# increased performance for i7?



## okeee (May 14, 2006)

these components:

ASUS P5Q-E - LGA775 Socket
Corsair XMS2 - 4GB
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 / 3 GHz 
eVGA GeForce GTX 260 
corsair 650W 
win xp sp3

if i would upgrade CPU to i7 BUT keep using win xp (so only 3,25 GB can be used), would there be a significant performance increase?

and is it useful to upgrade the video card?

i dont want to overclock any components.


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## JMPC (Jan 15, 2011)

You cannot upgrade your CPU to an i7, i5 or i3 without changing the motherboard. The new processors use a different socket type which is different from your current motherboard.


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## okeee (May 14, 2006)

yes i know that i have to replace the motherboard and RAM. thats ok. what i want to know is, using 3,25 GB RAM, would i see a significant better performance between e8400 and i7?


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## visseroth (Oct 25, 2010)

On windows XP anything more than 2GB of ram typically is a waste unless you're doing things that are EXTREMELY memory intensive like running virtual machines. Now will it hurt anything? No. Will it be there if you need it? Yes.
Being that Windows XP is close to the end of its life cycle and won't be supported as of about the mid of next year it wouldn't be a bad idea to upgrade to Windows 7.
If you're looking at replacing your CPU with a i5 or i7 then it may be best to just build another machine all together and do all your upgrades in another box. This will leave you a spare box if you need it or something to sell.
In regards to getting more performance your best bet would be 2GB of RAM or more, overclocking your current machine, getting a CPU with Hyperthreading or just building a new machine all together.
NOTE: Keep in mind that with overclocking comes risk and you have to decide if the risk is worth it.
If you upgrade your hardware or build a new machine be sure to get a processor with Hyper-threading (Intel) or Hyper Transport (AMD) as you will see small performance gains but gains that will be noticeable from a non Hyper-threading/Hyper Transport CPU.
To also maximize your performance you'll need a fast CPU. The difference between 2.6 and 3.2Ghz is quite significant but anything above 3.4Ghz and you won't see hardly any gain but instead quite a bit more heat.
Will you see a difference between the e8400 and a i7 CPU? Yes. Reason being is your e8400 is a dual core CPU without hyper-threading. If it had hyper-threading then I would say no, you wouldn't see much of a difference because then it would be capable of 4 threads vs 2.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

okeee said:


> if i would upgrade CPU to i7 BUT keep using win xp (so only 3,25 GB can be used), would there be a significant performance increase?
> 
> and is it useful to upgrade the video card?


Yes and Yes. 
But, as noted, you would nee to replace the Mobo CPU and RAM.
If that is an option, look over our suggested build list for ideas and you can reuse your case, optical drive and Hdd but you will need to do a fresh install of XP.


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## okeee (May 14, 2006)

could you give a percentage of approximate increase, like 20%-50%

i checked the recommended builds. i have enough money to spend, but since i still want to use win xp (and 3,25 GB RAM), the most expensive build may not be useful. which of those builds would give the best performance with 3,25 GB RAM?


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## JMPC (Jan 15, 2011)

It's going to depend on what you're doing. It will be an increase no matter what but how much will depend.

This is an older article but it compares a lot of difference processors. The i7 in these tests will be slower than what's available today but it should give you an idea:

A fresh look at processor value - The Tech Report - Page 1

And another comparison:
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 vs Intel Core i7-2600K


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