Print
Does it make sense to upgrade your CPU today? What’s the sweet spot for price and performance? And how about Intel’s LGA775? Answers below!
Upgrading to Intel's Core i7-860 will deliver startling performance increases.
When it’s time to pep up an old PC, the CPU is usually the first candidate that springs to mind. By leveraging microarchitecture changes, larger cache sizes, and additional cores from a new chip, you can turn that tired old dog into a prancing pony.
At least, that’s always been the promise of a CPU upgrade. While we’re certainly champions of the value of a fast processor, we’re also the first to admit that the CPU is not always the most severe bottleneck holding you back. So before we weigh in on the intricacies of which CPU you should upgrade to and how to form a logical upgrade plan, here are a few reasons why you should think twice about investing your hardware budget in a new processor.
You’re familiar with the not-so-quiet war between the GPU and CPU crowds these days, right? While both factions seem quite happy to float big, fat stinking lies about the other on occasion, we generally agree that if your PC suffers from low frame rates in games, investing in a bigger GPU will usually be more impactful in delivering higher frame rates and a better gaming experience. This is especially true for those of us who play games at resolutions of 1920x1200 or higher.
This doesn’t mean the CPU is worthless in gaming. You probably won’t be happy with the performance you get by pairing a Radeon HD 5970 with a 2.8GHz Pentium D, for example. But if you already have a peppy little 2.86GHz Core 2 Quad Q9550, your money is better spent upgrading the GeForce 9800 GT you’re currently running instead of the CPU. One caveat: We are finally starting to see more and more games that are being optimized for quad-core. A few titles such as Napoleon: Total War have even been optimized for hexa-core processors. Our guidance here is that you’re OK with a high-clocked dual-core in the 3GHz or higher range, although the new baseline you should shoot for is a tri- or quad-core processor in the 2.5GHz or greater range for gaming. More on that later.
Other scenarios to consider before upgrading your CPU are instances when you have abnormally low amounts of system RAM or a particularly full hard drive. If you’re running 2GB or less memory on a modern OS, strongly consider moving to 4GB. And sure, that hard drive may have been fast when it was an empty 1TB vessel, but at 80 percent capacity, it will read and write much slower because the heads have to grab data from the inner portions of the platter. In this case, buying a secondary hard drive and migrating data files to the new drive will improve overall performance more than a new chip.
OK, let’s get down to it. When weighing your own chip upgrade, when is the right time to pull the trigger?
Within the same family of chips, adding clock speed will normally give you corresponding performance benefits. For example, upgrading from a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo E6600 to a 3GHz Core 2 Duo E6850 will give you roughly a 25 percent boost in application performance. With this in mind, you should ask yourself if it’s worth buying a $180 CPU for a 25 percent lift.
If you run multithreaded apps such as encoders, RAW file converters, or 3D modeling, you’ll see the biggest performance gain by adding extra CPU cores. Upgrading from a dual-core 2.93GHz Core i3-530 to a 2.93GHz Core i7-870, for example, can yield a 100 percent increase in threaded app performance.
Since we’re working under the parameters of an upgrade story, we’ll skip major overhauls, such as moving from a Core 2 Duo E6700 on the LGA775 to a Core i7-930. Such an undertaking requires a new motherboard, new RAM, a new heatsink—and well, just about new everything. We’re going to stick with upgrades that work within a certain platform.
Intel’s premium socket has never really been your budget buddy. Motherboards that support it demand a price premium over other Intel platforms and also require buying three sticks of RAM instead of two. Still, Intel’s original 2.66GHz Core i7-920 has always been a rocking deal, and its replacement, the $300 2.8GHz Core i7-930, is our first choice as a step up.
If you’re looking for a higher-end upgrade, we recommend passing on Intel’s $500 3.2GHz Core i7-960. Assuming that the Internet rumors are correct, it makes more sense to wait for the 3.2GHz Core i7-970 successor, which will allow you to make the jump to a hexa-core processor. The i7-970 is expected to release as early as the end of this summer. The price is unknown, but we expect it to cost around $500–$550.
Other than this, there’s not much more maneuvering room on Intel’s LGA1366 platform for budget-minded shoppers. Let’s move on.
