Current Specs: Intel P4 3.2ghz 2gig DDR2 pc2-5300 RAM ATI Raedon 9250 128mb IDE HDD It's a Dell, not sure on mobo, onboard sound...if that matters Get's pretty loud when thing's get intense(gaming, video editting/converting) Looking to Buy: Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 2.2ghz 800fsb Intel D945gcl Lga775 1066fsb Mobo 2 gig pc2-6400 ddr2 800mhz ram Nvidia GeForce 8500GT SATA HDD I think there's also a AMD equivalent(pricewise) but the speed of the models on AMD's confuse me. I believe it's a AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200, "A13g+ Geforce 6100" motherboard. The rest is pretty much the same. The above setup is basically what I can afford for the moment, reason I'm getting that particular mobo is because it's "included" in the deal. The other option I have for a mobo is "Asus P5vd2-Vm Se" for an extra $20 I believe. Anyways, I play WoW, some FPS's, watch movies, and convert videos. With my current setup, and what im "looking to buy", would it be a worthy upgrade to satisfy my needs? Would there be a significant improvement in performance? Or just a small boost for what I do? If it'll be a big improvement, AMD? Or Intel? I kinda want to get a new PC very soon but if it's just a small boost, I'd rather just blow my money on extra xmas gifts. Thanks for your help and opinions.
The speed of AM2 models can confuse you when talking about overclocking. If you go for Intel ,that means you will oc that baby. But the model you've chosen isn't the right one. E2160 is what you were looking for. If you are not good at overclocking, I would go for X2 5600+. Or 5000/5200+ black edition (i think 5200+ has unlocked multiplier ). So it will be cheaper and the performance will be similiar to the stock model of E4550. P.S. If it's intel mobo, forget about overclocking. Go for GA-P35 DS3-R or any other MSI mobo. GPU: 2600XT or save some money for HD3850 good luck
