Upgrading CPU

[aeroplane22]

I'm considering an upgrade from my current CPU, the Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe (3.0ghz oc'd to 3.8ghz).

I'm not looking for a huge upgrade, just something that I can get a noticeable/substantial performance margin without having to go into the exorbitantly priced 'Extreme' Intel series.

I'm currently looking at the E8400 Wolfdale (3.0ghz) which is 6mb of L2 cache compared to my 4mb. It supposedly overclocks better, upwards over 4.0ghz and its also 45nm.

Would I notice anything, or is it not really worth the minor upgrade?

I'm not interested in a quad-core because I don't use any applications or games that utilize 4 cores, let alone 2. I'd rather have faster cores than more of them.

 

[dario03]

Depends on what you do. But I would say its not worth it. Even if you hit ~4.2ghz thats only ~10% and from I've heard most games won't show much if any difference from that. Other programs might but still its only ~10%.

 

[veg1992]

You'd be better of saving that money for a good water cooling system and go higher... if you're lucky that is

 

[aeroplane22]

Yeah, not really all that worth it.

I don't really need a water cooled system for how I use it, though it would be fun lol