Time for an upgrade? (c. 2007 windows machine)

[MtnRacer]

Current box is a home grown Vista machine running an E6600 C2D with no O/C on a nvidia 680i chipset.

It's been several years since a clean install and after eyeballing the metrics for Win8 and Win7 vs. Vista, I think I'm going to upgrade the OS. Since I'm doing that, I might as well upgrade a bit of the hardware too, but it's been a long time since I've done a build and I'm not really interested in re-doing the whole machine. Just the processor if I can get away with it.

My question is, how will the E8600 stack up against modern hardware? It's the fastest processor that my mobo will support. It apparently can support a quad core as well, but wasn't really designed for it and may have stability issues. I would O/C it to around 4Ghz, which seems like a pretty stable O/C for that chip according to what I've read.

The heaviest usage it will probably see is ripping blu rays and maybe some gaming, but I don't game as much as I used to.

Is it worth upgrading or should I just wait and redo the whole shebang?

Thanks all!
Steve

 

[Diezel]

Dont bother dropping the coin on a new CPU. Upgrading and overclocking will show all the faults that are looming for that current rig. Be they aged hardware, or older hardware bottle necks.

Spend the dough on a complete new build. You'll be happier in the end.

 

[xgambit]

a new mobo and chip aint that expensive, just make sure to get at least one generation behind

 

[Diezel]

HERP...

Before you roll new hardware. Get your paws on a copy of Win 7. I inherited a Dell Dimension when my pops passed away. With Win Vista and 2gb of ram it was USELESS. Literally took 3-4 minutes to boot up and run stable enough for firefox.

With 6gb of ram, and win7 ultimate, it hauls ass!!!! Boots to usable in 1 minute flat.

 

[Warrior Princess]

What ever you do dont get win8 there is a lot of conflicts with other software and drivers.

 

[MtnRacer]

HERP...

Before you roll new hardware. Get your paws on a copy of Win 7. I inherited a Dell Dimension when my pops passed away. With Win Vista and 2gb of ram it was USELESS. Literally took 3-4 minutes to boot up and run stable enough for firefox.

With 6gb of ram, and win7 ultimate, it hauls ass!!!! Boots to usable in 1 minute flat.

That's kind of the idea. Maybe I'll skip the upgrade and wait to do a real build.

Thanks for the input folks!

Steve

 

[Diezel]

That would be the best way to go.

Protip: Get yourself a copy of Win 7 now. Load it on that pc, without it being able to access a network or internet. (So win 7 won't register itself with MS). See how it flies. If it's livable, great. Use it till you can drop the coin on a new build.

 

[MtnRacer]

It's not that Vista's all that slow right now, so I expect 7 to run very well. I'm more concerned about some of the processor heavy stuff I'd like to do like ripping my blu ray collection for example. I don't know if a 4 Ghz C2D is really going to be much an improvement over a 2.6Ghz C2D, so I guess I'll just reap the benefits of the OS upgrade and call it a (cheap) day.

Steve

 

[Mr Pepsi]

Start with a demo version of Windows 7, fresh install and see how she performs.

 

[pizzle]

For basic usage, you don't need a new anything. If you have to drop coin, get an SSD; it's literally the best upgrade money can buy.

If you're going to play intense games, buy a new video card (may need to upgrade the power supply), and go from there. Most games aren't CPU limited, so you'll most likely get away with just this.

My gaming box has a similar vintage CPU coupled with a fairly powerful GPU (GTX460) and I can play everything at 1680x1050 with medium to high settings no problem. Oh, and it'll run Windows 7 just fine; so fine that a faster CPU won't give you a better experience.

 

[MtnRacer]

Lol, demuxing and remuxing one 3GB matroska file took a little over a day. Maybe it's time for a real upgrade after all! :laughing

Steve

 

[stan23]

As for gaming, no need to upgrade your system at all.

Just do a clean new OS install, and wait for the NVIDIA Grid.

 

[/dev/null]

PassMark CPU Benchmark
from www.cpubenchmark.net/
Intel Core2 Duo E8600 @ 3.33GHz 2,401
Intel Core i7-3770K @ 3.50GHz 9,637

Video processing will crush it. You could game by upgrading the graphics card. A SSD will give you faster startup/shutdown/application open times and of course file transfers.

 

[Starshooter10]

Dont bother dropping the coin on a new CPU. Upgrading and overclocking will show all the faults that are looming for that current rig. Be they aged hardware, or older hardware bottle necks.

Spend the dough on a complete new build. You'll be happier in the end.

yeah with a C2D your better off waiting, do a fresh install to win 7 but thats all its worth

It's not that Vista's all that slow right now, so I expect 7 to run very well. I'm more concerned about some of the processor heavy stuff I'd like to do like ripping my blu ray collection for example. I don't know if a 4 Ghz C2D is really going to be much an improvement over a 2.6Ghz C2D, so I guess I'll just reap the benefits of the OS upgrade and call it a (cheap) day.

Steve

the raq GHZ isnt the only factor... get a new box or just scrub that one down

PassMark CPU Benchmark
from www.cpubenchmark.net/
Intel Core2 Duo E8600 @ 3.33GHz 2,401
Intel Core i7-3770K @ 3.50GHz 9,637

Video processing will crush it. You could game by upgrading the graphics card. A SSD will give you faster startup/shutdown/application open times and of course file transfers.

dont even get me started on benchmarks.... im so glad i've been out of that for as long as i have.

i dont need to measurebate this computer anymore.