Christmas present

[miner1436]

Hello, this christmas I was thinking of upgrading my Pc's CPU to 3.0Ghz, can someone give me some recomondations of good brands?

[JSLTIGER]

It's a touch more complicated than that. First off, you need to know what brand chip you have in your motherboard (AMD or Intel). Then, beyond that, you need to know what socket the chip is (most likely contenders: For Intel chips: 423, 478, 775. For AMD: 462 aka A, 754, 939, AM2) in order to determine compatibility. If you have an older CPU socket, a faster chip may not be compatible, meaning that you need an entirely new motherboard, at which point it may make more sense to buy a new computer.

The next thing to know is that 3.0GHz doesn't always mean the same thing. It depends on the chip. For instance, a Celeron D at 3GHz will be slower than a Pentium 4 at 3GHz which will be slower than an Athlon 64 at 3GHz. There is also a question of dual core and quad core chips. Dual core is generally faster than single core at the same clockspeeds, but quad cores additional power may not be noticed immediately as few programs take advantage of the additional cores at the moment.

Don't attempt to upgrade without knowing what you are doing. You may wind up with a useless or fried component, and then you've wasted money. Not fun.

I'd recommend posting what you've got. A simple little program called CPU-Z can be downloaded here: www.cpuid.com

[miner1436]

CURRENT CPU INFO:
Intel Core Duo E6300
Code name:Conroe
Socket 775 LGA
Technology 65nm
Core VID 1.213 V
Specification Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 CPU 6300 @ 1.8GHz
Family 6
model F
Stepping 6
Ext. Family 6
Ext. Model F
Revision B2
Instructions MMX,SSE,SSE2,SSE3,SSSE3,EM64T



Hope that sums it up.

[JSLTIGER]

You should know then that that's a pretty speedy chip, even today. If you are willing, you could probably overclock that chip quite nicely (up to the 3GHz speeds that you want). However, I can suggest three options at this point (that won't result in you needing to buy other new system components):

Your 3GHz Dual core option:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115028

A slightly slower (but still faster) quad core at 2.4GHz and at the same price (this seems to be the most popular option right now):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115017

Or if you've got tons of extra $$$, get the best of both worlds!:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115026

[miner1436]

Thanks

[JSLTIGER]

You're welcome. Hey, you know...should you decide you want the more powerful chip and you have no need for the one you're currently using, feel free to send it my way!

[miner1436]

Just makin sure, this will run SH4 at the recomended 3.0GHz?

[JSLTIGER]

Running SH4 is going to depend on more than the CPU. Your graphics card will also play heavily into the equation. What is the graphics card in your system?

[miner1436]

NVIDA GeForce 7300 LE

[antikristuseke]

Well, the 3ghz recomnedation is for older P4 chips which were horribly ineficent when it came to performance per clock speed so the current processor you have is more than ennough, what is really holding you back is your graphics card, the 7300 is way too weak to run anything with any kind of details. I would recomend you look into 8800GT cards if you can afford one or find one.

[JSLTIGER]

Originally Posted by antikristuseke

Well, the 3ghz recomnedation is for older P4 chips which were horribly ineficent when it came to performance per clock speed so the current processor you have is more than ennough, what is really holding you back is your graphics card, the 7300 is way too weak to run anything with any kind of details. I would recomend you look into 8800GT cards if you can afford one or find one.

Agreed. Your problem is not your CPU, it's your GPU. I also concur that the 8800GT is the only one on the market right now that makes a ton of sense to buy.

[miner1436]

Yes in SH4 and SH3 i get problems, when i zoom up on a ship or a fire or smoke or in SH4 with enviormental effects on my FPS drop to 10 or below usually.

[JSLTIGER]

Yes, that's going to be the GPU, not the CPU, that's causing that. As I mentioned before, I'd recommend going to an 8800GT for completely smooth gameplay with everything all the way up.

[miner1436]

Thanks, thats what ill be getting.