Im a Pentium n00b

[Zod]

Ok, my life on the pc pretty much consists of WoW and internet access. My old pc I built was all MSI Athlon stuff. I came across a deal that I took. A D915PBL with a Pentium4 3.4mhz cpu.

Just curious, for my applications, what would the top 3 fastest and/or most dependable cpu's I could replace the current one with??

[stev]

Zod,

I'm somewhat a nOOb on the Intel stuff as well, but I have read up on a dozen of articles that state 3.2Ghz or 3.4Ghz should be the highest CPU to go with. Why? These CPU's under load will not throttle back as much as the 3.6Ghz or the 3.8Ghz CPUs Intel has.

I have a 3.0Ghz Northwood that can oc to around 3.4Ghz or so. I'm not going to push it's limit to engauge the throttling limits in the CPU. I do graphics and audio editing with that computer. Every extra push helps, but to push too far for the throttling limitation is no better than running a little slower over all.

OK, that's just my two cents.

Stev

[DaddyRabbit]

Ok, my life on the pc pretty much consists of WoW and internet access. My old pc I built was all MSI Athlon stuff. I came across a deal that I took. A D915PBL with a Pentium4 3.4mhz cpu.

Just curious, for my applications, what would the top 3 fastest and/or most dependable cpu's I could replace the current one with??

Refer to this link: http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/bl/bl_proc.htm

Does the 3.4 not suit your needs? Also, what's the graphics situation?

[Zod]

The graphics are fine, alot better with WoW than my previous set up of course. What I didn't mention is I was given Oblivion the other day and am having alot of problems with it but I don't think it's a processor issue. I was just curious if there was anything faster. So according to that page you linked in order to really know what I have I have to take it apart to get the model number off it right?

[DaddyRabbit]

Sorry, I meant "What graphics card do you use"?

[Zod]

geforce 6600gt

[DaddyRabbit]

Well Oblivion is a beast but I think maybe a higher end GFX card might get you more for your buck than a CPU upgrade. The 3.4 is not a slouch.

That said my 8800GTS is my first Nvidia card since the Geforce2 days so I'm not up to speed with Geforce performance (e.g. 6 series vs. 7 series) I actually bought my 8800 comparing against ATi cards.

EDIT - CPU-Z http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php can tell you a great deal about the CPU without opening the case...

[SAMSAMHA]

it will probably hold you for now, how much is the setup? if too expensive, I would suggest just grab a core 2 duo cpu (as it's fairly cheap), though looking at your system, you may need a overhaul if you go to core 2 duo.