Q6600 vs Q9550...is it worth the upgrade?

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crashingmedic

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Jan 19, 2008
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Hey all. I've got a Q6600 in my rig now (rig specs in my signature) and MicroCenter has the Q9550 for $170+tax. Are there enough benefits of the Q9550 over the Q6600 to upgrade?

I'm mainly a day trader but I do occasionally play Quake 4, Doom 3 and a few other older games. They all run fine.

My main tasks involve using very cpu intensive charting programs and I use @ 2GB of my 4GB RAM (only 3GB available on xp 32 bit though) when trading. I now have Windows 7 as a dual boot but it has issues with my trading programs so I use xp 32 bit most of the time now. Simply put, I'm an extreme multitasker and I use 12-15 or more programs simultaneously all the time.

I've looked at the benchmarks of the Q9550 vs the Q6600 and it wins hands down in every category in an impressive manner. But how does that relate to real world experience. I've talked to many, many people who have upgraded to the Q9550 and most say they wish they would have waited for an i7. I'm considering waiting until next year when the prices come down on the i7 and building a whole new rig anyway.

Lastly, if I do upgrade I'll either use the Q6600 to build a budget rig for my kids (spend another $300 or so to do it) or sell the Q6600 on eBay. They are selling for @ $125-$175 used.

Any opinions are helpful. Thanks...EWB
 
I'm having the same dilema, keep going back and forth on it, and I think honestly it would be better to just upgrade to I-7 next year. While the q9550 is awesome, and beats the q6600 in every benchmark, mine honestly runs everything i throw at it quite easily, so my suggestion keep it and wait for a I-7.
 
Six or eight months ago I would have said do it, but right now you would be better off waiting a little longer and seeing what the release of i5 does for the market as the real world difference between the Q6600 and the Q9550 is not a night/day one.
 
you might also consider a mild overclock for your q6600, I normally dont recommend it for business PC's but the q6600 easily goes to 3ghz (stock 2400) I've run mine at 3600 for a week but i turned it down to a more reasonable 3300.

You might need to upgrade to a non piece of crap cooler if you are using the retail cooler than comes with the q6600 though.

the stock timing is (2.4 @ 266mhz*9)

I would recommend something like 300x9=2700, a more agressive number would be 350x8, ive been using 415x8 now for 11 monthes with no problems.

Of course this assumes your motherboard is ok for Overclocking .
If you are interested shoot me a PM and ill go more indepth on voltages and such
 
I've got it oc'ed to 2.7 now on stock voltage. My mb is an ASROCK Penryn 1600SLI-110db. It is an extremely stable board but it won't let me change the cpu's multiplier (lower that is). Anything over 300x9 causes frequent freezes needing a restart. I haven't ever tried to adjust the voltage though. Also, I have an Arctic 7 Freezer Pro as my cooler.
 
the 9550 is much better, but the tasks you mentioned wont see much of an improvement, but it is a 45nm cpu compared to that makeshift glue 2 cpus together 65nm, wait for i5 or i7, 775 needs to go the way of the dodo
 

Errr, it's still two CPU's 'glued' together albeit 45nm ones rather than 65nm, so it runs a bit cooler, uses a bit less power and is a smidgen quicker, not bad for a makeshift 'update'. 😉
 
I have 2 friends who both have upgraded from literally the same Q6600 to Q9550's
one got an OC'ing dud, returned it with some random excuse, and the replacement is running 4ghz @ 1.25v w/WC @61c IBT load.
The other got a good one from the start and is running it @ 4ghz(Air Cooled Zalman CNPS9700) as well. Both are very satisfied with the purchase/upgrade.

Both got them for $169 at Microcenter.($50 less than Newegg) They also have i7 920's for $199

Edit: Apparently both are only available in-store.
 
Not at all. Tho, people will argue to the end Intel isnt overpricing, but lets look at reality here. If you look at steams users, and what cpus theyre using....
They have their cpus strategically priced simply for the lack of competition from AMD in duals.
Im hoping this changes, and AMD starts making better duals, or i3s wont go down either
 
The quads are closer because of AMD pressure, but again, AMD cant put too much pressure on them, as they need to dig out of their hole theyve made, and cant afford a price war, so it benefits AMD and Intel here
I said a long time ago, once AMD makes a better cpu, prices will likely go up, not down
 
Well I certainly am pleased with all the quick responses. Thank you all. I think I'll be holding off on a cpu upgrade until some of the newer cpus are released.

From all the talk here is it safe to assume that the QX9770 is the last of the 775 cpus and that the 775 socket has run it's course? Do you think there will be any of the new 6 &/or 8 core cpus made for the 775?
 


its safe to say that 775 is pretty much over... nothing new will be released
 
Psycho, it's not that bad. Agreed, new stuff is coming. But not everyone NEEDS that latest and greatest (and fastest). There's plenty of life left in S775.

Look at all the P4's that are still around.

On the other hand, if I were planning on building a new computer right now, I'd wait.

OP's question? I do not think that upgrading to a Q9550 is worth it.
 


totally agreed.i'm still using my pentium 4 till this day 😀
 





Its probably your memory speed causing the crashing

drop the memory multiplier one notch so you arent overclocking it so much

make sure its stable they try like... 310fsb



for instance my memory multiplier was orginally 1.25:1 when i put fsb to 400+ that made it over 1000... memory couldnt handle it..

my motherboard also supports 1.2:1 and 1:1

1.2:1 doesnt work.. period it freezes at barely over stock settings.

so I set to 1:1 now my memory is at 830~~ stock was 800

its ddr 2 memory so 415mhz fsb *2 * (multiplier 1:1)

as long as you dont go crazy with settings you can move the settings
around till you find your best mild OC settings.

this was orginally the reason i tried going all the way to 400fsb instead of 300 was the memory speed and multiplier i didnt want to underclock my memory



also back on topic I also agree with the general feeling the upgrade isnt worth the $$$ we are on turning point where 775 will be obsolete..

on the other hand the boards are mature. But since its not a major upgrade i would hold off
 
Thank you all once again for all the feedback. I will be holding off and will try some different settings on my motherboard for overclocking to see if I can push q6600 a little further.

rand_79...I might pm you with a few oc questions in the next week or so.

Thanks again everyone...EWB
 
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