Best upgrade path from Q6600

S

sram

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
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Hello. Been out of the loop for about 7 months, and I want to upgrade. Nothing wrong with my rig, it's just I can't resist new technology. I love speed so much, and like to brag about my pc. See my sig, in it is my main machine that I want to upgrade/even change. I can create a whole new build and probably reuse some parts. I'll just sell/give away what I don't want to use. There are so many options. Money is not a big issue.

I did a quick search/reading before this post, and it sounds like the i7 860 is the best bung for bucks with its 4 cores and turbo mode : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115214

Am I in the right track here? Of course this will require me to change the mobo and that's fine. I'll just go with ASUS this time. Which one do you recommend for stability/overclocking ?

I can still use my TRUE heatsink, right? Did something considerably better come out?

For the OS drive, I'll get the intel SSD.

Not really a big gamer here, so I'll just go with fastest Nvidia card I can get for the Mobo I choose. No need for SLI.

And I'll fill my mobo memory slots with a good brand fast RAM sticks. Should I fill them all though?


This is a quick post. Do you see something stupid? Any comments? Thanks.
 
If you have a Microcenter near you, the i7 for $199 is the best bang for your buck.
 
If you like throwing money away for bragging rights, go socket 1366. At least there, when the six core comes out you can buy that $1k processor.
 
sram said:
Hello. Been out of the loop for about 7 months, and I want to upgrade. Nothing wrong with my rig, it's just I can't resist new technology. I love speed so much, and like to brag about my pc. See my sig, in it is my main machine that I want to upgrade/even change. I can create a whole new build and probably reuse some parts. I'll just sell/give away what I don't want to use. There are so many options. Money is not a big issue.

I did a quick search/reading before this post, and it sounds like the i7 860 is the best bung for bucks with its 4 cores and turbo mode : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115214

Am I in the right track here? Of course this will require me to change the mobo and that's fine. I'll just go with ASUS this time. Which one do you recommend for stability/overclocking ?

I can still use my TRUE heatsink, right? Did something considerably better come out?

For the OS drive, I'll get the intel SSD.

Not really a big gamer here, so I'll just go with fastest Nvidia card I can get for the Mobo I choose. No need for SLI.

And I'll fill my mobo memory slots with a good brand fast RAM sticks. Should I fill them all though?


This is a quick post. Do you see something stupid? Any comments? Thanks.
Click to expand...

why not go i7 920?

your true hs will require a new back plate (i think)

ssd will be nice.

fastest nvidia card? what is that? the old 295? yeah go get one of those.

with an i7 920 you get 6 ram slots instead of the 4 with the i7 860.

and the "do you see something stupid?" part, yeah i do. this whole thread.

you need to do a lot more homework before you just upgrade your system.
it looks like your about to waste a lot of money.

and i think this thread is supposed to be in a different sub forum.
 
personally, i'm waiting for i9 before upgrading my q6600. at that time i will upgrade to DDR3 and SSD also.
 
tricky0502 said:
why not go i7 920?

your true hs will require a new back plate (i think)

ssd will be nice.

fastest nvidia card? what is that? the old 295? yeah go get one of those.

with an i7 920 you get 6 ram slots instead of the 4 with the i7 860.

and the "do you see something stupid?" part, yeah i do. this whole thread.

you need to do a lot more homework before you just upgrade your system.
it looks like your about to waste a lot of money.

and i think this thread is supposed to be in a different sub forum.
Click to expand...

this......+1
 
AMDXP said:
Overclock to 3.6 and call it a day?
Click to expand...

yeah really.

i have a q6700 @ 3.8
i bought a 5870 and don't have a need for a cpu upgrade yet.

if you want to blow money get 2x ssd's and put them in raid 0

oc your cpu too.
 
What kind of things do you do? I don't think upgrading the cpu when you already have a decent one will be that noticeable even if it gets much lower benchmarks.
 
Manaknight said:
yeah really.

i have a q6700 @ 3.8
i bought a 5870 and don't have a need for a cpu upgrade yet.

if you want to blow money get 2x ssd's and put them in raid 0

oc your cpu too.
Click to expand...

