Q9650 vs E8600 for P5N-E Sli?

AlfBaxter · 3 Aug 2011 at 18:04

Hi all,

I have a P5N-E Sli, and just upgraded to a GTX 460 but am now worried my Q6600 @ stock is bottlenecking it. I can't OC the Q6600 with this mobo, because it doesn't OC quads at all well, and don't want to change mobo as I don't have the time. I've narrowed my upgrade options down to a Q9550 or an E8600. The former will be stuck at more or less stock speed due to my mobo but I could probably OC the latter to at least 4GHz.

So my question is, will the extra cores of the Q9650 generally outweigh the extra clock speed of the E8600 (bearing in mind also that I can probably OC the 8600)? I'm thinking not and am tempted by the E8600. Is the Q9550 @ stock likely to be a bottleneck?

I will only be using one video card for now but may upgrade to Sli later. I'm particularly looking for a little extra performance in recent DX11 titles such as Crysis 2. And I know my mobo doesn't officially support the Q9550, but apparently they do work fine together after a little tweaking.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Walkerie · 3 Aug 2011 at 18:30

Quad makes a huge diff for games like bad company 2 etc, ive just gone from an e8400 to 2500k.

stulid · 3 Aug 2011 at 18:31

Comparison - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/54?vs=49

pastymuncher · 3 Aug 2011 at 19:09

I hope you are not thinking of a brand new E8600 or Q9650? If you are then you would be better off selling what you have and buying a Sandybridge CPU/mobo/DDR3. Socket 775 prices are ridiculous these days.

AlfBaxter · 3 Aug 2011 at 19:11

Thanks for your replies. The link is useful, but only compares the two processors at stock. It looks like a Q9550 @stock is in most cases faster, and never appreciably slower, than an E8600 @ stock.

But I should be able to OC the dual much more than the quad in my board. In that case, would anyone recommend the dual over the quad or should I just go for the slower quad for future-proofing?

Thanks again.

AlfBaxter · 3 Aug 2011 at 19:14

pastymuncher said:
I hope you are not thinking of a brand new E8600 or Q9650? If you are then you would be better off selling what you have and buying a Sandybridge CPU/mobo/DDR3. Socket 775 prices are ridiculous these days.

No, I'm thinking of both at second-hand eBay prices. They appear to cost roughly the same amount, perhaps a bit more for the quad (£130-140) than the dual (£120). I just don't have the time or inclination for a new build at this stage, I'm way too busy for the next 12 months or so, so I'm afraid I'll be sticking with my current mobo for now and doing easy upgrades only!

pastymuncher · 3 Aug 2011 at 20:50

Those prices are ridiculous. £120 for a dual core is far too much. It does'nt take long to swap a mobo/cpu/ram out and do a fresh install of windows. I really can't understand paying that much for a cpu for a dead socket.

snaggster · 3 Aug 2011 at 22:24

Have you updated your BIOS? Your board should Atleast let you take that q6600 to 3.2-3.4ghz.

PCZ · 4 Aug 2011 at 09:00

snaggster said:
Have you updated your BIOS? Your board should Atleast let you take that q6600 to 3.2-3.4ghz.

Not a chance.
Using a P5N-E sli the max FSB with a q6600 is 333Mhz and that is hard to keep stable.
Worked OK with the dual cores of the day but really struggled with quads.

The P5N-E sli was quite popular a few years back, there is a huge thread in this forum.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17668494&highlight=P5N

When i made the move from the X2 A64's to core 2 i bought a P5N-E-sli as it was the cheapest way to get SLI support with the core 2.

Worked really well with an e4400 and reasonably well with an e6750 but really struggled with a q6600.

AlfBaxter · 4 Aug 2011 at 09:09

pastymuncher said:
Those prices are ridiculous. £120 for a dual core is far too much. It does'nt take long to swap a mobo/cpu/ram out and do a fresh install of windows. I really can't understand paying that much for a cpu for a dead socket.

The rationale is: (i) it's much easier to pop a new CPU in than construct a new build and reinstall Windows, (ii) even if those CPUs are overpriced, they are still a cheaper upgrade than a new build, and are at the limit of what I can afford, (iii) I don't care if my PC isn't quite current as long as it works well enough, and I won't need to upgrade again given my requirements for a couple of years.

Basically I'm just looking for the cheapest and easiest major upgrade possible.

