Best LGA775 cpu?

[Psittac]

I'm looking into upgrade options for a friend of mine, it's an asus P5W-DH deluxe socket LGA775

what would be the best cpu for that pc?

here is the supported cpu list

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/list.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=P5W DH DELUXE&p=1

can someone give me an idea of how this would compare to an AMD a10?

 

[storm-chaser]

The Intel Core2Quad QX9650 is the fastest LGA775 CPU available. Other comparable CPUs are the Q9400 and Q9550, only slightly slower and easier/cheaper to find. Your motherboard can support it, but you will need to update the bios to version 2103 beforehand.

The Core 2 quads use a 45nm process and up to 12mb of level 2 cache. They are decent over clockers but the architecture is dated. One thing to consider is with that board you can only run DDR2, as where the A10s run DDR3 memory, which is a big boost in and of itself.

 

[Psittac]

well I got an itch to buy my friend a new computer recently but I've been rethinking that because he really doesn't need much from a PC, only fast response.

He's blind and doesn't do anything intensive, web browse listen to music and Netflix. (mud's too)

So really the rig he has is probably plenty fast enough. The only benefit I can really see him getting is from a better ssd. Still I'd like to get him a quad core so he can "join the club" cause all of his friends have quad cores. I would imagine a quad core with 12mb would still show him some significant improvements.

The biggest thing he needs is to get off of windows xp before it goes unsupported next year. So rather then building him a new amd rig for about $500-600 i'm thinking of getting him a new cpu ssd and OS for about $300

The thing that really gets me wanting a new system for him is the sataIII ssd, that will show huge gains. I'm just trying to get a feel for what he needs and what I'm willing to spend. When I put a sataI ssd on his machine it was still at ~40 seconds boot time where as my rig is about 20 and everything is pretty much instant.

One thought I just had is looking for some used equipment to get him quad core and sataIII, not sure how long it has been out and probably won't save that much.

I'm gonna look at a couple options and decide.

Thanks for the input

 

[Techjesse]

The fastest LGA 775 CPU is the Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9770

 

[EarthDog]

This ^^... but like SChaser said, they are hella expensive for no real reason outside of the unlocked multiplier. Q9550 is a sweet spot IMO on that platform.

Not sure how it compares to an A10...

 

[Psittac]

well I was bored and put something together on microcenter for 400-450 and I think it's worth the extra 100-150 for a completely new pc

time to look into the individual parts but that's what I love about going to microcenter, I was an old clocker/builder that knew nothing about current systems and got a guy that knew everything and he helped me build my beast and stay in budget.

biggest thing I need to figure out is if the stock hsf will fit in the mini itx case I picked out

 

[storm-chaser]

I doubt he wants to spend all that money on a QX9770 when you can get the same for much less.

 

[EarthDog]

Same for the QX9650... point remains Q94/5/650 I think.

 

[storm-chaser]

Yes - the higher end quads are definitely excessive in terms of price. I managed to get a Q9550 on sale years ago and eventually mothballed it.
The only reason I brought that rig back to life last year was DDR3 and a solid state drive to maximize the aging architecture.

 

[King107s]

+1 on the Q9550 for value... I got one up to 3.825GHz back when I had one.