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Q6600 advice needed!

Krisali

Krisali

Krisali

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Joined
15 Jun 2008
Posts
1,243
Location
Bolton, England
OK, time to upgrade. What should I upgrade to? Ivybridge or wait for the next generation?

I have around £700 I could spend on CPU/Mobo/ram. I would love an SSD drive as im still running raptors lol. I have a Ati 6970 which might be ok until I can afford to upgrade it.

All advice welcome!
 
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The thing about upgrading is you can always wait for the next generation :p

If your Q6600 is starting to feel sluggish, an i5 3570k is the current best bang per buck CPU. It's a great chip with good overclocking potential and should keep you happy for as long as your Q6600 has :)

Edit: Above build looks good, and leaves loads in your budget for a new graphics card.
 
Yeah it has lasted for years. It still does fine in most games I play which aren't very demanding but it's struggling a bit in Planetside 2, Day Z and a couple of others. When is Haswell likely to appear?

Will also need a good cpu cooler....
 
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You'll only need a cpu cooler if you intended to overclock really, which is pretty much the whole point of the k series chips... The retail versions come with a stock cooler.
 
Yeah isn't that why we are all here?! :)

I'm looking at the Corsair Hydro H100. Should allow a nice overclock
 
Krisali said:
Yeah isn't that why we are all here?! :)

I'm looking at the Corsair Hydro H100. Should allow a nice overclock
Click to expand...
Air-cooler at nearly half the price can cool just as well that...I don't see why you should go for a premium priced product such as the H100 when you are trying to save for upgrading the rest of your PC...

Also, for PlanetSide 2 it is quite CPU demanding...if you had the the i5 overclocked, your 6870 should allow you to run the game at medium setting with around 40-60fps on your 6870 (that's what I get on my 5850, which is more or less around same performance as the 6870).

The benefit of having an overclock i5 is that you would FAR less likely to be CPU limited, thus has the option to increase frame rate by lowering graphic settings; on the other hand if game was CPU limited, lowering graphic settings wouldn't help with frame rate.
 
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well said marine, always better to have a cpu that is more than man enough for the job - having said that i assume your 6600 is overclocked right? some of them can reach 3.5 with a good air cooler - megalehms etc
 
Krisali said:
Yeah it has lasted for years. It still does fine in most games I play which aren't very demanding but it's struggling a bit in Planetside 2, Day Z and a couple of others. When is Haswell likely to appear?

Will also need a good cpu cooler....
Click to expand...

I've just upgraded from a Q6600 to an i7 3770k with an SSD and Planetside 2 has benefited massively from it - has gone from minutes to get loaded and into the game to just seconds :)
 
I finally upgraded my q6600 just last week. It had served me well for years.

I went for;

Intel Core i5-3570K
Asus P8Z77-V LX
16gb of DDR 3
LOKI SD963 CPU cooler

The difference in speed is fantastic. I do a fair bit of encoding and it's so much quicker. Even day to day windows use is vastly improved. Just so snappy.
 
Marine-RX179 said:
Air-cooler at nearly half the price can cool just as well that...I don't see why you should go for a premium priced product such as the H100 when you are trying to save for upgrading the rest of your PC...

Also, for PlanetSide 2 it is quite CPU demanding...if you had the the i5 overclocked, your 6870 should allow you to run the game at medium setting with around 40-60fps on your 6870 (that's what I get on my 5850, which is more or less around same performance as the 6870).

The benefit of having an overclock i5 is that you would FAR less likely to be CPU limited, thus has the option to increase frame rate by lowering graphic settings; on the other hand if game was CPU limited, lowering graphic settings wouldn't help with frame rate.
Click to expand...


Think I already get around that fps in Planetside 2. graphics is a 6950 btw unlocked to 6970. I agree the Hydro 100 is expensive but a friend has one and it looks rather tempting :)
 
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Litmoose said:
You'll only need a cpu cooler if you intended to overclock really, which is pretty much the whole point of the k series chips... The retail versions come with a stock cooler.
Click to expand...

Going to upgrade myself from a Q6600. Looking at the i5-3570K 'retail' and 'oem'. How does the oem sell against the retail at the same price. Both look the same but retail comes with a cooler and 3 year warranty whereas the oem has only 1 year? Don't need the cooler myself but does seem strange anyone would buy an oem for same money?
 
Krisali said:
Think I already get around that fps in Planetside 2. graphics is a 6950 btw unlocked to 6970.
Click to expand...
I thought you said you got a 6870...a typo mistake it was? :D

Anyway, it's not surprising you "can get" thouse frame rate considering the graphic card, but the thing is do you notice the sharp drop/dip in frame rate down to 25fps or less when lots of dynamic things happening or lots of people? If you do, the CPU upgrade would be the remedy for it.
 
Upgrade advice Q6600 *SOLVED*

Yeah I do notice huge fps loss occasionally and the CPU was definitely struggling. So I couldn't wait anymore and I just bought:

I5 3750k
Asus P8Z77-V
16gb Corsair Vengeance
Corsair Hydro H100i

Just installed it and it was an absolute bitch. There is literally 0 clearance at the top of the mobo when you fit the radiator and the fans. Case is a Silverstone TJ07 if anyone was wondering. Might post some pics incase anyone else was wondering about whether this cooler fits in this case.

Next I need to find a couple of good reliable SD drives. Was thinking maybe Samsung 840Pro. And then possibly a gfx upgrade in a couple months...

Cheers
 
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