CPU upgrade question.

[Puzzled]

Hi all. I was wondering if I could pick your brains for a moment.

I currently have an MSI P6N Platinum 650i motherboard with an E2180. I managed to get it stable at 2.9ghz per core using my AC Freezer 7 Pro with no voltage increase, but I couldn't get it stable at anything beyond that even with a voltage increase. I was just slightly disappointed with that result because I heard about what a fantastic overclocker the chip was, but I was still happy with the results. My current GPU is a GTS 320 and I'll be using this system mostly to play Crysis. I plan on upgrading my GPU shortly to either a 4870 or a 9800GX2, so my CPU will probably be a decent bottleneck. Now I see some great deals on the new 45nm Intels now, namely the E7200 which is available at a local store for a cheap $100. So, my question is this...

Do you think that picking up an E7200 would be a cost effective upgrade? I've heard people achieving pretty impressive OCs with this chip, 3.6 even some claims of 4.0 on air. Would I notice a large bump in performance over my E2180 if I managed to get 3.6 on the E7200? Does the 45nm process provide many benefits aside from power consumption? Would the 3mb of cache compared to 1mb provide any further gains? Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Qwerty]

[Puzzled]

Thanks for your response. My MB has heat pipes for the Northbridge/MCP. They do a pretty good job of keeping temps down, so I don't believe that's my bottleneck in terms of 'only' getting a 60% overclock on my E2180. I think it's more likely that the E2180 just wasn't the best sample.

I see you recommend the Q6600. I've looked at that chip for quite a while and now at $180 it seems very attractive, however, since I do mostly gaming on this computer, I was thinking a more robust dual core chip would be a more cost effective option for me. However, my motherboard does support the chip, so it's still a contender.

[Cobracon]

From the MSI webpage for your motherboard:

"Due to the High Performance Memory design, motherboards or system configurations may or may not operate smoothly at the JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) standard settings (BIOS Default on the motherboard) such as DDR2 voltage, memory speeds and memory timing. Please confirm and adjust your memory setting in the BIOS accordingly for better system stability.
Example: Kingston HyperX DDR2-800 PC6400 operates at 2.0V, 4-4-4-12.
For more information about specification of high performance memory modules, please check with your Memory Manufacturer for more details."

[Guest]

[Cobracon]

Your cache size question is a good one, and after months of reading other forums, test reports, and pretty much everything I could find on the subject the jury is still out. There are just as many 'educated' opinions (to my experience) that say L2 cache size IS important to game performance as there are saying it ISN'T.

I'd say go for the quad core CPU if future programs and their ability to take advantage of 4 cores is important to you. On the other hand, $100 for an e7200 is hard to beat, and with a GPU like a 9800GX2 or it's ATI equivalent, IMO the performance difference between 3MB L2 cache and 6MB L2 cache (e8300) will be hard to notice, if at all. Some of the new GPUs are almost stand-alone computers themselves (I exaggerate a little to make a point).

None of this has helped answer your question, but I'm thinking out loud. 3 months ago I had to decide between an e8500 & a q6700. I went with the quad, but do not doubt the dual core CPU would do the job since I'm not plotting realtime glidepaths for the Space Shuttle, while on approach.

[Puzzled]

I think I'm going to just do a GPU upgrade for now (I decided on 8800GTs in SLI instead of the 9800GX2 because it was cheaper and I got two games out of the deal). I should be good with my E2180 for a bit longer, and will upgrade when newer, faster and cheaper chips come out. I don't see too many games that are CPU bottlenecked with a 2.9ghz dual core. Hopefully by the time I need to do a CPU upgrade, my 8800GTs won't be showing their age too much.