Replacing a E4400 CPU

[eipnvn]

For the last few years I've been very pleased with the E4400 recommended to me by the members of these forums. You guys were spot on. It's been rock solid and I've been running it at 2.57 ghz even though it's rated at 2.0. Lately I've been thinking about an upgrade though. The last few days I've had some problems I attribute to the processor - even though I've now clocked it back to 2.0. (And it's a good excuse to upgrade regardless...) So if I were to upgrade what would you recommend? Stay with C2D? Go with a quad? I'd like to stick with socket 775 for now, I'm not quite ready to jump to a new motherboard. I'd also like to be under or around $150. Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[JeffO]

My only thoughts are IF you have Vista x64 or Win7 x64, then a faster-clocked quad (Q6xxx) would probably show you a nice improvement.
I always go for the higher L2 cache, even if it costs more. Doubling your L2 from 2MB to 4MB can cut your launch-times in half. Emphasis on "can". If you get a quad-core with 1MB per core (total 4MB) and you're running an app that only utilizes one core, then the extra cores and L2 won't help.
A Q9400 or Q9505 would cost ~$190/240 and would give you 6MB of L2 total, and you could overclock to about 3GHz.
If you go faster (Q9450, Q9550, etc.), the price skyrockets.

 

[patonb]

Whats your board? Older boards are toucvh and go on 45nm chips, and even more sketchy on 45nm quads..

My 680i will do all 45nm duals, but no quads.

 

[eipnvn]

I'm using an evga 650i ultra - that's very interesting to know that it may have problems with quads. I never even thought about that. Is that the case even though the specs say that the quads should work?

also, (JeffO) I am using Win7 x64 so that's good advice. And thanks for the thoughts on the cache, I will definitely keep that in mind as I look.

 

[patonb]

Yha, like my 680i, you can't run 45nm quads. q6600s are crap now unless you can find an older one.

I wouldn't bother getting a quad, as the good ones won't fit. Go for the best c2d you can get for your money.

Something like this:
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E7600 Wolfdale 3.06GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops

 

[JeffO]

Win7 x64 has the best multiprocessor traffic-control ever! It is awesome. I run i7 (4 hyper-threaded cores), and it is a wonder to watch Task Manager when i have memory loaded with heavy applications. Every core is balanced well, except that hyper-threading only seems to use one hyper-thread on one core. But all the four main cores are equally loaded.
Too bad about the quad being too if-y, but great patonb had the experience to steer you away.

Something else i thought of... At work, I timed launches after reading about L2 cache. Apparently WinXP has a limit to how much L2 it handles by default, and anything over that is wasted unless you edit a Registry key.

At the time i did all this testing only SP2 was out. I think SP3 increased the amount XP handles, but I don't know what the new limit is. But hard-coding this value can't harm you, and guarantees you get to use all of it.
Just make certain you don't mix up hex and decimal. the value should equal your L2 cache in KB.
Edit per total L2 cache. So if a person had 1MB/core, and a quad-core, they'd still edit to say dword:00001000 (4096) decimal

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]
"SecondLevelDataCache"=dword:00000000
; SecondLevelDataCache default = 0 for dynamic/auto
; dword:00000200 is equal to 512 decimal
; dword:00000400 is equal to 1024 decimal
; dword:00000800 is equal to 2048 decimal
; dword:00000c00 is equal to 3072 decimal
; dword:00001000 is equal to 4096 decimal

Hope this isn't TMI. This edit is a free performance boost for many people running XP.

 

[eipnvn]

Hmm. So am I stupid for spending $150 on a 775 processor? What would be the cheapest i3 processor/MB combo that you would recommend?

 

[patonb]

Eek, thats out my knowledge... but a newegg sale could easily extend you current setup for awhile.

Best question is, what do you use it for?

 

[eipnvn]

Great question. I do a little gaming, nothing hardcore, but I do like to be fairly well on top of things. I'm running an HD4850 and can still pretty much max stuff out at 1920x1200 with that card and the E4400 overclocked. So I'm happy with that, I'm just worried that I'm going to drop $150 on something that I'll really wish I could upgrade in 6mo or a year.

 

[patonb]

K, then this raises the 2nd question of do you plan on an upgrade soon?

If the e4400 is still fine, don't upgrade, the cpu, and get a i5/i7 and a ddr3 ram mobo.

future proofing.