wondering what the best core 2 quad is

[Owen_27]

Hey, i'm building a gaming PC and i want a core 4 quad for it i have the parts picked out but i'm worried the CPU i picked is under powered compared to other core 4 quads around the same price here's a list of my parts below

Mobo - GA-EP45-UD3P - 80$
Cpu - core 2 quad q9400 - 30$ - used
Gpu - gtx 950 already have
Ram - 4 by 4 gigabytes- 12$ ebay - used
Power supply - 520W (ATX12V v2.31) Gaming Power Supply - 55$
Case- Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-01 - 45 $
Hard drive\ssd - seagate 1tb hard drive - 50$
Total - 272$

thanks in advanced

 

[1Reshiram12]

Hey, i'm building a gaming PC and i want a core 4 quad for it i have the parts picked out but i'm worried the CPU i picked is under powered compared to other core 4 quads around the same price here's a list of my parts below

Mobo - GA-EP45-UD3P - 80$
Cpu - core 2 quad q9400 - 30$ - used
Gpu - gtx 950 already have
Ram - 4 by 4 gigabytes- 12$ ebay - used
Power supply - 520W (ATX12V v2.31) Gaming Power Supply - 55$
Case- Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-01 - 45 $
Hard drive\ssd - seagate 1tb hard drive - 50$
Total - 272$

thanks in advanced

Honestly, you should probably just get a different motherboard and a modern i3. However, if you insist on using a socket over half a decade out of date, the best processor is the Intel Core 2 Extreme X9770 (which is worse than the i3-6100 and costs $200 more).

 

[CompuTronix]

Owen_27,

Welcome to Tom's!

QX9775, QX9770 and QX9650 are early C0 Stepping Revision, which do not overclock as well as the Q9650, which is later E0 Stepping Revision, and overclocks to 4.2 GHz.

Here is the PassMark CPU score of the Q9650 overclocked @ 4.2 GHz compared to newer processors with similar scores:

i5 6400 - 6,550
i5 3450 - 6,448
i5 2500K - 6,438
i5 4440 - 6,404
Q9650 @ 4.2 - 6,342
FX6300 - 6,330
i5 2500 - 6,232
i7 975 - 6,214
i5 3340 - 5,998

The key to getting the best performance from LGA 775 Quad Core processors is overclocking.

Also, the P45 Chipset does not support more than 8 GB of DDR2 memory.

CT

 

[Owen_27]

Honestly, you should probably just get a different motherboard and a modern i3. However, if you insist on using a socket over half a decade out of date, the best processor is the Intel Core 2 Extreme X9770 (which is worse than the i3-6100 and costs $200 more).

hello thanks for answering but i want a 4 core CPU that's unlocked

 

[killerchickens]

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Q9650-Processor-Socket-LGA775/dp/B001D86S3G

 

[Themastererr]

Owen_27,

Welcome to Tom's!

QX9775, QX9770 and QX9650 are early C0 Stepping Revision, which do not overclock as well as the Q9650, which is later E0 Stepping Revision, and overclocks to 4.2 GHz.

Here is the PassMark CPU score of the Q9650 overclocked @ 4.2 GHz compared to newer processors with similar scores:

i5 6400 - 6,550
i5 3450 - 6,448
i5 2500K - 6,438
i5 4440 - 6,404
Q9650 @ 4.2 - 6,342
FX6300 - 6,330
i5 2500 - 6,232
i7 975 - 6,214
i5 3340 - 5,998

The key to getting the best performance from LGA 775 Quad Core processors is overclocking.

Also, the P45 Chipset does not support more than 8 GB of DDR2 memory.

CT

@ O.P keep in mind these scores are representation of single and multi-threaded put together and not an actual reflection of the CPU's performance if you're a gamer.

If you're a gamer, and want to truly see where a CPU lies in terms of performance, look at the single thread pass mark scores here - https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

As you can see, the core2 quad is worse than first generation i3,i5 and i7.

 

[lordmogul]

The fastest chip you could get would be either the Core 2 Quad Q9770/Xeon X3380/X5460 (3.16 GHz FSB 333, 9.5x Multiplier), X5470 (3.33 GHz, 400 FSB, 10x multiplier) or X5492 (3.4 GHz, 400 FSB, 8.5x Multiplier)
The Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9770 sits at 3.2 GHz, 400 FSB, 8x Multiplier.
Besides the X5460 they are all pretty expensive. That goes for the Core 2 Quad 9650 (3 GHz, FSB 333, 9x Multiplier) and Q9550 (2.83 GHz, FSB 333, 8.5x Multiplier)
I would vote against the QX9770 for the expenses and the pther 400 FSB chips because of the 400 MHz FSB.

Note that with the exception of the QX9770 all of them are "locked" in the means of a fixed multiplier. But since they rely on a rather flexible FSB instead of a modern base clock, that is usually not much of an issue.

So your best bet would be the X5460 and a LGA771 to 775 mod
(got one myself earlier this year for 40€ including shipping and everything needed for the mod. It is currently running at 4.1 GHz and scores 450 points in Cinebench R15 multithreaded (116 singlethreaded) and 1,832 in single threaded PassMark 8 (6,265 multithreaded) This is where modern 2.8-3.0 GHz Skylake chips are sitting.)

Since this are all synthetic benchmarks and I wanted to see real world results I've actually done some gaming tests and it delivers 55,6 avg FPF in the included benchmark in Tomb Raider (2913) on high setting with a R7 250X and 40,6 FPS on the ultra preset.

Even for a Q9650 I see prices of atleast 70-80€, of course that might be different in other countries.

You see Core 2 Quad CPUs aren't that bad even today if you can get one cheap and are able to overclock it decently. Then they reach deep into modern i3 territory and are able to scratch at recent Core i5's.
But of course it takes more work (overclocking, looking for parts) and might be more troublesome until you have them stable at these clock speeds. And don't even talk about the power draw of a chip with a 30% OC that has already a TDP of 95-120W.