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Upgrading CPU worth it?
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cmoses:

--- Quote from: VanillaGorilla on October 31, 2010, 08:39:14 am ---AMD Phenom II 555 @ 3.5Ghz + FREE MSI Mobo was $89, an unadvertised weekly special at Frys. They have them every week. This week they have a 2.93 core II duo for $68:

http://www.frys.com/product/6185909


--- End quote ---

VanillaGorilla,

That is a Dual Core CPU, NOT a Core 2 Duo CPU.  There is a big difference in cost and performance.  Fry's is where I saw the Core 2 Duo I am thinking about getting, but it is $124.99.  Still a good price for the bump in performance, but I can't imagine getting anything close to what you are describing for $85 for a CPU and MB.  Even if it was an AMD CPU and MB.   
VanillaGorilla:
I was just giving you an example. But I was wrong. My cpu+mobo wasnt $89. it was $77  :applaud: You have to keep your eye on there...I attached the ad that I originally saw, just so you know i'm not lying. ;D The chip is sold as a dual core, but unlocks to a quad core in most instances. I am a die hard mac/intel guy, so i'm surprised how much I like this set-up! So you gotta look at that fry's site often, the deals are insane!
ragnar:

--- Quote from: Rusty Shackelford on October 28, 2010, 05:02:55 pm ---

--- Quote ---There are a few breakthroughs that should cause the MHz to start ramping up in the future.  In 5 years, I expect 5 GHz+ to be commonplace in PC hardare.  When that happens, all of our problems are resolved.
--- End quote ---

Isnt it cooling that holds this back?

--- End quote ---

Cooling is a small piece of the pie.  That can make things run faster but ulitmately it is the chip that matters.  I don't know hte specifics but there are breakthruoghs being made in labs that should wind up in manuifacturing years down the road that will icnrease CPU speeds.  Remember, Moore's Law is doubling of transistor counts, not CPU speed which most think.  Moore's law is still alive.  There are only so many ways to add, subtract, and multiply in hardware.  So all those extra transistors are going towards multiple CPUs on one die.  Architectures (liek the i7) are making all that data flow better between system memory, GPUs and CPUs.  That is the bottleneck these days in general computing.

Anyways, CPUs will get faster.  Just give it time.  The only thing that MAME might benefit from is compiler based multi-tasking.  Where the programmer does not write hte multi-threaded code but the compiler figures it out for you.  Java is having changes being made to it's language spec to support this for tasks such as sorting.  Languages have to change.  Eventually, Mame might have to move off of C/C++ and onto something else.  I would love to have it move to java.

ragnar:

--- Quote from: LeedsFan on October 29, 2010, 06:27:27 pm ---I'm in the process of building a new PC for a project. It needs to be on Mini-ITX board to fit and I've decided to go with the i3-540 processor. It's dual-core and very reasonably priced at around £80. (Well that's reasonable compared to the i5 650+ range). It's 3.0 GHz out of the box and can be easily oc'ed to 4.0 on the standard cooler. Plus being the i3 it's uses less wattage than the i5's, though oc'ing will use more ofc. Gonna go with the Radeon HD5570 (low profile card) so it can also play modern games reasonably well (medium settings).

I have no idea how other emulators perform outside of Mame. I just thought getting the fastest possible processor at a reasonable price would be the most sensible way to go to as it's a new build. Of course if I had other stuff lying around unused that would be a different matter.

For the OP if you can upgrade your processor cheaply without having to change the MB then I say give it a shot. But if you have to change the MB then ofc there's more to think about... and more expense.

--- End quote ---

I always used to do bulds based on upgrade paths.  I would usually get hte latest motherboard chipset and a cheap CPU to start.  Then upgrade to best CPU for it several years later when a few newer chipsets have apepared.
abispac:
Sorry to highjack this thread but i didnt make sense to me to start a new one with the same matter, anyway lets say i got 250 dlls, what would be the best mobo and cpu combo i can get with that kinda money? its been  i while since i last bought a new mobo cpu combo, im stuck in the p4 times.... thanks
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