memory think about a new power supply in the 500 to 700 watt area. Its best to take a few minutes and plan ahead on what you will be using your new system for.
Regards,
Adrian

 

[Adrian]

So should I keep my motherboard and buy the best CPU I can afford (Dual Core)?

It depends again on what you are going to use the system for.
Ask your self these questions:

1. Are you a gamer? Will you be using your system to play games.
2. Are you a videographer?
3. Are you DB admin?
4. Are you a musician?

If you answered yes to any of the above then you will need a cpu that will have to have comp power and speed. My experience in video requires that I have a relatively simple but fast 2.5 to 3.5 ghz. speed processor otherwise I have extremely poor playback results especially in HD
So again take a minute and review what you are planning to use the system for.
Regards,
Adrian

 

[QuackPot]

An Intel i7 or a Quad Core Intel. Just make sure it has all the fancy features that Windows 7 supports.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
It depends on what applications you are going to run in any case.

Unless you are an inveterate gamer I would even suggest that a QUAD could be overkill - however since the lower end ones are cheap now there's no problem in getting one of these such as a Q9400 or similar.

Most cheaper boards only have 2 slots for memory - making 4GB the maximum realistic amount of memory -- (2 X 2GB) 4GB memory modules if you can find them are hideously expensive and for 99% of home user applications 4GB RAM should be more than enough.

Where users make a HUGE mistake is in skimping on the I/O system - Cheap and slow disks will kill any system STONE DEAD.

Get the FASTEST disks you can afford - at least for the OS. You can use slower disks for data archiving or user data that you don't need to load very often but for things like the OS itself, paging and swap space for Photoshop etc get FAST DISKS - this will more than pay you back in performance.

If you don't do this you won't really notice much of a difference between a QUAD and a DUO - for "typical" applications.

Even if you are a gamer the new graphics boards do all the processing AWAY from the main computer now so the above reasoning still holds.

Serious Video editing needs powerful CPU's but most audio editing (Music etc) doesn't need much extra in the way of humungous processing power.

Audio apps aren't really CPU intensive. Video is (and how !! although read the comment about the processing being offloaded to the graphics processor).

I swapped a really HORRIBLE disk in a laptop for a nice new really fast 2.5 inch 500GB drive. The Laptop now performs nearly as well as most desktops in spite of it having much more modest hardware. (Newer faster disks have larger capacities in any case and larger Buffers).

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Daran]

Thanks for all the replies.

I have settled on the Q9400 on a Raisin City motherboard with 2 Gig DDR 800 Ram. I shall 1st upgrade to 4 Gig of Ram next month and then maybe a new motherboard in December when I might have some Money again.

To be honest I don't do that much on my PC, so the CPU will have more bragging rights than anything else. I do a bit of gaming on it (GeForce 9600GT Card) and thats about it.

Unfortunately my HDD's were acquired for space and not speed. So my OS is on a Sata Seagate 7200 and then all my goodies on 2 Samsung 1Tb 5400.

I would love to OC the CPU a bit, but as normal with Intel boards, it does not seem possible.

 

[skunksmash]

well...if you do manage to get some FSB movement on that board your 800mhz RAM will hold back any decent OC due to the chips 8x multi, i'd go with 1066mhz at least...

this will give you some headroom if your able to OC....

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
good choice of processor - it's cheap and performs moderately well.

Unless you need to I wouldn't bother overclocking that CPU - the main reason its one of the cheapest in the Q9xxx range is that its internal buffer width is half that of the other processors in this range. Overclocking won't buy you much in this type of situation. It's still of course a QUAD so cpu intensive apps should get the benefit of this.

Performance even with your current RAM should be MORE than adequate.

(Now if you are talking about VR apps or want to build things like Aircraft simulators - then thats another matter).

On a similar size rig I've managed to run 6 XP Virtual machines concurrently all with more than adequate performance.

I can't advise on serious gaming as that's an activity I really have no interest in but with a decent graphics card I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Of course on that setup run the 64 bit version of W7.

Cheers
jimbo