Upgrading Intel Core 2 Dou E8200 to Q6700 quad core?

[bsacco123]

Newbie here...go easy on me...

I have an old Dell Optiplex 755 and was wondering if it was worth the performance upgrade from my current Intel Core 2 Dou E8200 to Q6700 quad core.

Would I notice the difference?

 

[Tradesman1]

Might check and see if the BIOS will support Q6700

 

[Maxx_Power]

In a lot of situations, probably not. The E8200 has a newer architecture (Wolfdale), which is the next refinement of the old Conroe generation, which included all early E6xxx and Q6xxx series of processors. It is faster per clock, and for any workload spreading to only 2 CPUs, you won't notice any improvement with the Q6xxx series, and maybe a decrease in performance in many applications and games. In sheer CPU-cores limited scenarios like video encoding, you should notice an increase in performance. It MAYBE a parallel-step instead of an upgrade.

The E8xxx series also feature a lot lower power consumption compared to the Q6xxx series processors

Your most desirable upgrades are to the same architecture Core 2 Duos, but quad core, like the Q9xxx series (pick something fast with a fat L2 cache).

 

[Kisianik]

If money are the issue, you can install Q6600 and overclock it using BSEL method to 3.0GHz, this will be faster than your previous setup, however it will involve cooling upgrades and headaches.
So, if money for new PC is an issue - upgrading is worth it. If you have about $400 or above, getting something new is more recommended.

 

[Kisianik]

If you decide to go Q6600 step, first you would have to check which cooler you have Aluminum (used for Core 2 Duo) or Copper (used for Quads), you need copper. Take a look at picture below, next open your case and compare, basically if metal fins are vertical, it is Aluminum, if metal fins parallel to motherboard it is most likely copper, if it is looks like copper take a closer look with flash light, if you see any yellow parts there, it is copper confirmed.

If you have Copper, you can just simply swap CPU (use good cleaning solution if needed) for Q6600, if you want overclock, let me know.