Q6600 VS i7 920 Advice

martinmsj

martinmsj

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Mar 3, 2005
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I have a DG965WH Intel motherboard. I sold the processor (E6300) I had and was going to upgrade to a Q6600. (I recently had purchased a 4GB DDR2 Kit for 50USD.)

Now I'm debating.

Should I take the plunge and buy i7 920/Mobo/Ram set up?

This Intel motherboard does not allow overclocking so it would be a Q6600 at stock. The Q6600 is the highest processor this motherboard can take also.

Current specs:
Intel DG965WH Motherboard
PNY 4GB PC5400 DDR2 KIT

Help?


EDIT:
My system would be for:

PC gaming : Crysis, Red Alert 3, Orange Box (thanks Best Buy rewards. Paid 24 USD for all those games combined.) World of Warcraft, Rollercoaster tycoon 3, and other Blizzard classic games.

Movie ripping : I really want to rip all my DVDs and stream my movies to my notebook or PS3 so I can put all those DVD cases away and never touch them again.

Photoshop: I do image work from time to time. Nothing fancy mostly personal projects or working on a website for my portfolio.

Currently looking at this bundle.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145220
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.156589
Total so far is 600.90 USD with shipping.
 
hmmm I would say it makes sense to go i7. what is the point in having a q6600 that you can't/aren't going to OC?
 
What are your intentions for this system you're considering, or the one you have that you're looking to drop the Q6600 in? Define what you're planning to do then we can offer advice... if you're rich, go for the new build, if not, stick with what works and drop a quad in it. ;)
 
PC gaming : Crysis, Red Alert 3, Orange Box (thanks Best Buy rewards. Paid 24 USD for all those games combined.) World of Warcraft, Rollercoaster tycoon 3, and other Blizzard classic games.

Movie ripping : I really want to rip all my DVDs and stream my movies to my notebook or PS3 so I can put all those DVD cases away and never touch them again.

Photoshop: I do image work from time to time. Nothing fancy mostly personal projects or working on a website for my portfolio.
 
Joe Average said:
What are your intentions for this system you're considering, or the one you have that you're looking to drop the Q6600 in? Define what you're planning to do then we can offer advice... if you're rich, go for the new build, if not, stick with what works and drop a quad in it. ;)
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly...Heck my old rig still pulls 50+ fps in BF2142, sure it would be nice to increase the e-peen, but spending the extra $$ wouldn't help my game play any..
 
Save your cash and just get the Q6600 if thats all your going to be doing with it.
 
Having gone from a q6600 clocked at 3.6ghz to an i7 920 that is currently running 4.2ghz, do it. I ran the i7 at 3.2ghz for the first month or so until i felt comfortable with the bios, and even at 3.2 it smoked my q6600 in performance.
 
If you have the money, go with i7. You'll see improvement especially with movie ripping. Also, it'll last you longer than the q6600 will.
 
i7 is unstoppable!
my friend is using a q6600 @ stock...

and i never want to use his pc again :) with my i7 @ 3.4

i AM comparing apples to peanuts, but shiz, same situation for you if you cant overclock!
 
Currently looking at this bundle.

Currently looking at this bundle.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145220
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.156589
Total so far is 600.90 USD with shipping.

Forgot to mention I also need a new video card. Sold my 8800 GTS Superclocked 320 for 65 Shipped.

Shoot. 300 USD for a new video card since I need it to play everything at 1920X1080.

Perhaps I should just buy the Q6600 and wait it out. Though I'm waiting for the new cards from ATI/NVIDIA coming out in the April - June Time Frame.
 
You all say '' ZOMG GO i7 IZ BETTER" but never explain why you think the upgrade feasible. Does it feel snappier, faster or run cooler?.Maybe it's all those synthetic benchies that's got everyone jumping all over this newborn platform.
 
veedubfreak said:
Having gone from a q6600 clocked at 3.6ghz to an i7 920 that is currently running 4.2ghz, do it. I ran the i7 at 3.2ghz for the first month or so until i felt comfortable with the bios, and even at 3.2 it smoked my q6600 in performance.
Click to expand...

Oranuro said:
You all say '' ZOMG GO i7 IZ BETTER" but never explain why you think the upgrade feasible. Does it feel snappier, faster or run cooler?.Maybe it's all those synthetic benchies that's got everyone jumping all over this newborn platform.
Click to expand...

Read my earlier quote.
 
Oranuro said:
You all say '' ZOMG GO i7 IZ BETTER" but never explain why you think the upgrade feasible. Does it feel snappier, faster or run cooler?.Maybe it's all those synthetic benchies that's got everyone jumping all over this newborn platform.
Click to expand...


I agree. So far either is going to be an upgrade since I'm coming from an E6300.


