Been away 10 years - replacement or upgrade Q6600 rig

you could build up another little system it wouldnt cost much more than the above
you only got to add a power supply and a case
keep the old one as a server or something

16gb ddr4 for £60 sounds so much better to me
 
That motherboard was the worst decision of my current build :mad:

this is what google kicked up
917IMixoAiL._SL1500_%20%28Medium%29.jpg


im guessing the Rock Solid - Heart Touching part wasnt true?
i still like the colors tho :)
 
I agree, I still have a Dell XPS 630i PC with a Q6600, worst overclocker ever with that crap Nvidia Chipset, 100 or 200 mhz at most and lack of SATA ports. The XPS case however is pretty nice, can be gutted, stick in a ATX board and a front mounted 280mm Rad. The LED's etc still work too. I've seen project logs for cutting a side window too.

Off topic I know :)

But yes sticking an SSD in it will give it a new lease of life, albeit sucks a bit too much watts per performance these days
 
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From your requirements OP I think you should get a Skylake i3, 8 G DDR4, a fairly large SSD, and a very small PSU.

For photo editing it'll be plenty powerful, and won't be complete overkill.

Buying a 6-core several-hundred-pound CPU for photo editing is lunacy.

Edit: so you're just adding a SSD to the current machine? That would be my first step too. Evaluate and if it still creaks then new system.
 
From your requirements OP I think you should get a Skylake i3, 8 G DDR4, a fairly large SSD, and a very small PSU.

For photo editing it'll be plenty powerful, and won't be complete overkill.

Buying a 6-core several-hundred-pound CPU for photo editing is lunacy.

Edit: so you're just adding a SSD to the current machine? That would be my first step too. Evaluate and if it still creaks then new system.

yep going with the SSD first (i used to have one that died and i never replaced it). It can always be the first component in the new system if needed!

Edit:

Something like this?

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £305.93
(includes shipping: £0.00)
 
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Yep something like that. I would go for 8 GiB memory though.

Just reading this again

I may do video editing - my main interests are family photography, martial arts (fight pics/video) and MotoGP. Would just like to future-proof as much as i can without OC'ing or breaking the bank. I don't need something all singing, all dancing

the OP says photo editing but this says video editing.

For photo the i3 is fine. If you do lots of video though and want to spend extra for a bit more speed an AMD 8320 (£120) or an i5 (6500 if not overclocking, 6600K for the option, £176 and £200 respectively) would be good options.

The 8320 (with a bit of an overclock) is still a great option for video, it matches the Skylake i5 in video for £80 less.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-intel-core-i3-6100-review
 
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Video editing would be rare at the moment but if I get a taste for it is happily upgrade CPU later. Can I ask why you'd go 2x4GB on RAM rather than 2x8GB?
 
Video editing would be rare at the moment but if I get a taste for it is happily upgrade CPU later. Can I ask why you'd go 2x4GB on RAM rather than 2x8GB?

I think it's likely 8 would be enough (you've got by with 4), and if it isn't you can add another set.
 
That PSU is way too high-capacity. Also if you aren't overclocking, using multi-GPU, using an m.2 SSD etc. then you really don't need a Z170 motherboard. That motherboard won't fit in that case either! ;)

I built a system for general-use like the following a few years ago and it's been great. Only potential downside is the 2 x RAM slots, but if you're buying 2 x 8 GB now then you should be fine. If you need more features then there are products in between, this is just an example.

Also if you're not overclocking you don't need a fancy HSF and can forego the (£16!!! :eek:) thermal paste. The retail cooler comes with some pre-applied.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £348.57
(includes shipping: £11.70)


 
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I recently brought my Q6600 build back to life with a SSD, boot time of 10seconds is very nice. But it will struggle with photo editing.

My daily grind involves photo editing and a lot of vector work, dealing with multiple RIP's for print stuff etc. A Q6600 is still more than capable of doing this, an SSD does make a world of difference though. In efficiency terms an i3 wins, an i5 even more so, but the Q660 is still a capable CPU if somewhat inefficient in terms of IPC and power consumption.
 
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