AlfBaxter · 4 Aug 2011 at 09:11

PCZ said:
Not a chance.
Using a P5N-E sli the max FSB with a q6600 is 333Mhz and that is hard to keep stable.
Worked OK with the dual cores of the day but really struggled with quads.

The P5N-E sli was quite popular a few years back, there is a huge thread in this forum.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17668494&highlight=P5N

When i made the move from the X2 A64's to core 2 i bought a P5N-E-sli as it was the cheapest way to get SLI support with the core 2.

Worked really well with an e4400 and reasonably well with an e6750 but really struggled with a q6600.

Right - do you think it would OC an E8600, and if so would you recommend that processor over the Q9550?

Idleman · 4 Aug 2011 at 10:51

pastymuncher said:
Those prices are ridiculous. £120 for a dual core is far too much. It does'nt take long to swap a mobo/cpu/ram out and do a fresh install of windows. I really can't understand paying that much for a cpu for a dead socket.

Can i just ask why you need to do a fresh install of windows? The reason i ask is, just installed hdd from old rig without having to.

Sorry if this is off topic, but this is advised on OCUK a lot.

Always looking to learn. :confused:

MeatLoaf · 4 Aug 2011 at 12:41

Im fairly sure the Asus 650i board will not ( officially ) support the Q9650. The E8600 should be ok with a more recent BIOS.

stulid · 4 Aug 2011 at 12:45

Sell it all and buy a H61 board, DDR3 RAM and a Pentium G850,

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/54?vs=404

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Pentium G850 2.90GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £69.98
(£58.32) £69.98
(£58.32)
MSI H61M-E33 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** £46.99
(£39.16) £46.99
(£39.16)
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £23.99
(£19.99) £23.99
(£19.99)
Sub Total : £117.47
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £25.39
Total : £152.36

Stop chucking money at a dead horse.

krooton · 4 Aug 2011 at 12:58

AlfBaxter said:
Right - do you think it would OC an E8600, and if so would you recommend that processor over the Q9550?

I went from a 4Ghz E8500 to a 3.8Ghz Q9550, overall the quad is better and will tide me over until my next upgrade for much longer.

krooton · 4 Aug 2011 at 12:59

Idleman said:
Can i just ask why you need to do a fresh install of windows? The reason i ask is, just installed hdd from old rig without having to.

Sorry if this is off topic, but this is advised on OCUK a lot.

Always looking to learn.

The drivers that your current install of Windows will have will not be for the new motherboard.

pastymuncher · 4 Aug 2011 at 13:15

Idleman said:
Can i just ask why you need to do a fresh install of windows? The reason i ask is, just installed hdd from old rig without having to.

Sorry if this is off topic, but this is advised on OCUK a lot.

Always looking to learn.

Because all of the old drivers etc will still be on it and could cause problems. It's always better to do a fresh install.

stulid said:
Sell it all and buy a H61 board, DDR3 RAM and a Pentium G850,

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/54?vs=404

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Pentium G850 2.90GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £69.98
(£58.32) £69.98
(£58.32)
MSI H61M-E33 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** £46.99
(£39.16) £46.99
(£39.16)
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £23.99
(£19.99) £23.99
(£19.99)
Sub Total : £117.47
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £25.39
Total : £152.36

Stop chucking money at a dead horse.

Tried telling him to sell the lot and upgrade but he seems adamant that he wants to throw his money away. Thing is, if he takes the £120-140 he is prepared to throw away, sells his Q6600, 790i mobo and current ram he would have enough for a 2500K rig.

stulid · 4 Aug 2011 at 13:40

pastymuncher said:
Tried telling him to sell the lot and upgrade but he seems adamant that he wants to throw his money away. Thing is, if he takes the £120-140 he is prepared to throw away, sells his Q6600, 790i mobo and current ram he would have enough for a 2500K rig.

You can lead a horse to water... but..

Idleman · 4 Aug 2011 at 13:56

Thanks Guys for clearing that up.

weird_dave · 4 Aug 2011 at 14:20

To summarise:

1:- That mobo won't OC the E8600 or Q9650 reliably unless you're very, very lucky. It may not even be stable at stock, especially for the Q9650.

2:- Swapping mobo/cpu/ram may be quicker than swapping cpu and spending hours trying to tweak it with very little to show for it.

3:- For a 'potential' 25% increase in CPU power, I wouldn't risk wasting the money.

Having ditched my P5N-e Sli for a sandy setup, my quality of life has greatly improved