Need help with wifes choice of Core 2 Dou or Sandy Bridge

[PFC.Whitehurst]

Okay so this is what i need help with.
My wife currently has a Core 2 Dou @ 2.4 Ghz and 4 gigs ddr2 ram
shes using an old GTX 460 that i had a spare of.
etc.
but heres what i have.
i just upgraded my mother board from a h67 chipset for sandybridge to the Z68 for my i5 2500k Beast.

so i have a spare 1155 motherboard
im trying to figure out if i should just by a motherboard for her 775 so that i can overclock her stuff currently she cannot overclock CPU
STUCK @ 2.4Ghz

or should i get the New Sandy Bridge PRocessor i got one picked out the i3 2105 3.1Ghz Hyper threading so like 4 CPU's and Intel HD 3000 for now cause the GTX 460 has to go back to newegg. it was an attept to SLI with another GTX 460 but ITs the v2 of the GTX 460 not the original.

going with the sandy bridge will coast more processor: $140 DDR3 Ram: $20
or motherboard: $50 lol :S but what do you guys think?

 

[raident30]

i'll go with a new cheap sandy bridge mobo and the i3 2105

 

[PFC.Whitehurst]

okay thanks. seems like it would be smart i guess newer technology and all, faster cpus... lol

 

[ssjwizard]

That I3 at stock would be like that C2D at 4ghz and the memory bandwidth difference is massive.

 

[raident30]

+1 ^

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

The change from an Intel® Core™ 2 Duo to a 1st generation Intel Core i3 would give you something like a 15% to 20% percent performance increase at the same clock speed. The move from the 1st generation Intel Core i3 to the 2nd generation Intel Core i3 would yeild as much as another 10% to 15% giving you in the end about 30% overall performance increase at the same clock speed. So yes go with the Intel Core i3-2105 or see if you can get a good price on the Intel Core i3-2125.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[Theocnoob]

Not trolling. JM2C I'd go for another quad core at 4.8ish Ghz. If you're near microcenter the 2500K is 180, not a massive jump there, and a low end good enough for any OC board like an ASRock Extreme 3 is about 130 so you'd be jumping up 140+ overall in budget, but for the return in performance and also versatility in terms of what the machine can be I'd say its worth it. Also easier to turn around and sell systems based around higher tier CPUs and boards for a reasonable return later. Don't have to throw another $25 at the cooler right away. microcenter sells the Hyper212+ cooler for 25 bucks.

Otherwise get the i3. Anything on DDR2 RAM and a socket from 2004(?) is a bad call at this point.

 

[neonblingbling]

As a way to completely derail the thread (but in the best interest of the OP), what does your wife use her PC for? If it's mainly web browsing, word processing, and doing 'simple' tasks, a CPU upgrade may not make things feel as 'fast' and 'new' as a SDD might for roughly the same price ballpark.

EDIT: hey, you can do word with a GTX 460...

 

[LZ_Xray]

PFC, although I wasn't in the same conundrum you are I built nearly the same system for my wife (#2 below) and don't regret it a bit. Although they're not "enthusiast" pieces, I'm very impressed with the i3-2100 and 460GTX Hawk both.

Not sure if gaming is a consideration, but Rift is one of the more hardware-intensive MMOs out there, and that setup runs it beautifully. Not bad for a $500 rig.

 

[PFC.Whitehurst]

She useing it mostly for webbrowsing but every once in a while she does little gaming like NEED FOR SPEED, Minecraft, Medal of Honor couple diffrent ones nothing big like BF3 although the other day she said what if i wanna play it? lolz

 

[Janus67]

Go the sandy bridge route then the performance will be a lot better

 

[manu2b]

She useing it mostly for webbrowsing but every once in a while she does little gaming like NEED FOR SPEED, Minecraft, Medal of Honor couple diffrent ones nothing big like BF3 although the other day she said what if i wanna play it? lolz

A p4 will do...