LGA1156 Picks
The LGA1156 is Intel’s real budget platform. The previous top chip was the 2.93GHz Core i7-870. On LGA1156 is so fast that, until the hexa-core Core i7-980x was introduced, it was hard for us to justify even considering LGA1366 processors at all. That chip has since been supplanted by the 3.06GHz Core i7-880 which goes for $583 in bulk.
If you originally built a machine using the dual-core 2.93GHz Core i3-530 and you’re finding that this $113 chip doesn’t have the pep for your video encoding or content-creation needs, the sweet spot in the LGA1156 category for budget buyers is the 2.8GHz Core i7-860. At $284, this gives you a Hyper-Threaded quad-core processor. In terms of performance, upgrading to the Core i7-860 cut the time it took us to encode video from an iPhone in HandBrake by 51 percent, and RAW conversion for still photos was cut by as much as 84 percent. Extreme overclockers will likely want to reach for Intel’s new 2.93GHz Core i7-875K. This new K series chip gives you a quite a bit more flexibilty in overclocking options. However, it’s also a bit pricier at $342 in bulk. Non-overclockers will probably quite happy saving the $60 and getting the Core i7-860. And don’t let the lack of a K fool you, the Core i7-860 is still a good overclocking part.
If $284 is too rich for your blood, our next pick is Intel’s Core i5-750. With this $200 CPU, you lose Hyper-Threading, but retain Turbo Boost. Again, compared to the Core i3-530, your HandBrake encodes would be cut by 40 percent and RAW conversions by 40 percent. Generally speaking, gaming performance with the Core i5-750 is also much improved.
So what to do if you already have a Core i5-750 or Core i7-860? The next step up is the stellar (albeit pricier) 3.06GHz Core i7-800 chip. This CPU is slower than Intel’s $1,000 3.33GHz Core i7-975 Extreme Edition but not by as much as you’d expect from a chip costing almost half as much.
The AM2+/AM3 platform is a glorious playground for upgrading. Because this platform allows anything from power-conserving dual-core CPUs to six-core chips on the same motherboard, it’s difficult to pinpoint a single baseline CPU that most upgrades will be coming from. So instead, we’ll give you a range of top picks.
If you’re upgrading from dual-core and living on a tight budget, the quad-core 2.8GHz Athlon II 630 is our choice. At $99, it’s a steal and leaves its dual-core siblings in the dust.
The real steal, however, are AMD’s new six-core processors. The hexa-core 3.2GHz Phenom II X6 1090T sells for less than $300 and the 2.8GHz Phenom II X6 1055T is going for $200. At those prices, this is a no-brainer upgrade, particularly given that with Intel, you’re going to have to fork over $1,000 to get six cores.
Are AMD’s hexa-cores capable of slaying their equivalently priced Intel counterparts? Yes and no. The Phenom II X6 1090T aced Intel’s $562 Core i7-870 in some of our Lab tests involving heavily multithreaded apps. However, in most other applications, the top-end, $300 hexa-core AMD chip had a tough time beating even the $200 Core i5-750. Ultimately, since you can’t buy the Intel chip without buying a new board, CPU cooler, and practically rebuilding your system from scratch, the comparison is moot. The takeaway is this: At $300, the Phenom II X6 1090T is a great upgrade for this platform.
We’ve long considered Intel’s LGA775 platform to be a non-starter. Intel hasn’t introduced anything new for it in a year. The chipmaker also hasn’t cut prices on LGA775 chips enough to keep them competitive with AMD or even its own Core i3 parts. In many ways, these CPUs are simply not competitive with anything on the market today. Add the mish-mash of incompatible chipsets and motherboards to the mix and it’s clearly time to bail on LGA775.
Despite all this, the LGA775 continues to make up the majority of new desktop PC sales thanks mostly to bottom-feeder boxes. So what do you do if you happen to have an LGA775 box that you’re itching to upgrade? First, make sure you can upgrade it at all. If you have an old nForce 680i machine, for example, you probably cannot run a 45nm Core 2 Quad chip. (Thank you, Nvidia and Intel.)
