Friend's new build, swapping parts

[Yami]

So, a friend of mine is getting a new machine, since her current one is an Ubuntu box with a P3. I gave her my old comp for her to play Oblivion on, but it only runs at 1024x768 and at near-minimum graphics.
So, she commissioned me to build her a new one.
Now, I have all the parts written down, however a thought came across my mind; that if she bought an E8400, and swapped it for my Q6600. Now, she and her whole family will be using this machine, with multiple people being logged in at once, running lots of programs at once, so presumably a quad would be better for her. Now, I'm the only one who ever uses my comp, and I do a lot of gaming, and I know the E8400 is great for gaming.

She seems happy with the idea since they're virtually identical in price; do you think it would be worth doing so? Would I gain much speed-wise (I will be overclocking the thing to **** when I get my Scythe 2)?

Also if we do do this, would I need to reinstall OSs? I'm almost sure I would, could be wrong though.

 

[kobe24]

yes, you will have to reinstall windows. if you overclock the e8400 it will benefit you now than the q6600. only if you get it at a overclock though because you can get the q6600 to about 3.6ghz.

 

[hikaricloud]

Well, it depends on how many parts you are actually swapping. You could just change the CPU, leave everything else the same. Don't think you'd have to reinstall after that.

 

[kobe24]

i would reinstall just for stability reasons drivers might not work and such.

 

[Yami]

Well, it depends on how many parts you are actually swapping. You could just change the CPU, leave everything else the same. Don't think you'd have to reinstall after that.

There's a possibility I may be getting a 780i mobo too, so I definitely will have to in that case.

 

[Pinscher]

I wouldn't get a 780i. I had a lot of problems with mine.

I would get the e8500 for 20 extra bucks too.

 

[jfenwick]

Couple of comments, you don't "need" to re-install the OS due to a cpu change...however, might be a good idea anyways, I had some issues when i went from my dual to a quad and eventually reformatted, although it might have been other things as well.

Also, what OS are you running, if XP then you can use Sysprep to swap mobos without needing to do an OS repair or reformat, I've used it a few times (XP) and it has always gone smoothly.

How to use the Sysprep tool to automate successful deployment of Windows XP

 

[Yami]

I have another question involving this; I did have a GTS250 lined up for her since most her gaming is Oblivion-like (and it's only £90/$110), but a GTX260 is only £40 more and would last her a lot longer. Is it worth her going the extra bit?

 

[baron5]

It is definitely an improvement, if you can afford it, go for it, but a gts250 should b plenty. it seems a 4870 1gb would be a great buy at 130 pounds.

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail

these are slightly better then gtx260's

As for the quad core situation, get a dual because the apps your not going to be using quad intensive apps, having multiple things open doesn't mean a quad will handle it better.