I had just purchased 4GB of DDR2 ram for 50USD. Part of my decision making is if it is worth it to upgrade now to an i7 CPU/MOBO/DDR3 versus buying a Q6600 (running it at stock.)

The highest my MB takes is a Q6600 so it's on its last legs. Should I take the plunge now or later? How much am I looking to save if I wait?

So far I think at most I will could save is about 20-30 USD if I wait on the ram to drop in price. As for the CPU and MB probably won't save any price reduction until next fall. Or I can hope for some special coming out sometime.

Either way, I'm still undecided. However, since times are hard I should be saving more. So most likely I'll just buy the Q6600 and just get the video card when it comes out then just wait it out until next year.
 
Since you're coming from an E6300, then I can say HELL YES go for i7. Save up if you have to so you will atleast be on a new platform with a 1366 socket and DDR3. I came from an E6600 and the performance difference is night and day. It's amazing and well worth it. And you will be thanking yourself if you ever decide to upgrade your CPU/ RAM after going 1366, where you won't be so limited as you would be with 775.
 
All right, I am a little confused here. If you already have a MOBO and RAM to go along with a Q6600, how can there be any decision? I don't see anything that you are trying to do that requires a core i7 right now.

The video card is a no factor here as it will work in either system.

Since you have to buy a vid card anyway, I would sink my extra money there for now and pick up a 4850 or 4870 X2 card whatever Nvidias current top of the line card is right now. The vid card will still be viable in a year or so and will transfer to a new system then.

The best part is that if you buy a Q6600 now, you will still be able to get good money for it on Ebay in a year or so. They are going for $160 or so right now, used.

In another year, the i7 will be much more mature, and the parts out to build a system will be much cheaper.

Yes, it is always fun to play with the latest and greatest. But it is not always the best option if you do not have unlimited funds.

The other thing is that unless you are running a 64 bit operating system, anything more than 3 gig of RAM is a waste, since 3.2 gig is the most that 32 bit Windows can see.

Don
 
Few months ago i built a new system at work.
q6600 (at 3ghz right now)
4gb ddr2
asus something mobo
ati hd3650
320gb wd harddrive

last week i built a new home system
i7 920 (3ghz right now)
6gb ddr3
msi x58 pro mobo
8800gts 512mb
2x640gb wd blacks (raid0)


it is a night and day difference between the two systems. the I7 is a beast. i don't know how much of it is the much faster harddrive setup, but my home system seems MUCH more snappy and quicker doing everything.

I don't regret going i7 at all over the q6600
 
Not an i7 owner, but a related perspective: I was looking at a similar choice just recently. I want a quad core. So I was thinking i7. Now that means I need a new board, RAM and of course the CPU. The other option was, of course, to drop a Core 2 Quad in the current system.

In the end, that's what I decided to do. I ordered the Q9550 from Dell. They had it on special (might still be on special) for $250. So, the reasons I decided to do this:

1) I own an Intel motherboard (DP35DP in this case) and I'm a real fan. Other mobo makers fail to impress me for a number of reasons, not the least of which being Intel's extremely slick BIOS updater. However the Core i7 Intel board only has 4 memory slots. So there's no 12GB RAM support for it. Well, that meant either getting a on-Intel board, and I really couldn't find any I was completely happy with, or stepping back from 8GB to 6GB RAM.

2) Nothing I do would really benefit all that much from the i7. Is it a faster CPU? No doubt. However games really don't see a benefit (not a surprise, they are mainly GPU limited), the audio stuff I do could potentially see a benefit but won't since the C2Q will be plenty fast. Over all it wouldn't get me anything additional speed wise. It'd just be potentially faster in the future.

3) Cost. The i7 setup was looking to be in the $700-900 range. I can afford that (or I wouldn't have been looking) but it's a lot. The Core 2 was just $250.

4) Sticking with what I new works. I've seen plenty of things that make me worried with regards to i7 board BIOS and RAM compatibility and such. My Core 2 system has no problem, it's rock solid, has been for a long time.


So, for those reasons, I got the C2Q. I can't compare it to an i7, obviously, just giving you my perspective when I was in a similar situation.
 
Thanks for your reply. Though to be honest it isn't as clear cut as I can only get the Q6600 which is a much bigger difference then i7 versus your Q9550.

It is either a Q6600 at stock or an i7 overclocked.
 
I'd go Q6600 in your position. The i7 would've been nice if you were CPU bound (scientific number crunching 24/7), but for gaming and occasional encoding the Q6600 is more than enough. Today's games just don't really use the CPU all that much. If you insist on spending the money, use it on a better video card or a nicer monitor. Or heck, SSD's. :D
 
if you want to go with SLI, high res, eye candy, then get the i7. Other wise it probably doesn't matter.
 