Most of the lift you’re going to get on the LGA775 will come from moving to quad-core. There, you’ll get the best bang for your buck from the 2.83GHz Core 2 Quad Q9500. At $183, it resides squarely within the budget-minded price-performance sweet spot. We don’t think the 3GHz Core 2 Quad Q9650 makes much sense at $316, but when you consider that the 3GHz Core 2 Extreme Q9650 cost $1,000 a few years ago, you might want to do it just for bragging rights. But you have to ask yourself: Does it make sense to buy a new chip for a platform that’s a dead man walking when a new platform and a Core i3 or Phenom II will deliver a lot more power for your money?
| INTEL | AMD |
|---|---|
| 2.8GHz Core i7-930 | 2.8GHz Athlon II 630 |
| 2.8GHz Core i7-860 | 3.2GHz Phenom II X61090T |
| 2.8GHz Core 2 Quad Q9500 | - |
Don’t be that guy. You know, the rookie who commits the cardinal sin of buying a non-returnable CPU just because it fits the same socket as his motherboard. That’s something that will end in tears. Follow this quick list before you buy any upgrade CPU.
Yes, read the frakking manual and your motherboard maker’s website to find out which CPUs will work on your board. If it’s not listed, there’s a good chance it just won’t work no matter how much you wish that it would.
OK, you’ve determined that the shiny new CPU will work on your board. Before you install the new chip and boot though, make sure you update the BIOS. Otherwise, you’ll have to put the old chip in just to update the BIOS to POST your new chip.
If you just went from a dual-core CPU to a six-core CPU, that $13 heatsink might not get the job done anymore. Think ahead. Be prepared to meet your increased cooling needs.
Comments are closed on this article
bolod
December 26, 2011 at 10:18pm
Hey buddy,this is one of the best posts that I’ve ever seen; you may include some more ideas in the sametheme. I’m still waiting for some interesting thoughts from your side in your next post.
Philips
November 19, 2011 at 12:25am
This is very helpful. Thank you for sharing this awesome this. This is a very good thing to apply.
Philips
October 09, 2011 at 1:59pm
Thank you for this post. This is very interesting. Upgrading a PC is really expensive. But now, there is a cheaper way. Thanks for sharing.
Bogdan
September 05, 2011 at 3:02am
If you are running older rigs and you are going to start swapping CPU's you'd be better off build a new rig that has a better upgrade path down the road. At least this is what I think.
Best regards,
wortwortwort
July 02, 2010 at 10:57pm
I just put together a computer (Monday), so it's way too early to upgrade right now, but it was still a good article.
The Hyper 212 Plus is pretty great. My i5 750 at stock frequencies idles at 24-26 degrees C! That's barely above room temperature! This isn't even with the fan running at full speeds, usually it's at ~1000RPM or lower (Max is 2000RPM). Running Prime 95 for hours, it will barely pass 40 C. I did lower the voltage a bit (from 1.2156V to 1.1V), but it's still perfectly stable. A few days after I ordered mine, Newegg.ca brought the prices from $30 to $60.
The SSD is something that I considered, but I think that I would rather see how the Samsung Spinpoint F3s do (2 x 1TB) and maybe get a X25-M G3 when they come out.
I looked at the 750TX, but I don't need anywhere near that amount of power, so 650W was plenty. The 650HX was only $10 more than the 650TX, so I decided it was worth it.
My system:
Intel i5 750
Gigabyte GA-P55a-UD3
Gigabyte Radeon 5870
4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600
2x Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
Antec Three Hundred Illusion
Corsair 650HX
Lite-On Blu-Ray player
ASUS VH226H (Yes, shitty TN monitor)
filip007
July 01, 2010 at 1:16pm
Seagate yeah right, http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/hands-on-review-of-1-tb-seagate-barracuda-720012/
Samsung also can't stand simple Smart test so...
Hitachi is my best guess, yes it cost more but at lest it's quality, better 500GB Hitachi then 1TBGB Seagate or Samsung for one year.
SininStyle
July 01, 2010 at 5:37am
Think allot of people missed the point of the article. Its not a budget build or best bang for buck build. Its best money spent for most improvment on an upgrade. If you have a decent GPU then buying a 5770 wont give you much for $150 so it would be dumb to upgrade to it. The 5850 on the other hand will give you a very large margin of improvment for your money.
Reread the part about the i7 920-930, it wasnt suggested to upgrade from a 920 to a 930 it was said the 920 was allways a good buy and they believe the 930 is no different.
