Worth upgrading from Core 2 Quad Q6600 to Q9?

t99

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Found some cheap processors online and wondering how much of a difference it would make. It's for my second system and I haven't really used the Q6600 much. I got the board, CPU & ram from a friend who was going to toss it out and put my r9 270x in to use as a second system at times. I don't mind spending up to 50$ if it would be a pretty noticeable difference. I tried to play a couple of games and you can tell the CPU is definitely dragging a bit. Nothing crazy or really intensive, but the CPU is definitely the weakest link.

Q9505 around 20$ then 9650 for 40ish.
 
Solution
It is not a significant upgrade and there a few problems you have to solve.
The Xeon CPU needs a little sticker because 2 of the contact pads have to be switched for this.
Your Motherboard must support this mod and you need to update your Bios.

I dont think it is work wasting 20 Bucks for an old xeon...
It is not a significant upgrade and there a few problems you have to solve.
The Xeon CPU needs a little sticker because 2 of the contact pads have to be switched for this.
Your Motherboard must support this mod and you need to update your Bios.

I dont think it is work wasting 20 Bucks for an old xeon...
 
Solution

t99

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I just changed the post a bit, i was not finding much for the 775 socket at first and just now ran across several postings for the Q9 models which seem like they would be a fairly decent upgrade still and the cost is also very low. What about something like a Q9650 / 9509 / QX6850 instead?
 

t99

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I have an i5 4460 and rx480 on my main system and plan to use this for about 1 more year and then build a new one. That system runs great for everything right now other than a few weird issues lately which is why I'm using this system a bit more now. It's not really about the money, if it's going to run some games faster it's worth it to me as long as the difference is noticeable. Whenever I build the new one and my i5 becomes my backup I'll give this to my nephew who is only 7 to play minecraft and what not. The investment is worth it as long as it helps the performance.
 


I did this Mod like 1 year ago but it kinda failed because i could only use 2 Cores instead of 4.
It was more like a gimmick for me then an upgrade.

I did a lot of other crazy stuff with that Platform like E8400 Overclocked to 4,71Ghz and so...
Poor CPU got hit my 1,7V :D
 

t99

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yeah that i3 is a beast.. i'm leaning towards giving a q9500 a shot at 18$. tough to tell how much actual performance i would gain though. userbenchmark website comparison looks like a pretty big difference, but i know that's not completely accurate.
 

t99

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ebay is amazing.. 18$ + 2$ for 1 year square trade and arrives in less than one week w/ free shipping and seller has great rating. if it doesn't work the 2$ plan gets me a refund on the purchase.

thanks for the info, was planning to spend around 40-50 which would have been a waste of money, but 20$ is worth a shot. Looks like I can dump the current one and make almost half the $ back
 
The Q9650 is much better than the Q6600, even with the 3GHz tapemod it just equals a Q9300. The Q9550 is cheaper if you don't want to spend much on old tech.
You didn't say what MB you have. Some have 95W CPU limits, and others have chipsets that won't support Xeons.
The QX6850 is a 130W CPU, as is the much better QX9650.
Here are the benchmarks for a system that runs all the CPUs you asked about.
http://www.userbenchmark.com/System/Dell-OptiPlex-380/1942
You can see the Q9650 scoring 40, and the OC Q6600 3GHz scoring 34, and Q6600 scoring 28 @ 2.4GHz, and X5460 Xeon at 43.
 

t99

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my board doesn't support it, i found out after from doing a bit of research. it works when i put it in, but it shows the old cpu still and runs at those same speeds. i decided to keep it because it works and it was super cheap. think i'll buy a cheap board and use it in a system for a family member. the backup it was planning to go in had an r9 270x.