Sycraft said:
2) Nothing I do would really benefit all that much from the i7. Is it a faster CPU? No doubt. However games really don't see a benefit (not a surprise, they are mainly GPU limited), the audio stuff I do could potentially see a benefit but won't since the C2Q will be plenty fast. Over all it wouldn't get me anything additional speed wise. It'd just be potentially faster in the future.
Click to expand...

Not quite true Statement there. In FPS games there does not seem to be much difference. However in RTS games the i7 is quite a BIG DIFFERENCE. Command and Conquer 3 series plus Command and Conquer Red Alert are much better on an i7 vs a Q6600. How do I know? I upgraded from a Q6600 @ 3.6 GHZ to an i7 920 @ 3.8 GHZ.
Also World in Conflict, Mass Effect, Titan Quest all run significantly better. Hell, even WoW has higher low minimum framerates.

i7 is faster now ! not "potentially" in the future. Ripping video from an iso to Apples ipod video is around a 50 % increase in speed.


Sycraft said:
3) Cost. The i7 setup was looking to be in the $700-900 range. I can afford that (or I wouldn't have been looking) but it's a lot. The Core 2 was just $250.
Click to expand...

I payed 629 bucks out the door at Microcenter including tax for my Ci7 920 6 GB of DDR3 1600 ram and GA-EX58-UD3R motherboard

Sycraft said:
4) Sticking with what I new works. I've seen plenty of things that make me worried with regards to i7 board BIOS and RAM compatibility and such. My Core 2 system has no problem, it's rock solid, has been for a long time.
Click to expand...

Have no clue what the hell you are talking about here. BIOS and ram compatability? wtf man.My i7 system has no problem and is rock solid and has been from day 1.

To the OP, excuse my mini rant there. If you have the cash go for i7. it's platform will be around a lot longer than Socket 775. 1366 is going to be around a while.

I almost went with a Q9650, but decided that 775 is getting long in the tooth, sure it will be viable for awhile, but I would have regretted not going i7 in the long run.

My Ci7 920 is worth every damn penny I paid and my rig is now crazy fast and will be good for some time to come.

Still it's your cash, only you can decide what to do. :D
 
I was considering this also when deciding what to upgrade my system too. Either way I had to get a new motherboard, ram and CPU. I was still on a 939 setup...opteron 165.
I opted for i7 simply because its socket, the platform, is future proof at this point in time. I skipped the DDR2 era completely because it seemed like something new came out, something else better came out a couple months down the road(in terms of cpu's, chipsets, sockets and such).
The i7 is top of the line platform, in its early stages its been proven rock solid and nearly bugless! thats something that hasnt for a new platform in a while. Intel also doesnt have anything on the road that will replace its top dog platform for another year plus or so.....
I payed about 500$ for 920, Gigabyte UD3R and 3GB RAM. Its runnin @ 3.925ghz and it was easy gettin it there!
I love it!
 
GenTarkin said:
I skipped the DDR2 era completely because it seemed like something new came out, something else better came out a couple months down the road(in terms of cpu's, chipsets, sockets and such).
Click to expand...


You make it sound like that process is going to stop....


To the OP: About 4 months ago, I was wondering the same thing. I wanted to save cash because I had everything else and went for a <$200 Q9300 and OC'd it to 3Ghz. It's an upgrade from the E6750 I had and does what I need very well. I generally wait 1-2 years to upgrade to the next system. As of late, it's been a great time to score a cheap Core 2 system that isn't really slow... maybe slower than a Core i7, but in a year, I'll be able to pick up something better than what's out now for cheaper. Meanwhile, my current setup will run everything without any problems.

As others have said, it's up to you. My plan never envolves the latest and greatest. I upgrade too much to spend the extra $$ (and I've got other expensive hobbies).
 
Kangg said:
Command and Conquer 3 series plus Command and Conquer Red Alert are much better on an i7 vs a Q6600.
Click to expand...

Ummm, well, ok but there's really not any room for improvement on my system. C&C3 runs at 1920x1200 with all settings maxed and never drops under 60fps, near as I can tell. Doesn't matter if the i7 would run it even faster, because I lock the framerate to the monitor. It already runs as fast as I care about.

i7 is faster now ! not "potentially" in the future. Ripping video from an iso to Apples ipod video is around a 50 % increase in speed.
Click to expand...

I don't do that, and am not going to so it isn't relevant to me.

I payed 629 bucks out the door at Microcenter including tax for my Ci7 920 6 GB of DDR3 1600 ram and GA-EX58-UD3R motherboard
Click to expand...

Good for you, doesn't change the prices I was looking at. I'm not driving to Texas to get a deal at Microcenter. It is still over double the cost.

Have no clue what the hell you are talking about here. BIOS and ram compatability? wtf man.My i7 system has no problem and is rock solid and has been from day 1.
Click to expand...

