Help with upgrading

[CoffeeFiend]

Does that mean I can go ahead and get the C2D E6700?

I can't guarantee it'll run, but either ways you'd have to look on the used market (ebay or whatever) as it was EOL'ed in Jan '08.

[puntoMX]

I can't guarantee it'll run, but either ways you'd have to look on the used market (ebay or whatever) as it was EOL'ed in Jan '08.

And that's almost impossible to find in India, so, look for a E3300 and a G41/P45 chipset baset mobo, 90 bucks and you are ready.

[Tripredacus]

Thanks! Does that mean I can go ahead and get the C2D E6700? I wouldn't want to first buy this and then find out it doesn't work with my mobo and I cant give it back. Also, how much of a performance boost would I get over the P4 3.0 GHz?

You are only going to see a speed difference in the cache I believe. It may not be worth upgrading if you are already using HyperThreading.

[puntoMX]

Thanks! Does that mean I can go ahead and get the C2D E6700? I wouldn't want to first buy this and then find out it doesn't work with my mobo and I cant give it back. Also, how much of a performance boost would I get over the P4 3.0 GHz?

You are only going to see a speed difference in the cache I believe. It may not be worth upgrading if you are already using HyperThreading.

Ow yes he will feel the difference for sure, note that a HT CPU isn't a real dual cored CPU and a dual core for sure is; the cache is something less to worry about.

It's just no use to upgrade only the CPU, he will be stuck with the older and more expensive models...

[CoffeeFiend]

Ow yes he will feel the difference for sure, note that a HT CPU isn't a real dual cored CPU and a dual core for sure is; the cache is something less to worry about.

No kidding. The E6700 is almost 4x faster than a P4 3GHz. Not only the new CPU is dual core and the old one isn't (already a huge difference), but the P4 uses the old Netburst architecture (way too deep pipeline for starters) which was utter junk, and then trying to scale that poor & inefficient design using the "more MHz" marketer-friendly method -- compared to the MUCH nicer Core 2 architecture for the E6700 which has a significantly higher IPC (another *major* boost) and its overall MUCH better design (big improvements on the SIMD side too). And then you got the 4x larger cache, better branch prediction, new instruction sets (e.g. SSE3 -- plus others that are very nice although not so much for speed reasons i.e. VT for VMs), etc. It's also a decent 64 bit CPU which gives another boost (the extra registers help) assuming you're using a x645 OS, etc.

The difference would be day and night (as much as between a P3 900 and a P4 3GHz)

Personally I would do the same as puntoMX already suggested: a basic motherboard with a E3300. That would be much easier to find new (full warranty), be significantly cheaper cheaper than even a used E6700 on ebay, and still perform ~4x faster than a P4 3GHz. You might get some nice extras out of the new motherboard too (the choice is yours).

[indianarchie]

Looks like you guys are right. I checked over the weekend and the C2D E6700 is not available in my area (its not on eBay India either). The closest available is C2D E7500 with an Intel DG43 mobo for Rs. 9800/- (processor + mobo). That comes to about 220 USD. Is it worth it? The other config I was offered was an i5 based config (dont remember the specific version or board model) for roughly Rs 15000/- (about 340 USD) which seems high. What do you suggest? Also, would a Celeron E3300 as suggested earlier really be more powerful than a Pentium 4?

[puntoMX]

What do you suggest? Also, would a Celeron E3300 as suggested earlier really be more powerful than a Pentium 4?

Yes, the E3300 is a great pick for 40-45USD, supports VT, 2.5GHz, 1MB cache, 800MT/s Bus and about 4 times as fast as your current CPU, get that with a G31(ICH7)/G41(ICH7)/P45((ICH10®)with a video card) mobo and you are done. Also AMD has a nice Athlon II 240/245 AM3 CPU for a low price, combine that with a AMD 760G/710 chipset based mobo, might be a bit more expensive than the Intel setup but could be worth it when you look at the onboard GPU, better southbridge (compared to the ICH7) and a faster CPU. No need to buy an Intel brand motherboard, you burned your fingers ones on that so why do it again?

[CoffeeFiend]

Looks like you guys are right. I checked over the weekend and the C2D E6700 is not available in my area (its not on eBay India either).

We weren't speculating or anything. It's been end-of-life'd for over 2 years, so if you found one, it would be old stock or 2nd hand.

The closest available is C2D E7500 with an Intel DG43 mobo for Rs. 9800/- (processor + mobo). That comes to about 220 USD. Is it worth it?

Not really. It's not exactly a great motherboard (only 2 DIMM slots for starters -- I'd expect more at 220 USD), and that processor is a pretty poor choice if you look at value (bang for your buck) compared to pretty much anything else.

The other config I was offered was an i5 based config (dont remember the specific version or board model) for roughly Rs 15000/- (about 340 USD) which seems high

An i5 won't be cheap. And at that price, you don't have any RAM either so it would cost you more than that. It seems a bit overkill for your usage anyhow.

Also, would a Celeron E3300 as suggested earlier really be more powerful than a Pentium 4?

See the previous post:

Personally I would do the same as puntoMX already suggested: a basic motherboard with a E3300. That would be much easier to find new (full warranty), be significantly cheaper cheaper than even a used E6700 on ebay, and still perform ~4x faster than a P4 3GHz.

The E3300 is ~85% as fast as the E7500, but it costs less than half. I mean, you can get either:

-The E7500 which is 4x faster than what you got, for ~$120 or

-The E3300 which is more like 3.5x faster (still running circles around the P4) for $50 (that's a good budget pick)

If the E3300 isn't fast enough, I still wouldn't go for the E7500 as there are DOZENS of better options, for example:

-The AMD Athlon II X4 630 which is 7x faster than your P4 for ~$100 (much faster and still cheaper than the E7500), or even:

-The AMD Phenom 8750 Triple-Core which is a hair faster than the E7500 and is under $75, and if you insist on staying with Intel for some reason:

-The Pentium Dual-Core E6500 which is also faster than the E7500 and costs $80 (faster for 2/3 the price).

...

Personally, I'd spend the cash saved on a nicer motherboard (e.g. gigabyte or asus) with at least 4 DIMM slots.

[puntoMX]

Personally, I'd spend the cash saved on a nicer motherboard (e.g. gigabyte or asus) with at least 4 DIMM slots.

MSI is working hard on their motherboards as well, could be an option too .

[CoffeeFiend]

MSI is working hard on their motherboards as well, could be an option too .

I haven't had a look at them lately, mostly for having been deceived by them in the past but they might have improved a lot since (it's been a while). Foxconn also has some half-decent budget offerings. I also heard several times that ECS isn't producing the same junk as they used to (in the K7S5A era) but I haven't look much either.

I forgot to mention this in my last post: a lot of AMD's offerings are more "modern" (AM3/DDR3 and you can get USB3/SATA3 too without breaking the bank -- and compatibility with the new 6 core CPUs too) than those Intel 775 boards with DDR2 which are very much a dead end.