Worth Upgrading 2.66 (533) to 3.0 (800)?

[ZappaFan]

I just upgraded my motherboard from an MSI 655 board with 533 fsb to a Gigabyte 8IK1100 with 800 fsb. I had a lot of instability issues with that old mobo, and rather than try to RMA it I decided to just replace it with a better mobo. From all the bad things I've been reading about the SiS 655 chipset compared to the 865/875 it was hard for me to want to work real hard to hold onto this 655 mobo even tho it's only just a little over a year old.

anyway, so now I have this 800 mhz fsb staring me in the face, and I'm getting a tug to upgrade to a processor that will more fully utilize my new mobo. I can get a 3.0C processor at newegg for $224 I think, so the price doesn't seem all that bad.

I'm already using corsair pc3200 memory. Would this upgrade be worth it? Am I only going to see a marginal performance increase or will it be fairly significant? I won't spend $224 for marginal, but if it's much more than just marginal I think it's probably worth it.

Or should I just wait and see how the Prescott CPU's do? I've read some really mixed reviews on those.

[Warlock]

well matching the cpu bus and mb buss is allways better cause your running at full speed, i got a giga byte 7NNXP and i payed a little more to get a 333mhz bus cpu and there was a big increast of speed from the little 200mhz XP1700

yes i know hes talking about a Intell cpu but im just makeing a point

[ZappaFan]

btw, I'm using two sticks of 512mb PC3200 corsaire in DDR mode.

[MD-2389]

Unless you either just want it for the hell of it, or have an actual need for it like heavy rendering or video editing...I wouldn't.

[kurupt]

yeah, it depends on what you are doing. i've got a 2.4c at 800, also with 512mb x2 pc3200 corsair, and there is nothing out right now that i cant handle and then some. i would say you're good to go unless you're into really heavy stuff.