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E6600 to Q6600?

MonsterMoshi

MonsterMoshi

MonsterMoshi

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Joined
16 May 2011
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1,308
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Staffordshire
Basically, i'm saving up to go all out and upgrade my CPU, mobo and ram in a few months probably June time after Ivy. But before I go all out I could do with a good boost in BF3. At the moment my basic specs are:
Intel dual core E6600
ECS P965T-A
4 x 1gb ram
Msi 560Ti 2GB
OCZ agility 3 60gb

Yeah so I know it's mix and match with the GPU which I got a few months ago to get it capable. And whilst I can play at 1080p, it's in low detail and stutters in the main action.
So what I want to know is if it is worth spending £50 or so on a used quad core Q6600? I hear those extra 2 cores will make a massive different in games?
 
Make sure you get a G0 stepping Q6600 and stick an overclock on it, you'll easily hit 3.2ghz and more with some effort. I think you'll notice a fair improvement. The quads run much hotter than the dual cores, are you running a stock cooler?

You should be able to get around £25 for the E6600 on a certain well known auction site. The Q6600s seem to be holding their price well so you might aswell jump in now. You should get back almost what you paid in a few months time. Nothing to lose :D
 
I wouldn't bet on the two extra cores making a massive difference. It'll help a bit, but remember whatever you spend on a Q6600, you're taking away from spending on your new rig.
 
Yeah it's a good many years old :p
Using a Freezer 7, good cooler for its price, runs the E6600 at 2.8Ghz at 63°C load.

Brilliant, thanks a lot :D
I'll return to 2012 when I get my i5, wanna do it properly that's why I'm holding off a bit. Should have £450 to blow by that time :D
 
Tbh if you're gunna be upgrading then, and spending this will take from your future budget, I'd stick with what you have. Frustrating now, but worth it in the long run.
 
Hmmm rethinking....
I don't know. Sad as it is I know, it plays skyrim on full detail, high everything without an issue. Much slower gameplay though, might be because it has longer to render?

Anyone still game with a Q6600 or similar? Fancy a benchmark?
 
TBH it's worth doing as it's a nice cheap upgrade and will extend your current platforms lifespan.

I just changed the Mrs's PC from an E7200 @ 3.16GHz (sold for £30) to Q6700 @ 3.33GHz (bought for £50) and it cost me the grand sum of £20 to do so.

Well worth it.
 
MonsterMoshi said:
Hmmm rethinking....
I don't know. Sad as it is I know, it plays skyrim on full detail, high everything without an issue. Much slower gameplay though, might be because it has longer to render?

Anyone still game with a Q6600 or similar? Fancy a benchmark?
Click to expand...

Yes,

Got a Q6600 @ 3.7GHZ with an Ati5870. Not experienced any problems at 1920 with high settings. I have noticed a slight lag occasionally in DuesEx. BF3 is not a problem either. More than happy for the time being but will be upgrading to IB when that comes out.

I think you'd do well to get a Q6600. Even for a few months, you'll still get some second hand return for it so the short cost will be marginal.
 
It depends on what games you are playing, but I went from a E6600 to a E8400 and in BF3 it did not make much difference. I then tried a Q6600 and it was much smoother. I did get a G0 but I got a pretty poor one with a VID of 1.325 and have not had much luck overclocking it yet.
 
Admiral Huddy said:
I think you'd do well to get a Q6600. Even for a few months, you'll still get some second hand return for it so the short cost will be marginal.
Click to expand...

^^
This.

You might not lose nothing apart from your time selling the Q6600 at a later date, at worst maybe 20% if that.
 
I went from an E6600 to a Q6600 Go B eons ago. There is a noticeable difference & it's such an easy swap it'd be rude not to do it.
 
Upgraded both my nephews dual core machines to a Q6600 and BF3 runs nice and smooth for them, which didnt when they were using dual cores :)

Cheap and an easy overclocker, whats not to like :D
 
I went from an E6600 to a Q6600 last year. The difference is huge. I play BF3 on it at 1080p with my 6950 2GB, and it plays very nicely.

I'm overclocked to 3.6GHz currently with an Antec Kuhler 620, but I had it at 3.4GHz on a Freezer 7 for quite some time without any issues too :)

I'd say go for it. The Q6600 is still going for the same price it did this time last year, it may drop a tiny bit this year but you're going to lose £5-10 at the most I would have thought. I paid £55 for mine almost a year ago and I could still get that for it now :)
 
Ok, quick update to this situation. Just brought myself a Q6600 SLACR of the bay. I have another 775 motherboard lying around so i'm very temped to set up a home server using the E6600. Sounds like a plan to me!

Question: will i need to re install windows when i used the new processor?
Might end up using a different motherboard so again will i need to re install if i do?
 
On a windows install, if you just change the CPU, no it will work fine.

If you change both motherboard and CPU, that generally requires a fresh re-install.
 
MonsterMoshi said:
Question: will i need to re install windows when i used the new processor?
Might end up using a different motherboard so again will i need to re install if i do?
Click to expand...

as above,
If you just change the cpu, then No, you dont need to reinstall windows.
Changing the mobo as well, then Yes you will have to reinstall windows.
Also, if its an OEM version of windows, then that will be tied to the old mobo, and will NOT activate on the new one, as Microsoft class a new mobo as a different pc.
People have been known to contact Microsoft with a sob story and getting it to activate, but there is no guarantee. ;)
 
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