I just checked his sig.. maybe that's a bad idea. He's already at 1.37+ volts at 3.2... a bit high.
 
tricky0502 said:
why not go i7 920?


and the "do you see something stupid?" part, yeah i do. this whole thread.

you need to do a lot more homework before you just upgrade your system.
it looks like your about to waste a lot of money.

and i think this thread is supposed to be in a different sub forum.
Click to expand...

Sheesh, you are harsh. You think I'm going to buy stuff next day? I usually spend about a month searching before buying a peace of hardware, let alone a whole system/major upgrade.

I said I did a quick search, then posted here. Your feedback is my starting point. It is always easier to ask, then do your own thing. An example of this will be asking where a certain location is instead of just looking/searching for hours. I just hate it when people don't want to ask because of their pride or whatever.

Wrong sub-forum? Not really, since all I'm ganna do is dependent on the intel cpu I choose. I wanted to know what cpu to upgrade to.

Thanks.
 
AMDXP said:
I just checked his sig.. maybe that's a bad idea. He's already at 1.37+ volts at 3.2... a bit high.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I can't get my Q6600 to go any higher with this Mobo. If fails prime95.


From all replies, it seems to me that it is better to wait, so that the upgrade is a bigger jump. I think I'll just wait.
 
slightly off topic, but my I just got my Q6600 to 3.4 at 1.42v. I need to try higher when I get some time. My temps hover around 60-62C while folding...

The vdroop on my board is a whole .1v so it's not to shabby.

I'm in the same boat as the OP, but I bought a SSD late last year and have been happy. I don't see the bang for the buck since I just game mostly. Light decoding for filling my zune with videos for the gym.

I'll wait for sandy bridge and hope it's a BIG(+50%) improvement over my current build
 
skindogg said:
slightly off topic, but my I just got my Q6600 to 3.4 at 1.42v. I need to try higher when I get some time. My temps hover around 60-62C while folding...

The vdroop on my board is a whole .1v so it's not to shabby.

I'm in the same boat as the OP, but I bought a SSD late last year and have been happy. I don't see the bang for the buck since I just game mostly. Light decoding for filling my zune with videos for the gym.

I'll wait for sandy bridge and hope it's a BIG(+50%) improvement over my current build
Click to expand...

Thats exactly what I am planning to do.
 
cbags101 said:
personally, i'm waiting for i9 before upgrading my q6600. at that time i will upgrade to DDR3 and SSD also.
Click to expand...
This is what I'm doing , My Q6600 will be 3years old come April! :D 3years has been my track record with 3700+ in 2004, Q6600 in 2007 and a i9 in 2010! increasing the number of cores each time!
 
A cheaper upgrade, in terms of performance, might be to grab a used 45nm Q9xxx chip that you can overclock higher than your current 3.2. I have a Q9550 at 4.0 and as much as I want to upgrade, I really can't see a reason to (performance-wise).
 
Forceman said:
A cheaper upgrade, in terms of performance, might be to grab a used 45nm Q9xxx chip that you can overclock higher than your current 3.2. I have a Q9550 at 4.0 and as much as I want to upgrade, I really can't see a reason to (performance-wise).
Click to expand...

Same here, I think I might just skip the i5/i7 and wait for the next generation.
 
Forceman said:
A cheaper upgrade, in terms of performance, might be to grab a used 45nm Q9xxx chip that you can overclock higher than your current 3.2. I have a Q9550 at 4.0 and as much as I want to upgrade, I really can't see a reason to (performance-wise).
Click to expand...

Yep...I swapped out my Q6600 for a Q9550 just because the price was right and I didn't have to change a lot of parts. There isn't anything that I feel is "too slow" on it right now that makes me itch for an i5/i7. i5 is kind of a wash, but i7 would probably show improvement. Just don't want to spend the money when I don't "need" it.
 
Until AMD comes up with something to challenge Intel, intel will coast. Fine with me as my Q6600 is still just great, best processor I ever purchased.
 
Save your money for i9. Unless you're converting video 24/7 or compiling code all the time you really won't see a benefit from going to i7. Bump your NB and vCore up a bit and see if you can get 3.4-3.6Ghz out of it. Just keep the load temps under 90c.

And 1.37v for a Q6600 is not high so long as temps are under control. I've ran mine at 1.45v for over a year. 1.5v is the highest you should go with a 65nm Core2 chip. Intel states a limit of 1.55v.
 
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