Hey gents,

I know little about hardware so fishing for some help.

My motherboard/CPU are roughly 4 years old, so I am just assuming an upgrade is in order.

I am also assuming that with the mother board being that old that just replacing the CPU is not possible and/or that helpful.


I have already upgraded the power supply, case and graphics card in the last 18 months.


Any thoughts?

While it would always be possible to upgrade the CPU, you'd still be dealing with yesterday's tech.  I always recommend buying the fastest setup you can afford; more life expectancy that way.  If you are open to it AMD's new Bulldozer cored CPU's are available in 8 core setups for about $240.  Add in an upper end ASUS motherboard and you're in for less than $450.

Budget? I''ve loved every Intel CPU I've had, but AMD chips are more or less better bang for your buck. Though if you do any encoding, Intel is the way to go; mine will encode a full BD50 in an hour.

What motherboard do yo have at the moment? Even some boards that old can take beefy CPUs, whcih wodul also save you from buying different RAM.

don't forget the RAM - good chance you will have to upgrade that too if swapping mobo

Thanks guys for the questions and the heads up on the RAM too...I will check out my hardware when I get home and get my own specifics...

OK, this is what I currently have:

Processor:  Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6700 @ 2.66GHz
Motherboard:  Asus IPIBL-LB

I found online that I can replace the processor with one of these:

Intel Core 2 Quad (Y) Q9xxxx
Intel Core 2 Duo (W) E8xxx
Intel Core 2 Quad (K) up to Q6600
Core 2 Duo E6x00 (C) up to E6700
Core 2 Duo E4x00 (C) up to E4400

But I don't know if any of the above is any better than the one I currently have.  What do you think?

out of the cpu's you've listed,  i would move to the Q6600 cpu. The reason for is it's  overclockabilty, i have it in my old computer overclocked to 3.9 an watercooled , and it is still going


strong, i've had it that way since day one. But, i've recently upgraded an built an new machine only because it was 5 yr old tech, i went the AMD route , just like bpmcmaus has said "more


bang for your buck ". Either way it all depends on what you can budget, either build a new one or or upgrade an old, an knowing the way intel works every time intel puts out a new cpu ,


intel some what recalls all older cpu's so you have no choice ( you can still get older cpu's, its that they are not as prevalent or in stock an more)  but ,to get the newest cpu and that intails


upgradeing MB an RAM  etc..... that means u might as well get or build a new machine and get the fastest or better parts.

You already have a Quad-core, and the other, better 775 Quad cores will not really out-perform your Q6700 too much. If you can get them for a very good price, maybe a Q6600 or Q9950. Have you tried ocerclocking your 6700? Those Core 2 Duos typically  overclock quite well. What do yo have for RAM? I'd suggest at least 4gb DDR2-6400 (800mhz)

Though you can slap a good 6-core, 8gb AMD system together for about $350.  ...Then you could start building and HTPC with your old CPU/RAM/mobo. I have my old Q9550 and Nvidia 9800gt  running my HTPC and it runs everything very well.

I just put together a new rig;
ASUS Sabertooth 990-FX MOBO
AMD 8150 FX 8 core processer
16 Gigs of Patriot Sector 5 1333 MHz ram
EVGA GTX570 HD with 2.5 GB of GDDR ram
1000 watt powerpack
It runs great! My older setup could barely function in Black Ops and it couldn't run MW3 or battlefield 3.  Cthulu built my old rig about 6 years ago and it was great for the time.
The EVGA GTX 570 single card performs better than the (2) EVGA 550 ti cards in SLI did in my old rig and was about $80 cheaper than the cost of the 2 cards.

Or Save 80 bucks and get the AMD FX8120

The AMD 8150 and 8120 FX processers come with CPU cooling fans too.

If you stick with a socket 775 setup I would go with the Intel Q9550 which is a 2.83Ghz quad core.  I personally would just buy a newer motherboard, CPU and RAM and not use a setup that's 5 years old.

If you like Intel go with an X58 system so save some cash or if you like AMD go with the bulldozer 8-core and save some money.  Either one will run you less than $700!
If you want better gaming performance go with AMD that's what AMD is for, if you go with Intel they are better for rendering things like music, movies, photoshop etc and not so much for gaming but can handle gaming.

AMD Gaming

CPU:
AMD Phenom II x4 970 3.5Ghz AM3 Socket
$129.99
AMD FX-8120 3.1Ghz Eight Core AM3+ Socket (requires AM3+ motherboard)
$199.99

Motherboard:
GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD5 AM3+ AMD 990FX
$179.99
ASUS Crosshair V Formula AM3+ AMD 990FX
$219.99

RAM:
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866
$79.99
Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866
$69.99

Intel Gaming

CPU:
Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz
$269.99
Intel Core i7-960 Bloomfield 3.2GHz
$289.99

Motherboard:
ASUS Rampage III Formula LGA 1366
$275.99
ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366
$194.99
MSI Big Bang-XPower LGA 1366
$269.99

RAM:
G.SKILL NQ 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
$87.99
Kingston HyperX 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
$84.99

These prices are all from Newegg.com
Now I have posted both AMD and Intel of what I recommend.
Intel will always cost more than AMD but if you want something for gaming go with AMD.