Best CPU For 775 Motherboard?

[Pipebomb]

I dont plan on upgrading the mobo anytime soon, but i need a new CPU for this thing. Im thinking of getting a Q6600 and do the BSEL Mod to 3Ghz since my mobo cant overclock (DP35DP).

But i was wondering if there were any other LGA 775 CPUs that would give better performance without the BSEL Mod (my mobos max FSB is 1333mhz).

Im not gonna buy a Q9650 since i only plan on spending <$20. So i was wondering if there were any alts.

PS. I do plan on building a new PC next year, no need to point out that im gaming on a potato

 

[BFG-9000]

Is it really worth it? That particular motherboard never had a BIOS update that exposed CMPXCHG16b (despite every Core 2 processor that could fit into it having support for it), so you can either use Windows 7 which is supported for only 3 more years or 32-bit 8.1 or 10.

That said, Q6600 are only going for $11 on eBay and at 3GHz web surfing would be faster and more pleasant than any tablet even with only 3.5GB usable memory.

 

[Pipebomb]

Is it really worth it? That particular motherboard never had a BIOS update that exposed CMPXCHG16b (despite every Core 2 processor that could fit into it having support for it), so you can either use Windows 7 which is supported for only 3 more years or 32-bit 8.1 or 10.

That said, Q6600 are only going for $11 on eBay and at 3GHz web surfing would be faster and more pleasant than any tablet even with only 3.5GB usable memory.

Im running Windows 10 64-bit
Latest BIOS update (2009/10) made it possible. Cant say i really know how. I was just wondering if there is any other CPU that would give me better performance without the BSEL mod.

 

[salerhino]

Can you somehow get q9550 or q9650 in there?

 

[salerhino]

Only that is faster than BSELed q6600

 

[Pipebomb]

Can you somehow get q9550 or q9650 in there?

Q9650 is about $50 on ebay. Not really worth it. The only other CPU that i can do the BSEL Mod on is the Q6700, but i heard its unstable unline thr Q6600. Im guessing it cant get better than that. Suck that my mobo cant overclock :/

 

[salerhino]

Well, I would pick up some defect mobo which can OC.
I once found defect asus pro motherboard which had problems with integrated sound and USB ports, but it could OC and all the other features.
And it costed 7 Euros!
I didn`t need it at that moment so I didn`t buy it, but you can try to find something like that.

 

[Pipebomb]

I might get the Q9550. But what would be faster? The extra 170MHz or 4MB L2 Cache?

 

[salerhino]

Well, I can`t really tell you how much better will perform, but I guess it is worth the money, especially if you can get it on some auction.
Take a look here:
http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/822/Intel_Core_2_Quad_Q6600_vs_Intel_Core_2_Quad_Q9550.html

On stock settings q9550 is 25% better.
I own one q9550 myself and it serves me well in 2nd PC.
I played gta v with 4 gb ddr2 ram and hd6770 easily.

 

[salerhino]

Also got like 1k hours in cs:go on that setup.

 

[william p]

With that budget I'd try for a Q6700. They're all G0 stepping and the 10x multiplier will get you 3.33GHz with a tapemod to 1333fsb. You might need to do a VID pinmod to raise volts a little to get stability, But I've run G0 LGA775s up to 3.73GHz in Firestrike, and 4 GHz CPUZ. If you get a Q6600 to tapemod get the SLACR version.

 

[BFG-9000]

I've not had much luck with VID padmods. Often you get a big bump in idle voltage but nothing under load where you need it, so while that extra 333MHz may sound tempting you might actually end up stuck with 2.67GHz. I have never seen a Q6600 fail to run 3.0GHz in any OEM motherboard with the BSEL padmod even when some of the very same CPUs would not run the same 3.0GHz in an aftermarket Gigabyte or ASUS board without extra voltage! OEM boards must be doing some minor overvolting, but I don't think I'd trust pushing a three-phase VRM too far (a 65nm quad at 3.33 is about 135w).

That's very interesting about Windows 10; they may have stopped requiring that instruction in later builds than 1511.

It's too bad Intel board BIOSes are protected from modification as Xeon microcodes would allow chips with higher multipliers than Q6600 or Q9650 as in the inexpensive X5460, which would've been useful when so FSB-limited.

 

[BFG-9000]

While the OP has probably sorted things out long ago, I thought it would be good to update this for completeness, in case someone else runs across this thread using Google.

The Intel DP35DP misrepresents the presence of CMPXCHG16b only for E0 and R0 stepping 45nm CPUs, so any other C2Q chips should work fine with 64-bit Windows 8.1 and 10 (which still require the instruction to install). Other P35 board manufacturers released BIOSes to workaround this but Intel never did.

Note that all Q9650 sold were E0 stepping so will not work in this board in 64-bit 8.1 or 10, but Q9300 or Q9450 should work fine, as would any 65nm quad like Q6600.