Need a better processor. What's a great one?

get a cheap c2d as I did, and overclock =D

What's the point of dual-core for anyway?..... I have an Intel P4 3.2ghz HT, it works fine..... will dual-core runs faster?Dogswithguns

yes, no doubt about it.

For programs that take advantage of dual cores, you'll see a dramatic increase in computing power. Otherwise, a dual core CPU will only be as powerful as a single core...or even slower. Intel has finally started moving away from pure GHz as a measure of computing power btw, so a slower clocked Core 2 Duo can beat a faster clocked P4.

Intel currently owns the performance crown but, it's very unlikely you'll be able to just buy a new dual core CPU and drop it into your old motherboard. Not only will the voltages probably be wrong, but it's probably not going to be pin compatible.

Can you run games like GEARS OF WAR, DIRT, CALL OF DUTY 4, HALO 2 with the P4HT?ferbron23

Yes I can with a P4 3.6 and a 8800 GTS 640mb..

Do not get a AMD cpu.Not only do the athlons suck compared to the core 2 duo/quads the new AMD Phenom quad cores have show (In benchmarks) to be slower than some of Intels dual cores.

I my self have a E6420 at 3.2Ghz,8800GTS 320MB at 594 core 2000 mem and 1512 shader,3gigs of DDR800 at 800MHz.

My system is more than enought for even games like crysis witch I run at all high settings with no problems.

I would get a E6420 or E6600 and a P35 chipset motherboard and overclock the hell out of it.

If you want help and need to know more about PC upgrades and what PC parts you should get then you will need to go to overclock.net.Im am also a member there and the guys there will be more that willing to help you with picking out parts and overclocking them,With overclocking you can save a crap load of money.

I have a few quick questions for the overclocking of CPUs or anything really on a PC.

1 How do you overclock?? do u have to go behind the software or something?

2 how high can you overclock a CPU or graphics card

3 you do need good cooling due to more electrical current going through??

My suggestion would be to aim for the Intel Core2duo E6750. It close to top of the line unless you want to go quad core. For cheaper but also somewhat less powerful cpu look at the top AMD x2's. While the c2d's are currently the stronger CPUs, the AMD CPU are still very solid depending on your budget.

Regarding over clocking. The short explantion is that you change the settings on your motherboard to tell the CPU to run at diffrent settings than what the CPU is sold as. So if you buy a CPU thats supposed to run at 2 ghz, you could alter the setting to run at, for example 2.5ghz. However!.. there is a catch.

If you overclock a cpu you are basically pushing it to work harder than what the factory labled it as. That in turn will cause it to generate more heat. To much heat is bad for the CPU and can cause the computer to become unstable. In worst case scenatios you can end up damaging your CPU. In other words it's not something you should do without doing a lot of research before hand. For people who do know the ins and out's you can often get a good bit more performance out of a CPU, for people who dont know what they are doing, you could end up with a CPU that does nothing at all.

Ok. this might be a bit stupid but if you have a 2.0ghz procesor and overclock it to 3.4 ghz (if thats possible) will the cpu be fine and not be damaged if it stays as cool as ice.

Note i have no clue whats so ever about overclocking and just throwing these questions to get an idea. I think that if you keep the cpu as cold as ice you can overclock it to basically as high as you like. I am probably wrong but would like to know the truth.

Thanx

My E4500 is pretty goodthough its atstock,get one of those,or if you're on a even tighter budget,get a X2 4600+

Either CPU will destroy Pentium 4 :)