New CPU - E8600 or Q9550

[Craig321]

Would it be alright just sticking the FSB to 392*8.5 (obviously making sure the RAM doesn't get overlocked too much etc.)?

 

[MrMoses]

Get a Faster Quad!

Q9550 is alright but prefably on E0 stepping

 

[Craig321]

Get a Faster Quad!

Q9550 is alright but prefably on E0 stepping

Why E0?

If I can get faster for the same price/without overclocking crazily then please fill me

 

[Garner]

Get a Faster Quad!

Q9550 is alright but prefably on E0 stepping

With the latest steppings (G0, D0, E0) you can buy cheaper processors and overclock to the core clocks of processors a lot more expensive. If you use a decent cooler then the processor will last you until you would naturally need to upgrade anyway (new technology ect)

Imo, buy decent cheaper processors and overclock and save yourself £70+ quid

 

[psychas]

well if you want to play diablo 3 quad cpu then diablo 3 full quad support, and all q9550 are e0 now

 

[ian|Squared²]

Go for the quad, think about it 4 beefy cores and it will OC like a bat out of hell!!

 

[Craig321]

What kind of overclock can I expect from the Q9550 without changing voltages etc?

Would I be better off going for 8500 RAM to make the overclock easier (I'll be getting 8GB RAM with the CPU)?

 

[JonJ678]

8gb depends on your board a bit, it might limit your overclock or it might not. Depends on how well your northbridge copes, as 8gb is more difficult to run and so are quad cores. This can lead to needing to put rather high voltages through your northbridge, which gets hot and stability goes.

If you're aiming for over 3.4GHz then 1066 ram is a good idea. The price difference is fairly minor, so I'd prefer the faster ram to overclocking 800mhz ram. A lot of 800mhz ram is good up to a ghz or so anyway though, so I suspect you'll be fine either way.

Without changing voltage, too hard to guess. Depends on your vid for one thing. Undervolted at 1V mine runs 2GHz with no tweaking whatsoever, and ran very cool indeed. My chip seems to love voltage, so I doubt I'll make 4ghz on less than 1.4V. I hope you do better

 

[setter]

I'd say you have a rather challenging task ahead of you trying to get a quad running 24/7 stable at 500MHz-FSB

Ill be happy if i can get mine stable at 8.5x475, i know that quads can be a bit more difficult to oc than a dual core, but 3.6ghz is stable so far, 8 hrs p95 fft, and ibt, but 3.6ghz on an EO q9550 is a bit mediocre, gonna have to knock it up a bit further.

 

[Garner]

my Q6600 quad OC'ed fine at 320 x 10, so i shouldnt see why the Q9550 shouldnt overclock badly.

 

[ShaolinDreams]

same boat as you, will be upgrading a E6600 to either E8600 or Q9550.. and after much thought the quad won it for me, will be getting one pretty soon

 

[spudbynight]

+1 For the quad

 

[Craig321]

Thanks for all the replies. I'll be aiming for 3.33GHz (same as the E8600), so hopefully it won't require voltage changes etc to get there.

 

[gurusan]

it won't.... but it's a damn shame to leave it at a measley 3.33ghz

 

[DreXeL]

Go for the Q9550. Just got one myself and am sitting at 3.8ghz without really trying

Fantastic chips

 

[Craig321]

it won't.... but it's a damn shame to leave it at a measley 3.33ghz

Even at stock it'll be a nice boost from my E6600, so I'll be happy to leave it at around 3.4GHz

 

[Bradley8988]

Iv had a E8600 @ 4.4Ghz and although its fast, a quad at the same speed is faster. Gotta agree with gurusan that its a shame to leave it with such a mild OC.

 

[ShaolinDreams]

how hard to get a Q9550 to 4ghz?

 

[jak731]

Most E0 chips will do near 4GHz speeds, mainly depends on the board you are using.

 

[AMG]

quad...particaly for CPU intesnive stuff, or for real time stregs that loves using 4 threads or whatever (sup com)