Sometimes I wonder why I bother reading comments when I know the majority of them are just whines and rants about a perfectly good article.
dakishimesan
July 01, 2010 at 3:49am
This entire series of routers from Belkin have abysmal reviews everywhere from Newegg to Amazon. I have a previous gen Belkin G router that I LOVE but they missed the mark with reception and bugs this time around, steer clear of this IMHO. http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Wireless-Play-Router-F7D4302/dp/B003CJTNLI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1277981080&sr=8-1
violian
June 30, 2010 at 11:25am
For PC parts - Newegg all the way because it's really easy to filter out the exact parts your looking for....and the price. But for hardware such as LCD monitors, Tigerdirect all the way for their prices.
fiXXer
June 30, 2010 at 9:53am
I don't about everyone else's idea of what "budget" means, but a $300 video card does not fit the bill. I personally consider a budget video card one that falls into the sub-$200 range. MaxPC, you guys reviewed the Radeon 5770 a few months back and said it was a solid low/mid-range card for people using displays around 22 inches. To me, if you're on a budget with your PC's hardware, you're probably not going to running a 30-inch display anyway. Maybe my view is a little off-center b/c I don't do a lot of gaming (some, but not a lot) and I don't need earth-shattering performance in that department.
Overall a very good article! I read the Hyper 212+'s review about 2 months after I baught my ArcticCooling Freezer 64 Pro and promptly kicked myself in the ass for not waiting to get the 212. I take MaxPC's reviews into heavy consideration when upgrading my PC (along with user reviews), so keep up to excellent work!
igoka
June 30, 2010 at 9:30am
I thought the article is about budget. 4, 6 Gigs of Ram?
All of my PCs including my Gaming PC have 2 Gigs. The performance is not great
but it’s ok. All I had to do is upgrade my video card to HD 5850 and don't
underestimate PSU. People usually buy the cheapest they can. PSU is the device
that brings juice to all your PC components the cleaner juice the better
and longer components will work. I lost so many motherboards, video cards
because of bad, cheap PSUs. Is there any serious PC gamer who plays over wireless?
mesiah
June 30, 2010 at 10:18pm
This is about budget UPGRADES. If you are thinking about upgrading, I pray to god that you already have 2 gigs of ram. 2 gigs on a modern rig is the absolute minimum you should even consider. I find it hard to believe you can justify $300 on a video card, but not $40 on an extra 2 gigs of ram. Given, the video card is going to increase graphics performance, but if your computer is constantly using a swap file to make up for lack of ram, everything is slow not just games.
noobstix
June 30, 2010 at 8:48am
If you're not into having the "greatest rig on Earth", you can still save money by reusing some things (provided they still work). The only things I bought were a new mobo, CPU, and GPU. The memory was "donated" to me and I'm using my monitor, HDD, CD/DVD drive, and PSU (going strong after 6+ years). At current market prices, my PC costs probably no more than $600 (a few things are "discontinued" so that pretty much excludes them from the overall price). Sure it might not destroy any benchmarks but it can do some high-detail gaming with smooth frame rates (hell, it can do max AA in a few games).
Mobo: MSI 770-C45
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE
Memory: 6GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3
Video: 1GB Diamond ATI Radeon HD5770
Monitor: 19" Viewsonic VX1935wm
HDD: 320GB Western Digital SATA
CD/DVD: Pioneer DVR-111D
UndeniablyPC
June 30, 2010 at 5:17am
I must say MaximumPC this article is lacking in some serious value to the budget minded. For one thing telling someone that has a LGA 1366 socket to go from a 920 to a 930 is a pretty worthless upgrade. Especially since the 950 is due to drop down to almost the same price as the 930 in August. A wireless router, really? How many gamers do you know trust a wireless connection when playing games? Probably 0. The only thing I can say that would be a considerable consumer upgrade that would net the best results is the SSD. The reason being is that Secondary Storage has always been the slowest part of any computer, and the old story goes that you can only go as fast as your slowest part. And for the record that Intel X-25-V SSD is rather lacking if you want my honest opinion since it only has a sustained read of 170 MB/s and a sustained write of 35 MB/s. Where for the same price just about an OCZ agility has a 230 MB/s read and 135 MB/s write. I understand that this information that you provide is free, but as it took me a matter of about two minutes to find out that tidbit of SSD information, I would think that you could do the same for your fellow readers. I also understand how narrowing down a list of components for viable budget upgrades can be tedious, I would say that most of these are not budget and lack value added.
