Intel Core i5-3450 Quad-Core

J

Junglist0682

Member
Hello,

Lately been thinking about upgrading my CPU on my current PC.

I am wondering if I would really notice the difference or would I be wasting money.

I use my PC to analyze mp3s in serato and mixed in key.
I also use the PC for some photo editing + I unzip files from time to time.

Current CPU is:
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-3240 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 3400 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)

Seeing how it is 4 logical processors. Would getting a quad equal the same to the 4 logical?
I believe the 4 get used when needed, but have been wondering if it would be worth the investment.

From what I have found online I have seen that my MOBO will support the CPU that I am looking into.

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-i5-3450-Quad-Core-Processor-Cache/dp/B007SZ0ECE

System Model Inspiron 660

Any feedback is appreciated it.

Thank you.
 
Possibly, if you open task manager while this process is running do you see 100% utilization?
 
The used market is your friend. Hop on craigslist and other buy and sells and pick up an i5 3XXX there. Honestly, you'll pay less, and if you're buying a locked chip you know for sure it hasn't been abused. The odds of a bum chip are slim. Feel free to ask the seller to see the chip running in a system before handing over your money.

By the way, physical cores and hyperthreaded cores are not the same thing. An i3 has 2 physical cores both of which can handle 2 simultaneous threads (hyperthreaded). An i5 has 4 physical cores which are not hyperthreaded (one thread per core). The i5 also has 6MB of L3 cache vs the i3's 4MB.

You will see some improvement with an i5 and honestly you can find 3rd gen i5's out there for cheap especially the locked (non K) ones... but it doesn't sound like you're a power user to me.

i3 is fine for about 90% of computer users out there. Some people are fine with a Pentium Some with even a Celeron. My mom's computer is a 4th gen Celeron machine. She watches netflix and reads facebook. It's all she needs.

If you really want to improve the performance of your system in a meaningful and noticeable way, in your particular situation I would suggest an SSD. You can get about a half GB (and with some brands a full GB) SSD for what you were aiming to pay for that i5 in your first post. Clone your hard drive to it then use the hard drive as a storage drive and the SSD as your OS drive. Windows loads in seconds. Everything is faster. It's nice. Motherboards from your CPUs generation support SATA and in rare cases mSATA SSDs. Get a SATA SSD. Samsung and Intel are the best brands for this but there is no reason not to look at cheaper models from other manufacturers. Take note of the read and write speeds and IOPS. The higher the better in all cases. Make sure you plug the SSD into a SATA 6gbps slot on your motherboard and not a 3gbps. In 99% of cases motherboards from your generation will have 2 6gbps SATA ports and (? random depending on model) 3gbps ports. They are color coded. If you don't know, check the motherboard manual. Your motherboard will have the model name silkscreened on it, look it up and get the manual.

PS- judging from the fact that you have a DELL I'm going to guess that you have never installed a new CPU before. Watch some youtube videos on how to do it. Your DELL will not have the stock INTEL cooler on the CPU but rather some DELL specific cooler. I suggest that if you get a new CPU you ditch the DELL cooler and use the cooler that came with the new CPU.

You will need some rubbing alcohol (min 70 % alcohol, preferably 90 or 99), Q-tips, and a tube of thermal paste. Again, youtube. I suggest MX-2, MX-4 or NTH1 thermal compounds. Avoid Arctic silver 5. Way too expensive for how it performs.

PPS- how much RAM is in your machine right now? If you have 4GB adding another 4GB is not a bad idea at all. Try to match the speed/timings/voltage of what you have in there now (eg. 9 9 9 28 1.5V 1600). If all of your RAM slots are populated now (eg you have 2 slots and 2 2GB RAM sticks) you will need to sell those and buy a pair of 4GB RAM sticks. DDR3 is cheap now. Stick to 1.5V DDR3 or lower. The integrated memory controller on 2nd gen>> "core" cpus doesn't like above 1.5V and damage "can" (but you're more likely to get hit by lightning) occur.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top