That's great, many didn't. For example from the AnandTech review:

"That said, let's take a quick look at the number of problems we encountered up until this week with our four boards in today's review.

1. Of the course of the past 30 days we communicated problems, suggestions, and resolution status on our test products via email 896 times and over a 100 phone conversations.

2. We have received 31+ different BIOS releases in the last thirty days to address problems and/or improve performance.

3. Our change log of problems and fixes reads like a bad novel. While we will not ding the manufacturers for performance improvements that we or others suggest, the simple fact that auxiliary storage controllers, power management features, memory and voltage settings, and other basic features on these boards failed to even work or resulted in a non-POST situation just floored us. "

So while it's great that you got a board/RAM/peripheral combo that had no problems, others have had problems, and not a trivial amount. I take that sort of thing in to consideration when I'm looking at upgrades.

To the OP, excuse my mini rant there. If you have the cash go for i7. it's platform will be around a lot longer than Socket 775. 1366 is going to be around a while.
Click to expand...

1366 probably will be, but that doesn't mean your board will support it. Intel has cut most of their 45nm Core i7 products in favor of ramping up 32nm sooner. Makes sense, economy is sucking right now, people aren't buying so many upgrades. However it may mean that the next i7 update doesn't work on your board. Just because it's 1366 doesn't mean your board can handle it. Similar things have happened in the past. They've been on 775 since the Pentium 4. However a 925 board won't support a Core 2, or even a Pentium D for that matter. New chips can need new chipset, and/or new VRMs. So just getting on the new socket doesn't future proof you. Heck, Intel has even been know to change that real quick. The P4 originally launched on socket 423 but that was only around for a very short while before they went to 478.

Regardless, he wanted opinions, I told him what I did in a similar situation. I'm not even saying he should do the same, just saying I was faced with a similar choice, and that's the one I made.
 
Kangg said:
I payed 629 bucks out the door at Microcenter including tax for my Ci7 920 6 GB of DDR3 1600 ram and GA-EX58-UD3R motherboard
Click to expand...

And for exactly the same amount of money you can build an entire C2Q system including an HD4850, quality 550W PSU, 4GB DDR2, and a 640GB HD (in addition to the mobo/Q6600 obviously). :p I'm not even stretching the numbers a lil' bit, the mobo/Q6600 are $300, $50 for the mem, $120 for the 4850, $85 for the PSU, $70 for the HD... $625.

My point is, if you're on a budget there's really no reason to balk at a C2Q system just because Nehalem has arrived and it crunches video and benchmarks faster... Unless it's actually part of your job, it's probably not make or break whether your videos encode in 20 min or 40 min anyway. :rolleyes: Going with i7 because it's more "future proof" is also a pile of crap.

If you're the sort of person that upgrades every two years or so, chances are the vast majority of your processor upgrades have gone hand in hand with your mobo upgrades, so who the heck cares one way or the other? If you just want to get the absolute best bang for your buck then you might as well wait for i5 and P55 mobos, but then again, there's always something else around the bend isn't there? There's really no guarantee LGA1366 will last for years, Sycraft mentioned various examples that are just the tip of the iceberg.

To the OP... Given the games you're playing and what you're using the rig for, then the Q6600 would definitely be 'enough', though not being able to OC it due to the mobo is definitely no fun (for many of us OC'ing and tweaking a new rig is half the reason we love this hobby), and it'll certainly limit you in the long run peformance-wise. A lot of people here think Q6600 and they instantly think of the performance of one running at 3.2-3.4GHz...

Whether you should pony up for the i7 or not is entirely up to you, your budget, and how much you can get for your current components I imagine... Though I'll say this, I think you'll probably find a better market for that Intel mobo now than in a few months. There's definitely nothing wrong with sticking with the C2Q for the here and now tho, it certainly won't bottleneck your new vid card or anything like that.
 
Oh and keep in mind how much hotter the i7's run btw, which in and of itself isn't a problem (they're made to run hotter), but if you have a small case w/o a lot of ventilation, or if you're running a stock cooler or something older like an AC Freezer 7 Pro... Then it'll mean an additional investment, 'specially if you don't have a vid card that exhausts hot air out the back, you really don't want all of that roasting together.
 
Pick up a Q6600 now, it'll do all you ask of it for the next year or two. After that, take the money you saved and buy the next system when you can actually use the power increase.
 
got for the q6600 and wait a year and a half for the 6core (12thread) i7's to come out
 
I had this same question a couple of months ago myself. I opted to keep my Q6600 and spent about $200 on a GA-EP45-UD3P and 8GB of DDR2. Now running at 3.6 instead of stock for about $200 worth of upgrades. Works for me for the short term. I am going to skip the current i7 and wait for a later generation.
 
Wait a while for the ddr 3 core i7 mobo prices to drop. Then get the i7. DDR 3 is cheap enough as is.
 
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