[ZmaN]

I have a 2.8 Ghz P4 2.8 Ghz 775 processor.  I can get a brand new one from someone for 150 bucks.  Would I notice a big performance increase?  I mean i looked at benchmarks and stuff but i wanna know from people.
Would an upgrade from a 2.8 to a 3 Ghz be noticable/worth it for 150 bucks?

[achtung]

I have a 2.8 Ghz P4 2.8 Ghz 775 processor.  I can get a brand new one from someone for 150 bucks.  Would I notice a big performance increase?  I mean i looked at benchmarks and stuff but i wanna know from people.
Would an upgrade from a 2.8 to a 3 Ghz be noticable/worth it for 150 bucks?

150 is a rip off

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1498711

[ZmaN]

I have a 2.8 Ghz P4 2.8 Ghz 775 processor.  I can get a brand new one from someone for 150 bucks.  Would I notice a big performance increase?  I mean i looked at benchmarks and stuff but i wanna know from people.
Would an upgrade from a 2.8 to a 3 Ghz be noticable/worth it for 150 bucks?

150 is a rip off

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1498711

wow thanks for telling me...  I didnt know they were that cheap.  Lemme email the guy and see if he'd give it to me for like 75 bucks...

[Davros]

verclock your 2.8 by 7% see if you notice a difference (little tip: you wont)

[Freespace Freak]

Games rely heavily on the GPU these days, so for gaming you merely need a CPU that's adequate, not supercomputer ready.  You won't see much difference between new low-ends and new high-ends as far as performance goes, so a Athlon single core 1.8GHz is just as good as a 3.2 GHz CoreDuo as far as gaming performance is concerned.

[ZmaN]

true dat.

Ok then.  I won't be buying that.
The guy is also selling an 80 GB harddrive for 50 bucks.  I'm gunna offer him 30 and see if he takes it.

[vyper]

Games rely heavily on the GPU these days, so for gaming you merely need a CPU that's adequate, not supercomputer ready.  You won't see much difference between new low-ends and new high-ends as far as performance goes, so a Athlon single core 1.8GHz is just as good as a 3.2 GHz CoreDuo as far as gaming performance is concerned.

Not entirely. Games do rely on GPUs a lot more for visual effects these days but high detail scenes still require a lot of CPU power for non-graphical work, such as physics, AI, pathing, etc.

[Freespace Freak]

Games rely heavily on the GPU these days, so for gaming you merely need a CPU that's adequate, not supercomputer ready.  You won't see much difference between new low-ends and new high-ends as far as performance goes, so a Athlon single core 1.8GHz is just as good as a 3.2 GHz CoreDuo as far as gaming performance is concerned.

Not entirely. Games do rely on GPUs a lot more for visual effects these days but high detail scenes still require a lot of CPU power for non-graphical work, such as physics, AI, pathing, etc.

True, but were talking about a jump from a 2.8 to 3.0.  That's not that big of a difference.  Most games nowadays use your CPU but not as heavily as they do the GPU.  My 2.0 single core Athlon 64 has yet to be pushed to the max in gaming, but my SLI'd 7600GTs have.

[Fineus]

Let's not forget the larger role that memory seems to be playing these days.

I consider myself lucky that I was ahead of the curve and upgraded to 2GB of ram before it became near essential to have it. These days if you want loading times that are anywhere near decent - as well as smooth gameplay - some decent memory is going to be as essential as the CPU or GPU. If you've got the best of those but only 256mb of memory then you'll definitely see slowdowns. Considering how (moderately) cheap memory is - I'd recommend that over what is essentially a very minor CPU upgrade.

(Edit: Of course if you already have more than 1GB then perhaps this isn't so necessary - it depends from system to system).

[ZmaN]

actually im kinda short on RAM right now.  I have only 512 MB in at 2700 speed.  I had 1.25 gigs but it turned out that they were actually too slow for my motherboard to support so they were being overclocked, and thats why i was having problems with freezes in gameplay.

