CPU Upgrade

[Meian7]

I recently decided I wanted to upgrade my 2.6Ghz processor to something more powerful to get the most out of my PC. I play Half Life 2 on Medium settings, World of Warcraft on max, and I plan to get Elder Scrolls 4 next week, so I thought it was about time.

I found out that no matter what I do I'm probably going to have to replace my 478 socket P4P800-Deluxe mobo though and that kinda limited my options (at least in my view) to:

a) Get a new 775 socket mobo or something, and get a 3.2Ghz processor (3.2 seems most cost effective for me right now, since 3.4 is about $70 canadian more)

b) Get a new mobo that supports Dual Core technology and get a 2.8 dual core pentium processor (staying more or less within the same price range as option a)

Right my system looks like this:
P4P800-Deluxe mobo, Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 120GB hard drive, 1Gig of DDR PC3200 ram, ATI Radeon X850 Pro (AGP), no sound card (how much difference do these make anyway?)

I don't know much about dual core, which is mainly why I'm asking. Is 2.8 Dual Core supposed to work like 5Ghz+ or something?

Anyway, any help would be appreciated. Any other advice about my system is more than welcome as well. Thanks.

[Panama Red]

Don't think you'll gain much with a Dual Core if your 2.6 is a Northwood with 800fsb. You're already enjoying a "make believe" dual core called HyperThreading. Personally, I'd think you'd be better off investing in a new PCI-e based system. You already have a strong AGP vid card so the next step in improved gaming isn't a new cpu/mobo; it's PCI-e. Problem is, you'll end up with a new power supply too and new memory if you stick with an Intel based system. New Intels are using DDR2. You might want to wander thru the BYOPC forums here and see what others are putting together to take advantage of the new PCI-e vid cards. Most are opting for the 939 Socket AMD systems.

[glc]

I think you should defer an upgrade till the technology is out there to make it worthwhile. You still have a very powerful system. If anything, just throw another gig of ram in there. A sound card will take some load off the processor - entry level Audigys are pretty cheap now.

[Meian7]

Thanks a bunch for the advice you two. I think I will defer the upgrade and take a look at a sound card. I guess you're right glc, that it would probably be most cost effective to wait to build a new system when mine is truly out of date.

Panama now has me thinking about AMD when that time comes. What kind of differences are there between Pentium and AMD anyway? I've heard some people say that AMD is less costly and just as good as Pentium (some have even told me it's better for gaming PCs).

[786ARS]

also, you might want to think about trading in your gfx card when you get a new mobo, agp is being phased out in favour of pci-ex 16

[Meian7]

Yeah, how do I trade in a component like that? I wasn't aware of any stores near me that do that kind of thing. Or do you mean put it up on ebay or something?

[glc]

By the time your X850 Pro can't handle the games of the day, it's time for a new system anyway.

Today, AMD has the edge in gaming. 6 months from now, it may be the other way around - and if the preproduction samples of Intel's next chip are any indication, that likely will be the case - till AMD comes up with something better. That's how it works.