I have the i3 4-core 550 @ 3.2. I'm not even getting all of the performance capability I can with the i3 though. Well, I do take that back. Every once in awhile I'll be doing research, have word and powerpoint open, I'll have too many tabs open on chrome including netflix and hulu, and then try to play wow while switching back and forth based upon my dungeon queue. My #'s 3 and 4 can start getting abused, but RAM is typically taxed out and shockwave and silverlight start crashing and I have to start closing things out. Every once in awhile the game will freeze when I start doing this as my fps drops to 1-3. The processor itself seems to be holding its own, but everything else soils pants and shuts down. Not literally, mind you. I haven't had a blue screen of death since Vista, before that ME, and before that 95 1ed.
Anyhow, my observations could be misinterpreted and I do need a new processor. The only problem is with the price. The best I have been able to find is:
www.tigerdirect.com/.../item-details.asp
And I don't know, but if I'm going to upgrade my motherboard, I would want to upgrade to an i7:
www.tigerdirect.com/.../item-details.asp
But I don't have that kind of cash. I could be way off base though. What would you do? BTW, my windows ratings are:
Processor: 7.0
RAM : 5.9
Graphics : 4.8
Game Gfx: 5.3
Prim. HD : 5.9