No I am not buying the CPU.
However an 80 GB hard drive will be sweet.  I can see it now.

3 80s and a 120 combined to a 4 drve RAID 0 array for a total of 320 GBs total, and then a 40 for extra non-raid storage.

[Kosh]

You're better off spending that money on a RAM upgrade, upgrading to a slightly faster P4 is certainly not worth it, especially now that Core2 has come out (which rocks the P4).

[Descenterace]

P4s pretty much suck anyway.

As for the drive config, remember that if one disk in a RAID-0 goes down, you lose everything. Depending on the organisation of a four disk array you will either lose everything or only half.
Anyway, consider using the three 80GB disks in RAID-3 instead. XFX do a very nice hardware RAID-3 card for about $80, IIRC.

[SadisticSid]

Games rely heavily on the GPU these days, so for gaming you merely need a CPU that's adequate, not supercomputer ready.  You won't see much difference between new low-ends and new high-ends as far as performance goes, so a Athlon single core 1.8GHz is just as good as a 3.2 GHz CoreDuo as far as gaming performance is concerned.

And don't forget that you can run a game on its own core on a multi-core system, saving marginally on CPU time (Windows uses about 5-10% of CPU cycles, and context switching between processes and I/O latency accounts for a bit more). Count in things like your anti virus and other bits and bobs, and the performance improvement can be significant.

[jr2]

Games rely heavily on the GPU these days, so for gaming you merely need a CPU that's adequate, not supercomputer ready.  You won't see much difference between new low-ends and new high-ends as far as performance goes, so a Athlon single core 1.8GHz is just as good as a 3.2 GHz CoreDuo as far as gaming performance is concerned.

And don't forget that you can run a game on its own core on a multi-core system, saving marginally on CPU time (Windows uses about 5-10% of CPU cycles, and context switching between processes and I/O latency accounts for a bit more). Count in things like your anti virus and other bits and bobs, and the performance improvement can be significant.

Hyperthreading take care of that?  the P4 2.8 has HT, I believe.

[Freespace Freak]

actually im kinda short on RAM right now.  I have only 512 MB in at 2700 speed.  I had 1.25 gigs but it turned out that they were actually too slow for my motherboard to support so they were being overclocked, and thats why i was having problems with freezes in gameplay.

No I am not buying the CPU.
However an 80 GB hard drive will be sweet.  I can see it now.

3 80s and a 120 combined to a 4 drve RAID 0 array for a total of 320 GBs total, and then a 40 for extra non-raid storage.

If your mobo has dual channel RAM slots, then get some dual channes sticks.  If not, I suggest upgrading your mobo to one that has it.  2 512MB ramsticks in dual channel are nearly twice as fast as a single 1GB

[ZmaN]

i have 2 x 256 sticks.  ill get 2 more 256 sticks and itll be 1 GB dual channel...

Im using IDE RAID 0 becaseu its onboard my mobo.  No extra costs, and I already have the drives.

Whats better?  RAID 0 or 0+1

Oh and, Has anyone ever heard of the company Magnetic Data Technologies?  Any expierence with their hard drives?

[Davros]

ps: if you only have pc2700 ram you wont get that 3ghz p4 to run at 3ghz only 2.4ghz (without highering the fsb)

[ZmaN]

ps: if you only have pc2700 ram you wont get that 3ghz p4 to run at 3ghz only 2.4ghz (without highering the fsb)

whys that?  RAM speed shouldnt matter that much...

[Descenterace]

ps: if you only have pc2700 ram you wont get that 3ghz p4 to run at 3ghz only 2.4ghz (without highering the fsb)

Is this some limitation of the Pentiums? AMD CPUs run the RAM on a seperate bus, so the CPU and RAM multipliers can be adjusted independently.

Last I heard, Pentiums do things in a similar way; the CPU multiplier is adjusted to cope with a low FSB.

[WMCoolmon]

AFAIK the FSB can run at a different MHZ than the RAM, but it's not near as efficient as just having RAM that runs at the same MHZ as the FSB.

Three-letter acronyms FTW.