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I3 530 vs Q6600

Beats me when 99.999999% of them will do 3gig on most motherboards on stock voltage which is a safe and healthy 25% performance boost.
 
I found it interesting how in most of the applications raw Mhz beats extra cores, it seems obvious that it would not be run at stock but I was still expecting it to come out on top especially with the multi-threaded apps.
 
Well, have just come from a stock Q6600 to a I3 530 which am running stock, and I love the I3.

While I have not done anyting more intensive than gaming yet, I can say that in Windows and general app use, the I3 is far snappier.

The Core 2's always felt a big laggy to me - I tried a great many. I can't explain the "lagginess" clearly, but it was something I noticed even when I moved from my old X2 3800 to my first Core 2.

And the power consumption is just brilliant on these. Pity I don't have a GPU which is as good on power consumption, but when the DX11 cards are reasonably priced will make the swap.
 
ffallic said:
The Core 2's always felt a big laggy to me - I tried a great many. I can't explain the "lagginess" clearly, but it was something I noticed even when I moved from my old X2 3800 to my first Core 2.
Click to expand...
I was the same.

I thought it was probably to do with the Intel chips lacking the onboard memory controllers that the AMD's had.

The i5's, i7's (and i assume i3's too) are just as snappy now from what i can tell! :)

gt
 
Yep, I'll third that comment, I came from a Q9550 @ 3.6 to a i3 530 @ 4.0, and everything in windows just feels as you say 'snappier'. Quite possibly as you say due to the on package memory controller (which bizarrely is actually on the GPU not the CPU...).

Performance is excellent as well, while running considerably cooler (45C prime load! vs. ~68C prime load on the Q9550), and drawing far less power.

On highly multi-thread optimised stuff I have no doubt the Q9550 would have probably been faster, but as the majority of games and apps get their main benefit from just 2 cores, I was quite happy to sacrifice 2 real cores for HyperThreading, and a cooler, lower power draw CPU, not to mention the far more efficient architecture and memory bandwidth the i3 provides.
 
Whats the cost comparison to Q6600/Board/Ram from the MM to say retail price of I3/UD2/4gb DDR3.

I cant decide which is the best route to go the system won't be running many games as I'm not a big gamer anymore, some cad, general browsing and folding@home.

It will be running water in the future aswell.
 
2nd hand Q6600/Board/Mem will be around £180-200.

New i3/Board/Mem will be around £265
 
So as it stands im better off getting a Q6600 on a bang for buck basis , as whichever route I take I'm going to clock the nuts off it
 
They should have benchmark results for a Q6600 @ 3.5ghz and an i3 @ 3.5ghz. Then wait a year, by then there will be quite a few more quad core games i reckon

Here is what i have recently done -

£85 q6660
£67 gigabyte p45 DS3P motherboard

£65 for the following- (going to sell the motherboard for around £30 and E2140 for about £18)

E2140
Scythe heatsink with 120mm fan
2 lots of 2 x 1GB OCZ 6400 Plat series DDR2 800
XFX 650i Ultra Motherboard
160GB Sata Hard drive no warranty but in full working order

I also sold (selling) my old 939 stuff

DFI ultra-D motherboard. £30
2x1 GB Gskill HZ - £40
X2 3800+ with freezer 64 pro £40

-----------
Costing me a grand total of £59. Plus I can now sell my 120gb and 250gb hard drives due to the 160gb sata used as my system backup. So maybe cost me £39 for an upgrade that should last me 2+ years
 
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Guest2 said:
They should have benchmark results for a Q6600 @ 3.5ghz and an i3 @ 3.5ghz.
Click to expand...

Not really a fair comparison.

In the real world a Q6600 average OC is around 3.2-3.6GHz depending on the CPU.

An i3 530 will do 4GHz no question, and higher with a bit of tweaking.

So the comparison you really want to see is.

Q6600 @ 3.6Ghz Vs. i3 530 @ 4.0GHz


However, even then, you will find that once you reach a decent res, and start piling on the eye candy, the CPU quickly becomes far less important and it's all down to the GPU, meaning all those extra cores/heat/power draw are for naught.

As I said earlier, I changed from a Q9550 @ 3.6, to a i3 530 @ 4.0, and in games at 1920x1080 I honestly can't tell the difference between them. Other than the distinct lack of noise and heat coming from my PC with the i3.
 
Why did you change from a Q9550 to i3? Unless it was mainly for less noise and heat. Benchmarks with a q6600 @ 3.6ghz vs i3 @ 4ghz would be interesting. Especially with demanding quad core games like Supreme Commander. Anyone know what the unit limit will be on Starcraft 2 and if it uses quad or dual core?
 
I'm by no means an avid gamer so it lies where real world performance comes in aswell as running SolidWorks, Photoshop, video encoding and Folding@home.
 
Guest2 said:
Why did you change from a Q9550 to i3? Unless it was mainly for less noise and heat. Benchmarks with a q6600 @ 3.6ghz vs i3 @ 4ghz would be interesting. Especially with demanding quad core games like Supreme Commander. Anyone know what the unit limit will be on Starcraft 2 and if it uses quad or dual core?
Click to expand...

As you say, noise and heat were my main two reasons to change. Plus I was going mATX so wanted something that wasn't going to incinerate a small case unless I had a hurricane blowing through :D

My Q9550 @ 3.6 was hitting 68C under a TRUE with push/pull fans, on a nice toasty X38 board, and several case fans in a big Akasa Eclipse.

I had the choice of finding and changing to a good mATX P45 board, hopefully getting the same overclock (easy enough) on a lower vcore (due to the much better P45 chipset), but still having to cool 4 cores in a mATX system quietly.

Or, selling it all, jumping to a more modern platform with a better upgrade path, changing to a 32nm dual core i3 with HyperThreading instead, meaning much lower temps and power draw, sacrificing heavy multi threaded performance, but offsetting it with a much higher overclock while still having considerably less heat output, and a far quieter system overall.

I now have a 4GHz i3 running 45C load from a single 7V 120mm fan, and a low rpm 200mm case fan. I can't even tell my system is turned on unless I put my hand over the top of the case to feel the airflow it is that quiet.

Yeah I probably could have done the same with the Q9550 if I'd messed about, but the cpu and system temps would have been far higher, and I would have still been on an ageing 775 platform with no upgrade path that was just losing value, and I wouldn't have got to play with a shiny new CPU :p

Well, they are my excuses and i'm sticking to them :D
 
They are good enough reasons. I just wanted to upgrade my system for as cheap as possible. However once i had a 775 board i wanted a quad core ...then a new board :rolleyes:
 
I've been toying with changing my Q6600 for an i3 setup of some sort, mainly for the lower power requirements, but I keep stalling! I have no heat issues as my PC is watercooled.

For those who say their system is 'snappier', how much of this is down to the change of mobo and memory as well? I must admit that I have no complaints on the responsiveness of my current setup, so I guess that's why I'm hanging back.

It seems like I would be spending a fair chunk of cash, along with the hassle of selling off the old components and the upgrade/reinstall process, to save a few quid a year in electricity bills. If it was going to be a lot faster for my uses (photo processing/browsing/gaming) then maybe I could be more tempted...

The i3 does look like a very good CPU though, the one to buy out of the range for sure. It's incredible how much the intel dual cores have come on in recent years.
 
I love my Q6600 but if a i3 setup was bought. Wouldn't it make it cheaper for him to upgrade to i5, i7 in the future if he wanted as the mobo will likely support them cpus too?
 
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