What is the fastest processor I can upgrade to?

[ludola]

Hi there,

I built this mackintosh a few years back following Lifehacker's great post. I was wondering if I could simply get a new processor on the board and get a bit of performance improvement. Unfortunately my knowledge is limited. I tried to use the intel compatibility database however my board was not listed.

Hence my question,

what is the fastest processor my build can take and still be functional. Is it worth the investment or should i simply get a new board and processor.

Here is the build

Antec Sonata III 500 Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad 3.0GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor
GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory x 2 (for a total of 8GB)
Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
Pioneer CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model
10/ 100/ 1000/ 2000Mbps PCI Copper Gigabit Network Adapter


Thanks a lot.

Ludovic

 

[ijhu]

You can try get a BIG FAT CPU cooler and OVERCLOCK to see how much you can squeeze out of the current rig. [WARNING] Overclock can damage your system

Unfortunately your socket 775 goes as high as Core 2 QUAD which you have right now. This means that if you want more HORSE POWER, then you need to buy:
-New MOBO
-New CPU
-New RAM

you can keep
-THE CASE + PSU
-9800GTX VGA Card
-DVDROM
-1TB HDD

 

[ludola]

Thanks so much for the info. I will look into a new build. Any specific one you have seen out there you like? Sandy Bridge ones? I mostly will do video editing and photoshop work.
Let me know.

Best

Ludovic

 

[upton_oliver]

What I'm looking at doing is an i5 2500k paired with a gigabyte P67/Z68. Depends on if your looking to overclock this machine. If you don't want to overclock, which varies in ability by system and what affects it may have, buy an i5 2500 (Non-K Model). What are you using your system for as you may need more/less power for what you do. You'll have to buy new memory for your system as the mobo doesn't accept ddr3. If you get graphics intensive stuffs running slow then I suggest you buy a better graphics card instead and hold on to the c2d quad. Running at 3 GHz it is still a zippy processor. Overclocking it can get you some more use out of it to as the guy before mentioned.

 

[justr]

Thanks so much for the info. I will look into a new build. Any specific one you have seen out there you like? Sandy Bridge ones? I mostly will do video editing and photoshop work.
Let me know.

Best

Ludovic

If you're doing serious video editing, I'd argue that it's worth going with the i7-2600K over the i5-2500K solely for the hyperthreading (a cpu function that allows each core to "appear" as if it is two cores... which doesn't do jack for most games or everyday computing, but REALLY helps with video editing in modern applications).

Your GPU choice won't actually matter very much. Over time, more and more applications will use GPU acceleration, including everyday computing-- but the really high end consumer cards are really designed with a gamer's needs in mind. And, for the most part, you can upgrade your GPU independently of the CPU/MOBO.

Keep in mind that we're potentially weeks away from a Mac Pro upgrade-- and the release of newer, faster SB chips, including 6-core (12 thread) chips from Intel. If you can wait, now's a good time to hold off... better to buy into a 2600K when it's no longer the top SB dog, or into something faster if you have the budget.

 

[Rory]

Hi there,

I built this mackintosh a few years back following Lifehacker's great post. I was wondering if I could simply get a new processor on the board and get a bit of performance improvement. Unfortunately my knowledge is limited. I tried to use the intel compatibility database however my board was not listed.

Hence my question,

what is the fastest processor my build can take and still be functional. Is it worth the investment or should i simply get a new board and processor.

Here is the build

Antec Sonata III 500 Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad 3.0GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor
GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory x 2 (for a total of 8GB)
Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
Pioneer CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model
10/ 100/ 1000/ 2000Mbps PCI Copper Gigabit Network Adapter


Thanks a lot.

Ludovic

The best 775 processor is a QX9660 I think. Unlocked multiplier for overclocking. But will cost a silly amount. So may as well upgrade to a sandybridge system as the whole mobo cpu and ram will cost about the same amount. Or wait till early 2012 when SB-e comes out and then you can go for socket 2011 if you want the best performance, or SB will probably take a price drop.

 

[ludola]

Guys,

thanks for the feedback. It looks like i might try and sell the old machine altogether and do a new build altogether. I might indeed wait a few weeks for a drop in price. Do any motherboards offer thunderbolt implementation yet? Or firewire 800 at least? My current board only has firewire 400 and I would love to have a faster connection for HD video editing. Thunderbolt would be ideal, but 800 should suffice.

Let me know and thanks again for all the advice.

L.

 

[justr]

I don't think any motherboards have thunderbolt yet. Not sure about Firewire 800... but you could probably get a cheap card to give you a bunch of FW 800 ports.

Or, you could use e-sata, which will be plenty fast.

Or, better yet through a fast SATA drive internally (that's what I do; actually, I use OS X to stripe RAID two 500 GB 7200 rpm drives) for video editing.