Q6600 Upgrade?

[jjblanche]

I have a Q6600 circa early '08 overclocked to 3.6GHz stable (has been for the past three years). Considering some upgrades soon. Not ready to pull the mobo...wondering if there's a CPU that'll fit in there that's a worthwhile upgrade on the above. A new graphics card takes precedent over all, and at the end of the day I'm not unsatisfied with the performance of the machine as it stands, but am looking to maybe make some changes.

I'm fairly certain this is the mobo model I have (or something very similar): Gigabyte Ultra Durable 2

Intel X38, Supports Intel® Core 2™ multi-core and upcoming 45nm processors, Support for 1600 MHz FSB. Dual Channel DDR2 1066 memory support for outstanding system performance.

 

[jaguarskx]

No. Not really.

The fastest C2Q you can buy new is the Q9650 for $340. That's assuming your motherboard can recognize a 2nd generation C2Q CPU.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115130

A Core i5-2500K will cost you $220, $120 can get you a decent P67 chipset motherboard and all you need to do is add in another $50 - $70 for some decent 8GB of RAM. That would outperform the Q9650 by a long shot. Not even a contest.

 

[jaguarskx]

And that's before overclocking an i5-2500K.

 

[jjblanche]

Hmm. You think there's still some life left in the Q6600 if I slap a newer graphics card in there? Current is the one in my sig. Machine can still run pretty much everything I throw at it as is...but I want to be Old Republic ready. By my understanding, newer games aren't CPU bound.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Looking at the board that you have listed if you are going to be able to use processors with a 1600 FSB then these would be the upgrade processors for you over what you have alread http://ark.intel.com/compare/30789,33921,34444,37159,33924,35428.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

JaguarSKX is right on the performance difference. Upgrading to the 2nd generation Intel® Core™ processors like the Intel Core i5-2500K is the best investment.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[jjblanche]

Page cannot be found on the above link...but either way after doing some research it seems like I'm stuck with the Q6600 until I upgrade the mobo. Right now I'm just doing an interim "dust off" upgrade...thinking of dropping a newer (although not bleeding-edge) graphics card in there. Maybe a 6850 or something like that...but looking by the specs it doesn't seem to perform all that much greater than the G92 GTS I have in there now?

If I do upgrade to a contemporary mid-range card, would I then be CPU bound or will the Q6600 at 3.6 be able to keep up?

 

[jsc]

The obvious way to go is an i5-K CPU.

On the other hand, I plan on keeping my OC'd Q9550 and Q6600 systems until Ivy Bridge.

 

[jjblanche]

Guess I'm gonna hold onto the Q6600 for now, thanks for the info guys. As for the above question, worth upgrading to a current mid-range GPU like the 6850 or thereabouts...or will the Q6600 become a bottleneck? I'm at 4GB system ram now on Vista Ultimate...worth going to 8GB or just wait until I do a full overhaul?

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

The link shouldnt included the period on the end take it off and it will work for you.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[greenrider02]

I would keep the 6600. It's running fast, quad core (although two die) so it should really have you set as far as games go.

A GTX 560 (Ti?) with your G92 board as a physx card would mean you still had a formidable machine, even now. That's my recommendation, but...

You may consider another 4GB of RAM, it can prove very useful for caching extra textures or just holding more in physical memory rather than page file.

 

[lilotimz]

an overclocked q6600 will not be that big of a bottleneck unless you get the dual gpu behemoths.

It's not the specs but the architecture that makes a GPU better. Not to mention AMD and Nvidia has different architectures (aka specs) that provide different performance, it's not really simple as just comparing the specs.

A 6850 will eat your g92 for breakfast,lunch,dinner, and late night snack.

 

[jjblanche]

an overclocked q6600 will not be that big of a bottleneck unless you get the dual gpu behemoths.

It's not the specs but the architecture that makes a GPU better. Not to mention AMD and Nvidia has different architectures (aka specs) that provide different performance, it's not really simple as just comparing the specs.

A 6850 will eat your g92 for breakfast,lunch,dinner, and late night snack.

Heh, that's what I figured, didn't really do all that much research. I remember when I bought the G92 graphics card technology was stagnating a bit...not much fresh out for a few years. I'll probably spring on a 6850 within the next month or so.

Very curious about turning the G92 into a phyx card...how does one go about that?