Upgrade to Q9550

[ajth87]

Hey everyone,

Well I just bought an Asus CG5270 about a week ago. The current setup is a C2Q Q8300 with 8GB 800 DDR2 ram. I do notice that the performance isn't exactly what I would expect from it as I just had a Dell with a C2D E6550 with 3GB ram. As of right now I haven't done any gaming until I upgrade the graphics card but just opening programs like Firefox or itunes or even Microsoft Works Word Processor takes, what seems to be, around the same time as my Dell to open. I was wondering if I were to upgrade the CPU to a Q9550 if I would see a significant change or any change at all in performance.

 

[dpaul8]

Here is a comparison of the performance of a Q8200 (close to the Q8300) and the Q9550:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=50&p2=52
You are likely to see about a 25 percent performance increase with the Q9550.

The processor is not the determining factor in how fast applications like Firefox, iTunes, and MS Works load, but rather it is the read speed of your hard drive. If you want things to load really quick get a Solid State Drive (Intel X25) or a fast hard drive like the Samsung F3 or Velociraptor.

If your main concern is gaming performance, you should consider upgrading your graphics card to a ATI 5850 or equivalent rather than investing in a marginally faster CPU. Good luck with your decision.

 

[ajth87]

Thanks for the info.! Come to think of it, it makes complete sense as the hard drive being the determining factor. My Windows Index score for the hd is only 5.9 out of 7.9 so I think I may just invest in swapping out the hd with a faster one. Thanks again!

Edit: I just looked at the specs of my hard drive and it is a Seagate, i actually found it on newegg http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148433
The thing i noticed is that it has the same exact specs as the Samsung SpinPoint F3.. in other words, there would be no performance difference? Correct? Are there any other hard drives that I might be able to see a performance difference when opening programs and such? Thanks.

 

[dpaul8]

The Seagate 7200.12 is a good hard drive. You are right, you would not see any significant difference with a Samsung F3. If you really want to improve performance, you could add a solid state drive like the Intel X25:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167025

Best regards.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Thanks for the info.! Come to think of it, it makes complete sense as the hard drive being the determining factor. My Windows Index score for the hd is only 5.9 out of 7.9 so I think I may just invest in swapping out the hd with a faster one. Thanks again!

I wouldn't put too much faith in that if I were you as it rates a 9500GT @ 6.2 for 3D gaming. :lol:

 

[jonpaul37]

Indeed, the windows rating system is crappola, 5.9 seems to be the norm for hard drives regardless of what it is, you may see a slight increase in the rating with an SSD, but you will see huge results in the real world.

 

[ajth87]

Thanks again for the replies..well it is a relief that the windows index score isn't reliable! In that case I will just stick with my current hard drive. Though I do plan to upgrade to the q9550 in the near future, are there any other suggestions that would help with the speed at which programs load?? Thanks.

 

[Pointertovoid]

Confirm: only disk speed makes a difference, and only ssd is really faster than hdd.

Though there are (were) many bad ssd.

Also notice that you can't really estimate an hdd's speed by its official figures: they are correct, but not relevant. Same for ssd.