Still using trusty Q6600

Justintime · 8 Mar 2019 at 21:03

Rroff said:
The E6600/Q6600 were both well ahead of their time and pretty much bullet proof - ran some of them under 24x7 heavy load for about 2 years overclocked with stupid voltages and they are still running fine to this day.

Yeah was surprised when i upgraded a mates old pc and found he still had a Q6600 @ 1.55v 3.7Ghz i did for him many moons ago, Ultra 120 heatsink caked with dust and 780ti lol.Thought he'd upgraded years ago.

Liamz51 · 9 Mar 2019 at 14:03

I bought an old Dell Vostro 410 for £20 last December mainly because I wanted the case and PSU for a Pentium 3 build I was thinking of putting together for nostalgia's sake. When I got it home I was realised it was a Q6600, a chip I'd lusted after back in the day, so I decided to put a 560ti in it and see what it could do. Added an SSD and in desktop use I barely notice the difference between it and the PC in my signature. Been playing a bit of the 2013 Tomb Raider at high settings 1080p at an almost locked 60fps.

Just wish this mobo supported overclocking to see what the chip is really capable of, but otherwise this has been a fun little minor project and I've enjoyed giving the machine a new lease of life.

SLIPdiggers · 9 Mar 2019 at 16:46

I also got a q6600 to 3.6Ghz with not much bother. I only replaced it about a year ago, it was still doing amazingly! Not bad considering the base clock was 2.4ghz..

Wommers · 9 Mar 2019 at 20:36

SLIPdiggers said:
I also got a q6600 to 3.6Ghz with not much bother. I only replaced it about a year ago, it was still doing amazingly! Not bad considering the base clock was 2.4ghz..

I think the i5 750 has got to be the most legendary overclocker, 2.66ghz base up to about 4ghz at 1.4v

PiKe · 9 Mar 2019 at 21:26

First gen IPC is garbage now though compared to modern CPU's.

SLIPdiggers · 9 Mar 2019 at 21:58

PiKe said:
First gen IPC is garbage now though compared to modern CPU's.

IPC? What's that?

CuriousTomCat · 9 Mar 2019 at 22:14

SLIPdiggers said:
IPC? What's that?

Exactly, because the real first gen from 1978 did so little per clock, you have to measure it in CPI.

PiKe · 9 Mar 2019 at 22:57

Instructions per clock, if a genuine question.

SLIPdiggers · 10 Mar 2019 at 10:18

CuriousTomCat said:
Exactly, because the real first gen from 1978 did so little per clock, you have to measure it in CPI.

Haha!

PC777 · 11 Mar 2019 at 16:30

I used an i5 760 since 2010 at approx 3.3Ghz as a work and gaming processor until December last year when I upgraded to an i5 9600K. That i5 760 paid for itself countless times over.

Might still reuse the cpu, board and ram combo in an HTPC. It just used a cheap £65 Gigabyte board that I've no doubt would last 20+ years of use, great quality for the price.

Incredible to think that CPU's released 10 years ago can still be somewhat viable.

Compare 2009 to 1999 and the difference is massive, compare 1999 to 1989 and the difference is colossal, and so on. Moore's law definitely slowed down some.

willhub · 11 Mar 2019 at 16:39

I remember when I wanted a Q6600 because my E6600 was lagging behind. Terrible clocker too only got to 3.2 stable.

Rroff · 12 Mar 2019 at 01:28

willhub said:
I remember when I wanted a Q6600 because my E6600 was lagging behind. Terrible clocker too only got to 3.2 stable.

That sucks though the problem with the Q6600 was often the current it pulled through the board overclocked - a lot of boards tapped out around 3-3.2GHz even with CPUs capable of lots more. Both of my Q6600s did 3.825GHz stable (and ~3.1GHz on stock voltage) and one I got to 4GHz later running it on silly voltage - both were still working fine up until recently when the machines they were in were replaced.

WilberDaForce · 14 Aug 2019 at 00:02

Okay everyone...

Important news...

I've gone mad and got a new PC.

I am still writing this on my trusty Q6600 PC which runs Windows 7 perfectly fine.

But the system as a whole is a bit eccentric and the screen does not come on when i re-start so i could never upgrade windows. And Windows 7 is great anyway.

But... partly as a treat to myself.. and because Windows 7 will soon not be supported... after a decade or so I've got a new PC from OC.

My new processor - which I hope will last like a Q6600 is a...... AMD Ryzen 7 2700X Eight Core/Sixteen Thread 4.35GHz Processor

I went a bit mad on the GC and ordered a Sapphire RADEON RX VEGA 64 NITRO+ 8GB.

So I am hoping this will last me for another decade?

But what about the Q6600 PC??! Is it for the scrapyard? Is it being put out to pasture? Will it be pressed into family usage?

To be continued...

Kelt · 14 Aug 2019 at 00:33

WilberDaForce said:
Okay everyone...

*snip*

To be continued...

Congrats on your new system!

I still have my Q6600, has been unused since I upgraded to my Xeon 5650, but if I ever need a spare system it's there.

slipd · 14 Aug 2019 at 13:47

My 2nd hand chip from eBay is still going strong in my backup machine. Windows 10 and it still regularly gets a run out - amazing, but it still holds it's own by today standards I believe.

No sign of stepping it down anytime soon either. The Q6600 definitely deserves "legendary" processor status imo, much like the 2500k, that I use still in my main gaming rig :cool:

tamzzy · 14 Aug 2019 at 13:51

slipd said:
The Q6600 definitely deserves "legendary" processor status imo, much like the 2500k, that I use still in my main gaming rig

q6600, x5650, 2500k are definitely legendary

Doogles · 14 Aug 2019 at 13:55

tamzzy said:
q6600, x5650, 2500k are definitely legendary

Going to get a 3700x when it goes back to £300, hope that will fit in with these guys.

robfosters · 14 Aug 2019 at 14:20

tamzzy said:
q6600, x5650, 2500k are definitely legendary

Had the 6600 and 2500K. When I upgraded to my new rig, I stuck the 2500k guts and a gtx 970 into a new case and gave it to my bro. Does him great for general use and a bit of 1080p gaming.

Ezyryder · 14 Aug 2019 at 19:29

Yep bought a Q6600 on launch. I think I had one of the first to land in the UK, ran it overclocked on the Abit IP35 and replaced it when p with a 2500k when that came out. I only upgraded to my 8700 a couple of years ago because I won a motherboard at a competition!

TrM · 14 Aug 2019 at 19:47

PC777 said:
I used an i5 760 since 2010 at approx 3.3Ghz as a work and gaming processor until December last year when I upgraded to an i5 9600K. That i5 760 paid for itself countless times over.

Might still reuse the cpu, board and ram combo in an HTPC. It just used a cheap £65 Gigabyte board that I've no doubt would last 20+ years of use, great quality for the price.

Incredible to think that CPU's released 10 years ago can still be somewhat viable.

Compare 2009 to 1999 and the difference is massive, compare 1999 to 1989 and the difference is colossal, and so on. Moore's law definitely slowed down some.

It wasn’t Moore’s law that slowed down amd had no real cpu till 2017 there bulldozer crap was totally bad and intel didn’t push the boundaries once they was the only game in town and I doubt the 8700k and 9900k would have been such a jump up with more cores etc intel would have been happy to churn out more 4core cpu to us all.

just goes to show how important having competition in any given space intel keep every other player out of the cpu market with there patents etc but it just goes to show when amd wasn’t close to intel how much intel really don’t inervate or push forward.

I can’t wait to see what intel does next with there cpu and gpu’s over the next few years also same with amd I can see things moving forward to be much bigger leaps