SPCR

I want to buy a new processor for my aging machine. I was looking at quad core intels such as the q9550 9400 and 8300.
Any other in the $200 would be applicable as well.

Would it be worth getting a new mobo (at least $150) and a cpu such as the i5 750 for $200 instead of just a new core 2 quad cpu for $200

I currently have a e6400 (conroe) at 2.6 and 4gb ram at 800

I have a Q8400S and is great it make no sense to go for i7.
What is your current motherboard?
What are you using the computer for?

I have a asus p5b deluxe/wifi back in the day it was a great conroe board.

The system is used for slight video editing and some gaming but mostly for multitasking. So itunes, 3 folders of pics open, some editing software, some virus scan, 4 browsers with at least 30 tabs open, etc.

i'd just go the q8400, it doesn't sound like you really need that much horsepower. the q9400 could be a good choice too, especially if you want to run virtual machines.

why are you looking to upgrade?

incorrect wrote:i'd just go the q8400, it doesn't sound like you really need that much horsepower. the q9400 could be a good choice too, especially if you want to run virtual machines.

why are you looking to upgrade?

The Q8400 and Q8400S uses VT so no need to go for Q9400 http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=42112

xev wrote:I have a asus p5b deluxe/wifi back in the day it was a great conroe board.

The system is used for slight video editing and some gaming but mostly for multitasking. So itunes, 3 folders of pics open, some editing software, some virus scan, 4 browsers with at least 30 tabs open, etc.

Board is OK maybe you will need a BIOS update to support the last quad cores.

electrodacus wrote:The Q8400 and Q8400S uses VT so no need to go for Q9400 http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=42112

oh good call, i was thinking about the lower q8xxx chips which lack it. intel's bizarro feature disabling strikes again.

Given the light apps and tasks you listed, I'm suprised the e6400 isn't up to the job. Seems like the only thing slowing you down would be the video editing...

Cheapest path is go for the low priced socket 775 quad cores.

Seems like only 1 version of the q8300 has vt support so it's probably safer to go for the q8400. newegg has the q9400 for only $20 more than the q8400, so is the extra 2mb of l2 cache worth $20?

also since these processors run at 1333 fsb, should i get ram at 1066l, or would 800 variety be fine?

VT is only important if you plan to run multiple OS at the same time.

I could barely get my P5B-E to run the memory at 800MHz let alone 1066. Your mileage may vary... in any case, see what memory multipliers your bios supports...

The Q8400 has a bus/core multiplier of 8 (q8300 is 7.5). Stock speed is 2.66GHz. Core clock is then 2.66GHz/8 = 333MHz. So, 1:1 memory speed is 333MHz or DDR667....and so on.

All in all, don't think it's worth spending more money on slightly faster ram for this mobo.

My dad just had a new C: hard-drive installed because his computer could no longer boot-up from his old C: drive. The old drive was still usable so the tech set it up as a second (E:) drive. The tech installed new versions of his favorite programs on the new C: drive. Dad has been using Adobe Elements 5 but the tech upgraded him to version 7 and he isn't familiar with it. His version 5 is still on the E: drive but when attempting to launch he gets an error about the key code and the program shuts down. Does anyone know why this happens and how this can be fixed? Of course he has the installation disk for version 5 but failed to keep the key-code information necessary to re-install.