School me on modern(ish) CPUs

[Soundy]

Intel's branched off all over the place, and clock speeds are less and less relevant - it's hard to keep track of what types are better than others anymore.

So for those who know: the following link lists compatible CPUs for the board I'm dealing with... I want to know which are the best to look at: CPU-Upgrade: ASUS P5GC-VM processor support and specifications

Present CPU is:

CPU Name	                              Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
CPU Code Name	                      Cedar Mill
Vendor	                              GenuineIntel
Number of Bits	                      64
Instruction Set	                      MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, ET64, XD, EST
Platform Name	                      Socket 775 LGA
Revision	                              D0
Technology	                              65 nm
Original Clock	                      3000 MHz
Original System Clock	              200 MHz
Original Multiplier	                      15.0
CPU Clock	                              3000 MHz
System Clock	                      200.0 MHz
FSB	                                      800.0 MHz
Number of Cores	                      1
Core #1	 
Speed	                              3000.1 MHz
Multiplier	                              15.0
Virtual Technology Supported	      No
Hyper Threading Supported	      Yes
Hyper Threading Enabled	      Yes
Cache	 
L1 Data Cache	                      16 KBytes
L1 Trace Cache	                      12 Kµops
L2 Cache	                              2048 KBytes

Thanks, O gurus!

[tgill]

Best processors on that list are the Core 2 Duo E8XXX processors, unfortunately you need to use a beta version of the bios, and because the mobo is physically limited to 1033 FSB your processor will be crippled.

IMO, best processor on that list was midrange in 2007 and will be crippled to boot, not worth the time unless you need something quick and dirty.

[Soundy]

Hmmm, thanks... what this is, is a 32-channel surveillance DVR that's in need of a little power boost... I'm going to max out the RAM at 4GB (only has 2GB now), just looking at what else I can do to help it along. Might suggest an SSD system drive.

[John]

Your present cpu is a 631. The jump to an E8400 is about a 4 times increase. This will be quite noticeable. If you want to rate the CPUs, google "Passmark" and search for your CPU score.

[DragonChi]

An upgrade to just about any dual core and you'll see a difference.
Personally I wouldn't spend anymore than 100 dollars trying to get a new one.

The money would be better spent on a new PC. If you're trying to get more life out of the current PC, the dual core would do it.

[Vancouver_M5]

Q6600 is a good , cheap increase, you can also OC it to 3.0 easily