Best upgrade value

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Seeyou

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I've currently got a Core2Duo E6750, ATI HD4870 and plenty of ram.

I'm wanting to upgrade the CPU to something more beefy, but mainly for gaming, not multitasking. My current m/board supports Core2Quads as well. I'd like to keep everything as is, and just stick a faster Intel CPU in.

What's the best value for money CPU upgrade, that'll still give me a marked performance improvement? I'm looking to spend around R2.5k.

Thanks in advance.
 
If your not looking at multitasking then there is no real point of getting quad core. I would say look at the E8500.
 
You might be able to find a Q9400 for that price.

GTAIV and a couple other games use 4 cores already.
 
I say even if you're not looking at heavy multi-threading, go the quad core route if it fits in your budget. Just more "future-proof"...
 
An AMD CPU and motherboard supporting Crossfire-X should be worth it:D
 
Thanks for the answers. Budget, as I mentioned, is around R2.5k.

I've read some great reviews on the E8500, but can't seem to find much on the Q8300, which is in the same price range. Which is the better performer in games? (assuming they don't support multi-threading yet)

I've also read the E8500 is an awesome overclocker even with stock cooling - could be a deal maker - is this true?
 
Seeyou said:
Thanks for the answers. Budget, as I mentioned, is around R2.5k.

I've read some great reviews on the E8500, but can't seem to find much on the Q8300, which is in the same price range. Which is the better performer in games? (assuming they don't support multi-threading yet)

I've also read the E8500 is an awesome overclocker even with stock cooling - could be a deal maker - is this true?
Click to expand...

Whoops, missed that.

E8500 would perform better in non-multi-threaded games as it's ±500MHz faster per core. But a 2.5GHz quad is not slow at all.

The Q8300 will also OC well, also uses 45nm.

I would take the Q8300 with a 3GHz OC. Future proof and I save more in the end.
 
I see the Q9400 is now available for around 2.8, and the E8500 around 2.5. Both can, if reviews are to be trusted, be reliably clocked beyond 4ghz using even stock cooling. Assuming I were going to do this, and discounting the price difference, I take it the Q9400 would then give the same performance in current games (with both processors at 4ghz) and be more scalable for future SMP-enabled games/apps?
 
Take the quad. There's no point taking a dual now. Especially for games. The number of games that perform better on a quad grows almost daily.
 
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