Worth upgrading my processor?

I have a C2 4300 1.8ghz in my desktop now. Just picked up 8GB of RAM and upgraded to W7 and according to my “experience index” of 4.9 it seems a bit of a bottle neck. It should be, its super old.

I don’t feel like building a new computer. Its an LGA 775 mobo, would I notice upgrading to something like this, or am I better off waiting until I pick up a new motherboard?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037&cm_re=LGA775_processor--19-115-037--Product

I mostly do basic work stuff, browse with umpteen tabs open and that kind of stuff. I play games from time to time, but am hardly concerned with having a gaming computer.

Other suggestions?

E4300… Allendale that is on the weaker side but honestly most bottlenecks will end up being I/O, if you have SATA a SSD might go a bit longer way. But my current system a Gigabyte P45 Mobo, Intel Core2Duo E8600, 8gb of ram and a SSD boot drive. Here is my experience index…

Yea, I’m looking to pick up a SSD as well. For $200, if it was going to be worth anything, I’d throw that in there too, but if its not really going to make much of a difference, then I’ll punt. There are more expensive 775 options, I just didn’t know what the price/performance benefit was vs just starting over.

What does your board support? Do you have the latest BIOS update?

Just because it’s a 775 socket doesn’t mean it supports the whole line. You might as well do a Quad core.
This is the one I have:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041

Worth the extra $100 for the quad/extra 6MB if supported?

It just seems with a dual core you are kinda moving sideways rather than upgrading. Yeah it’s a boost in performance, but it’s meh. The extra 6MB is up to you…I’d really shoot for the mid-high quads though, especially if you aren’t doing an i5/i7 Setup. I put a quad core in my parents computer because for the money it made sense.

Thats the thing, if I’m just going to side step, I might as well just buy a new MOBO and proc. Current setup only has 3GB SATA, slow ram, etc.

Guess I’ll see what I can find for a mobo/processor combo in the ~$500 range.

SATA 6Gb/s ports are gonna run the price up.

Ok, then I’ll just see what I have to spend then :-p

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4164/budget-system-builders-guide-february-2011/5

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4025/holiday-2010-system-builders-guide/5

Pretty cheap when I don’t need most of the components.

Here is my current mobo for reference:

sorta jealous. rockin solid sate hard drives or what

reading not your strong suit?

IF you want to skip the SSD you can always get a 10,000 RPM Velociraptor. When gaming, it was my biggest boost when loading maps for Battlefield 2. SSD is definitely in the near future for me.

no not really. sorry for any inconvenience I have caused you

Velociraptors for the cost versus performance don’t make sense anymore compared to SSD’s. I wonder if they ever fixed the noise issues with them. They where LOOOUUUD in the first gens and some of the early first gens I heard had the same issues.

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Yes I have a Corsair Force line SSD

I think im going to upgrade to a pci ssd here soon. liking the numbers coming out with them lately

I don’t know if I agree with you on that, he’d be almost doubling his clock speed. Core 2 Quad are a waste of money if you are going to upgrade to 4-core It is best to go Sandy Bridge or whatever that latest Phenom is. Secondly does his applications take advantage of quad core as not that many apps are 4-core thread aware yet. I know many games aren’t

The main thing with Velociraptors is bigger size. They now make a 600GB I think Velociraptor. The noise really isn’t an issue, and the early VRs were only 1.5Gb/s. I’d like to quiet down my entire rig but, cooling and performance outweighs noise IMO. If you have the change I’d definitely buy an SSD…a reputable SSD

Unless your overclocking how is cooling ever a issue most stock fans cool more than adequately and secondly SSD produce little heat. I still think a SSD for boot drive plus certain apps that benefit from it installed to C: then use your existing HD as a “Apps” Drive.

edit

Reputable subjective… Right now stick to Anything Sandforce 1400 based (corsair force was), Crucial, or OCZ Vertex or Agility lines. There are others, there are tons of good articles on tech sites about how to choose a SSD.

I meant…even if the hard drive was “loud” it is paired with fans whirring, drives spinning, etc. I’m not worried about noise.

Ultimate Electronics on Walden has SSD’s for 50% off. I believe they were only 30gb models. But I think they were like $50 due to the store closing.