CENTURION_L77
June 30, 2010 at 4:41pm
UndeniablyPC wrote: "I understand that this information that you provide is free, but as it
took me a matter of about two minutes to find out that tidbit of SSD
information, I would think that you could do the same for your fellow
readers."I completely agree with you! If I was "maximum"pc I would be embarrassed by this. You aren't providing anything for your readers with this article, certainly, nothing that has anything to do with the meaning of "budget."
Somewere along the way it seems, MaximumPC has lost their way. It's like everyone there quit caring. Their articles about the latest and greatest seemed like unfinished reviews. I hate "hitting the jump" to find out there isn't more to an article. I hate reading a review about the latest thing only to see that the last sentence "no price or release date announced". I wonder what happens when an item is released months or weeks later. By then I'd forgotten about it and assuming I remember an item, then the "review" you guys posted originally cannot help me in determining if I made a good buy or not.
I remember I used to love the magazine (though the website has improved, I was never really impressed with it) and felt like I really was holding knowledge and power in my hand when I held it in my hands. Now it feels I'm holding an advertisement in my hands and the bit of knowledge imparted to me seems to be growing smaller and smaller.
I'll hold on though because I'm loyal, but I don't know!, the grass is looking greener on many other websites and magazines.
anysystems
June 30, 2010 at 4:56am
Outstanding devices! i had bought Desktop computer couple of years back, it was assembled and i find best results. The reason was that i installed a branded part of each like storage, RAM, CD Drive etc.
isamuelson
June 30, 2010 at 4:46am
Purchased my Hyper 212+ months ago and now, it can't be found anywhere it seems! Definitely an excellent buy for the price and cools better than the price might reflect. Heck! NewEgg is selling if for $50 now. What a rip off! Maybe we should report that to Cooler Master? Sounds like price gouging by NewEgg if you ask me! Micro Center is selling it for $25 though! That's an even BETTER deal than the normal
price! http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0315397
If you can find this cooler, get it! You definitely get more than your money's worth from it because any other cooler that cools as good as this one would cost $60+ it seems and it even can out perform many of the more expensive models!
dracx619
June 30, 2010 at 3:01am
i cant find the Q9500 ANYWHERE. wanted to give my old core2 rig a little more time before givin it up but oh well, more time to save for a good core i5 or 7 rig i guess
Azrael808
June 30, 2010 at 1:38am
Perfect timing! I was just discussing an upgrade to our PC with the missus and had drawn the conclusion that an SSD might not be a good choice just yet... But reading this, I'm thinking of getting the Intel SSD _and_ the TB HDD mentioned... :)
Lime
June 29, 2010 at 11:02pm
Wouldn't an OCZ Agility 60GB drive be much more cost efficient in GB/dollar while still being a "budget" upgrade for most users? Hell, I'd take that 64GB SSD that WD put out over a $125 SSD that's only 40GB.
richeemxx
June 29, 2010 at 11:34pm
To be totally honest other than the major components like CPU/GPU most these upgrades are totally worthless. If you are running older rigs and you are going to start swapping CPU's you'd be better off build a new rig that has a better upgrade path down the road. No offence to the 5850 its a great GPU but as this is a list of "BUDGET" upgrades you are way overkill for what most people consider budget. 4-6gbs of RAM...c'mon unless you are doing some serious multitasking the avg user is barely touching 4gbs let alone 6. If you are on a budget you'd be better of spening the cash elsewhere.
I should also add, upgrading to that router would be pointless without adding the need for a wireless N card otherwise you'd just be wasting money over a traditional wireless g router.
elktondad
June 30, 2010 at 5:02am
I thought for sure, as I read this article, that I was the only one who thought that $300 for a graphics card was far from "budget" tag. I appreciate what you guys have done here, a lot of helpful information. But I want to see another solid $500 rig (use a cardboard box case if you have too! :) ). With the Quad core AMD chip at $99, and a good motherboard for about the same, throw in 4G of ram and maybe a Radeon HD 5770 for $160, finally a good 750G hard driver to start (about $80), use your existing case, power supply (unless it is in bad shape), and don't overclock the daylights out of it (so you can use the stock cooler) and you got a great budget PC.
