Core 2 Quad 2.4 vs a Dual Core 3.3 Or wait and buy something else?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by jmiles301, Jan 17, 2013.

  1. Just contemplating a potential CPU upgrade, so I did a search on Intel's site for processors that are compatible with my socket-type (LGA 775/Socket T apparently) and this was one of the faster ones that came up.

    I've never installed a processor before, and I may not even need a new one for what I'm using it for currently, but I was just curious about potential upgrade options since I just had to replace my HDD with an SSD and I plan on eventually piecing together my own build, so I figured I would check to see what was out there, because I plan on buying new stuff at some point anyway.

    I was hoping to be able to pop in an i5 or an i7, but they were not listed as being compatible.

    Any thoughts on the speed/quality behind these two types of processors for mainly trading purposes? I.E. Using a lot of Charts and watchlists on esignal plus a few other smaller programs.

    Or should I try to go another route given the compatibility with the 775 socket?

    Thanks!
     
  2. You can use only socket 775 CPU on your motherboard... E8500, E8600 or or something like Q9650. For trading, it won't really make any difference which.. all will appear to perform about the same in real-time use.

    If you go with i5/i7 CPU or later, you'll need a new mobo.

    CPU is easy to install/change. You can find video of the procedure on the web.
     
  3. Thanks Scat..

    Seems like doing nothing makes the most sense until I start to really plan a personal build.

    And that's definitely not a priority right now.
     
  4. I've got this, very lightly used and new condition. PM me an offer if you're interested.

    Precision Workstation T3500 Tower Standard Power Supply
    Operating System Label
    Desktop
    Wave Systems Software
    Certified Refurbished
    No Speakers
    16X DVD +/- RW Drive
    Genuine Windows 7 Professional
    Documentation
    Processor: Six Core Intel Xeon Processor W3690 (3.46GHz,12M L3, 6.4GT/s)
    Shipping Material
    Software
    512MB NVIDIA Quadro FX 580, DUAL MON, 2 DP & 1 DVI
    500 GB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (7200 RPM) w/ NCQ and 16MB DataBurst Cache
    Primary Heatsink
    Chassis Intrusion Switch
    2 GB DDR3 ECC SDRAM 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)
    Dell 2-Button Mouse
    Trend Micro 16.6 PC-cillin 30 Day
    Software
    64BIT Operating System
    125V Power Cord
    No Floppy Drive
    No Resource DVD
    Keyboard
    Tech Sheet
    C1 All SATA drives, No RAID for 1 Hard Drive
    Energy Smart Not Selected
    Integrated Intel chipset SATA 3.0Gb/s controller
    Mini-Tower Chassis Configuration
     
  5. I was facing the exact same dilemma as you.
    I had a Dell computer with a motherboard that only supported a Socket 775 and I was currently running a 2.66 GHz E8400 Intel chip. With the 775 socket, you can only go as high as the E8600 chip at 3.33 GHz... otherwise you have to go with a newer generation of motherboard.

    After spending hours at a time investigating various retailers/wholesalers across the Internet, I came to the conclusion that the E8600 Intel CPU that runs at 3.33 GHz was not a realistic choice given that RETAIL versions (in the box, with the warranty) had sold out about a year ago and the only E8600 chips that were left lying around were "pulled" OEM units from previously sold computers.

    Every now and then, I could find a retail "boxed" version of the 3.16 GHz E8500 chip, but they wanted $310.00 for it.
    So I passed.

    My work-around for this situation (aside from purchasing a Dell Outlet XPS-8300 with a super fast and best bang for the buck i7-2600 as a back-up machine), was to upgrade my 32-bit XP Pro software to a 64-bit Windows 7 platform that allowed me to increase my RAM/Memory size from 4 Gigs.
    (32-bit operating systems are capped at 4 Gigs of memory).

    Since Memory is cheap, I was now able to expand from 4 Gigs to 6 Gigs.
    Seems to have worked out pretty well.... and the upgrade in my operating system has also added a much quicker/crisper performance too!

    Hope this helps.
    :)
     
  6. Daal

    Daal

    More memory, SSD and properly configuring Windows for speed is much better than upgrading the CPU. There are a lot of Windows tricks to speed up a machine
     
  7. You won’t get much benefit by updating a 775 socket. If you really want to upgrade you should get a new Motherboard with a LGA 1155 socket. I have been using a Intel Socket 775 Quad core 2.4 G Overclocked at 3.25 G for many years – it is more then enough for trading.
     
  8. Sounds like my kind of situation Landis. Thanks for the reply.

    My machine is running the quad 2.4 alongside a 128 gig intel ssd and 6 gigs of ram (on Win7-64), so it runs pretty smooth and seemingly somewhat fast as is, but I was just contemplating other potential upgrade options.

    I ultimately want to build my own system (just for the sake of doing it and piecing it together myself), but if there is anything I can do now to improve performance with what I have then I'd like to look into it.

    Thanks Daal... what kind of Windows tricks do you recommend? I know there are some out there, but I'm not familiar with them and not really sure which I should be doing and which ones to avoid.
     
  9. Daal

    Daal

    -Go to Performance and Information Tools in the control panel and configure for best performance instead of visual effects
    -Disable Windows Search Indexing

    Just google 'speed up windows 7' and read at least 10 articles about it
     
  10. No problem.
    It sounds as though your hardware is more than robust enough to handle currenty software trading platforms.
    I wouldn't mess with it any further if I were you. No need to. :)
     
    #10     Jan 21, 2013