LGA 775, also known as Socket T, is an Intel processor socket type. There are probably several millions of computers out there with 775 sockets and Intel CPUs in them.
Now of course, LGA 775 is the old socket type. The newer types are the 1155, 1156 and the 1366. And while it’s true new motherboards with the 1155 socket greatly outnumber the older 775:
…don’t feel you have to trade up just yet. You may be able to stuff in a newer Duo or Quad that will breathe new life into your PC for several more years.
High-end Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad – worth it?
Only if you have the RAM to accompany it.
If your PC can house a maximum of 8GB RAM or more and it’s a 775 socket, then sure, max out the RAM and go for the upper-end Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad – otherwise I wouldn’t bother and go with a new mobo and CPU regardless of whether it’s Intel or AMD.
The amount of RAM matters because of 64-bit computing. It’s true we use mostly 32-bit apps now, but 64-bit apps are becoming more common and for that you need more RAM. 4GB is adequate at present, but won’t be in the future. 8GB or more on the other hand will easily remain more than adequate for several years.
Assuming you want to stick to your existing Intel LGA 775 socket motherboard, and assuming your mobo can house a max of 8GB RAM or more, what’s the best Intel CPU to go with?
Using NewEgg to give you an idea of how much this is going to cost, here are some example choices.
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
Intel Core 2 Duo E8600
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650
Any one of these CPUs will remain able to run current software for at least the next 5 years (including Windows 8 with no problem at all), and that’s being generous because they’ll probably stay current a lot longer than that. The Core 2 Quad is the pricy one of the group at $300, but it has 12MB of L2 cache and that’s why it costs as much as it does.
2-core or 4-core?
I’ve read several articles on this subject and for some reason nobody is ever able to give a straight answer on which is better and moreover why. Everyone always says to refer to Amdahl’s law. Well, I’m not about to try and figure that out.
The best article as far as I’m concerned on the subject of 2 or 4-core is Choosing Dual or Quad Core on the Coding Horror web site. The best piece of information in that article is this:
…you hit a point of diminishing returns very rapidly after two cores.
In layman’s terms that means "for most software, anything over 2 cores is overkill", and for the most part that still holds true today.
What this means is that if you’re looking to revitalize your older 775 socket motherboard without going to the poorhouse in the process, an upper-end Core 2 Duo is still a fine choice to go with; you really won’t be missing anything by having 2 instead of 4 cores in this particular setup.
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Nothing wrong with 775 these days if you are looking to keep cost down on a repair. For most people they are more than enough. The 775 is very stable but for the price of a dual core Sandy Bridge “G” series and a H61 combined with DDR3, you are better off going that way in terms of cost and the performance is better. i3 or i5 are better for gamers and definately the i7 for workstations Heck, I still build a build with an embedded board, Asus ITX-220, Antec 300 small case, 2GB of DDR2-533 RAM, Linux Mint LXDE, and use the intergrated graphics for the person that is just going to surf the web and do office documents.
Yeah I don’t recommend going with LGA 775 for a new setup when the newer options are better (and cheaper), but for an existing 775 setup, bumping up to an upper-end Core 2 Duo is still a sound buy and will stay current for a good long while.
Right. I just upgraded a customers 775 – 945GC board from a E1400 to an E8400 and a entry level workstation card for their son who is starting college for CAD. Perfect upgrade to keep cost down than I built them a budget H61 – 1155 (“G Series”) setup.
XP is dead, well has one foot over the edge but have you tried to load XP on a computer with an i series processor?I have twice, fails because the processor isn’t in the HAL for XP.
There maybe a manufacture offering XP for a computer with the i series processor but I haven’t found one yet.
Would like to know if you know of any.