Looking to upgrade CPU

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Light Of Darkness
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Looking to upgrade CPU

Post by Light Of Darkness »

Right now my CPU is an Athlon Dual Core 4000+, at stock clock settings (2.2GHz)

My GPU is a Radeon XFX 5650.

PSU is a 400W. My dad got it for me and it looks kinda dodgy, although it's working great (just a teensy bit slower on boot up for some reason).

I'm fairly certain that my CPU is the bottleneck in my system (when in large games of TF2 my FPS dips to 20 in spawn on a few maps).

My budget is around $200, and I'd hope to be able to use my current PSU (probably can't though as I am scratching the bare minimum for the GPU).

Suggestions? Preferably AMD and either at TigerDirect or Canada Computers (they have stores nearby so I can get it faster, and my parents are super paranoid about credit cards, specifically sharing them online, although they did recently get paypal).
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Re: Looking to upgrade CPU

Post by Tahko »

It depends what your socket is and how much your motherboard can handle. Building a computer isn't like one-fits-all lol

but it seems like the quad core prices dropped down a bit since the 6 core cpus came out. I'd go for one of those.
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Re: Looking to upgrade CPU

Post by Light Of Darkness »

Tahko wrote:It depends what your socket is and how much your motherboard can handle. Building a computer isn't like one-fits-all lol

but it seems like the quad core prices dropped down a bit since the 6 core cpus came out. I'd go for one of those.
I don't really feel like going for quad cores since the performance increase isn't much over dual or tri-cores.

Also, the Athlon quad core was already $99 IIRC

EDIT: I didn't really want quad cores since TF2 has shitty ass multi-core support, so more GHz/core sounded like a better idea to me.
Last edited by Light Of Darkness on October 27th, 2010, 4:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Looking to upgrade CPU

Post by Tahko »

When I was looking at CPUs (months ago) they were $120 for quads and this site(tigerdirect) has them for $70-120.

I'm confused though, you want to upgrade your CPU, but you don't want to get a quad-core? Am I like missing something or are dual-cores better than quad-cores these days? :lol:

I guess you could go for the six-core CPU, but like I said earlier, your motherboard probably won't support it.
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Re: Looking to upgrade CPU

Post by Stephen »

quad is better to go with on any level.

but most likely your on am2 socket which will not take them
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Re: Looking to upgrade CPU

Post by Tahko »

What socket would be best for quad / six core CPUs?
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Re: Looking to upgrade CPU

Post by Avatar »

Idk. Personally i have used a pentium 4 and its been working great all these years.
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Re: Looking to upgrade CPU

Post by madmattd »

Tahko wrote:What socket would be best for quad / six core CPUs?
AM3 if AMD. And I agree, if you're looking to upgrade, get a quad. There is a difference between quads and duals, one gets used up much faster than the other :mrgreen: If I were gaming at all I would not be looking at less than a quad personally. To give you an idea, I get about 60% CPU usage on a 3.4GHz quad in TF2, 80% in SC2.

You have a decent GPU (I think, based on the series it is in, Newegg doesn't have 5650s, just 5670s), don't "upgrade" your CPU and keep it as the bottleneck.
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Re: Looking to upgrade CPU

Post by Stephen »

but if you really wanted to wait, till early next year.

amd and intels new sockets will be out. am3+ and 1155.

amds will be back ward compatiable but intels will not
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Re: Looking to upgrade CPU

Post by Light Of Darkness »

wat are sockets.

*complete tech noob*
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Re: Looking to upgrade CPU

Post by Stephen »

the socket is where ur cpu goes on the motherboard

use cpuz to find out

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html
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Re: Looking to upgrade CPU

Post by Light Of Darkness »

Apparently my socket is an AM2.

Will AM2+ work on it?
I'm looking at these 2:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103472
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103286

EDIT: Oh fuck the first one is out of stock :/ and I really liked that one too.
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Re: Looking to upgrade CPU

Post by Light Of Darkness »

DOUBLE POST GOOOOOOOO
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_ ... _id=027057

Too bad that the one in stock happens to be a 4-fricken-hour drive from my house.
And that it doesn't come with a heatsink and fan. My current one (it's still the one that came with it) probably isn't powerful enough.

Although I am going to Toronto soon, and I could just buy a cooler...
Although the shop is probably going to find the most expensive one that is compatible, or say the most affordable one is made of wet tissues and cotton.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=3496
Although Tiger Direct has it for a bit less :D

Recommend me a cooler and heatsink. Several, because I like choices.
I'm probably gonna need to go with the cheapest, although I don't overclock so the problem may just be longevity.
Also, will my 400W PSU still support this?

Course, if I can't use AM2+ with AM2, then I guess I'm gonna have to build a new computer.
FYI: I'm not trying to build something that will last longer then C'Thulhu, so will buying a prebuilt computer then using my current GPU be a good idea?
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Re: Looking to upgrade CPU

Post by Stephen »

yes am2+ cpus will work in am2 boards.

BUT they will be bottle necked by the am2 boards slow hyper transport speeds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socket_AM2%2B.

as for cooler using the stock cooler will be more then fine for you

if you just gonna go ahead and get a prebuilt computer get one from good store such as

http://www.ibuypower.com/

rather then getting a dell or something.

and your video card is pretty low end so thats probably the real source of your low frames.
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Re: Looking to upgrade CPU

Post by Desseler »

Tf2 has really good multi core support. It already supports 6 core.

Also, AM3 is backwards compatible with AM2 and AM2+.
WELL DON'T THAT BEAT ALL.
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