AngelGraves13
02-07-08, 09:44 PM
So after a about 2 years of gaming with my old trusty Pentium 4 3.4 GHz processor, I thought it would be time to upgrade.
1. Processor
I knew I needed something fast, but affordable. I chose the E8400 and snagged one for about $240 total. I skipped the first generation of the Core 2 Duos as they were just too expensive and I knew a shrink was coming sooner or later. I compared benchmarks of all the new Core 2 processors that came out recently and the Extreme is in my opinion a waste of money. The performance is fantastic and my wallet isn't totally empty.
2. Motherboard
With the new processor comes a new motherboard. Although it's been LGA775 since the days of my trusty Pentium 4, the chipsets have advanced greatly. I knew I needed something new that still uses DDR 2 memory since DDR 3 prices are about as insane as the Intel Extreme processor prices. I settled for the ASUS P5E WS Professional (the self proclaimed Workstation board...whatever, I'm gonna play games and use iTunes). It supports high speed DDR2 and the latest 45nm Intel processors. Oddly though, its IDE connector is mainly for a hard drive and not for CD ROMs, and to avoid having to use the Marvell controller to use my CD ROM I ended up returning my new Sony 18X DVD burner and getting a SATA LG 18X for the same price of $39.99. I guess I'm finally done with IDE and Floppy as I haven't needed to use them since. Bios updates are easy and since the ROM files don't even fit on a floppy there's no point in using one. Thumb drives work fine and the built-in BIOS update EZ Flash 2 works like a charm.
Benchmarks
-----------
BioShock 1.1 - Level Load Time
Old system: 50+ sec
New system: 9 secs
Call of Duty 4 1.4 - Performance
Old system: frame by frame slideshow
New system: very very playable
STALKER 1.0004 - Performance
Old system: slow and choppy at Max settings
New system: same
Team Fortress 2 - Performance
Old system: decent performance + some hitches and choppiness
New system: runs like butter
So it seems that STALKER is either highly GPU limited or makes little to no use of dual core CPUs.
1. Processor
I knew I needed something fast, but affordable. I chose the E8400 and snagged one for about $240 total. I skipped the first generation of the Core 2 Duos as they were just too expensive and I knew a shrink was coming sooner or later. I compared benchmarks of all the new Core 2 processors that came out recently and the Extreme is in my opinion a waste of money. The performance is fantastic and my wallet isn't totally empty.
2. Motherboard
With the new processor comes a new motherboard. Although it's been LGA775 since the days of my trusty Pentium 4, the chipsets have advanced greatly. I knew I needed something new that still uses DDR 2 memory since DDR 3 prices are about as insane as the Intel Extreme processor prices. I settled for the ASUS P5E WS Professional (the self proclaimed Workstation board...whatever, I'm gonna play games and use iTunes). It supports high speed DDR2 and the latest 45nm Intel processors. Oddly though, its IDE connector is mainly for a hard drive and not for CD ROMs, and to avoid having to use the Marvell controller to use my CD ROM I ended up returning my new Sony 18X DVD burner and getting a SATA LG 18X for the same price of $39.99. I guess I'm finally done with IDE and Floppy as I haven't needed to use them since. Bios updates are easy and since the ROM files don't even fit on a floppy there's no point in using one. Thumb drives work fine and the built-in BIOS update EZ Flash 2 works like a charm.
Benchmarks
-----------
BioShock 1.1 - Level Load Time
Old system: 50+ sec
New system: 9 secs
Call of Duty 4 1.4 - Performance
Old system: frame by frame slideshow
New system: very very playable
STALKER 1.0004 - Performance
Old system: slow and choppy at Max settings
New system: same
Team Fortress 2 - Performance
Old system: decent performance + some hitches and choppiness
New system: runs like butter
So it seems that STALKER is either highly GPU limited or makes little to no use of dual core CPUs.