Buying a new cpu

[w00t3rs]

thanks in advance,

I am looking to buy a new CPU I have a q6700 overclocked to 4.0Mz on water. I am looking to change to the I7 CPU's but cant see much improvement apart from the 4 extra threads.

Would I get a great improvement is I switched from a Q6700 @ 4.0Mz to a I7 930 @ 4.20Mz?

 

[cmndr_andi]

Hi there,

I am presuming you mean GHz, not "Mz" .

As for performance difference, it really depends on what you are doing. This benchmark shows how a stock Q6600 (2.4GHz) compares to a stock i7 920 (2.66GHz) in a range of CPU limited tests. Even accounting for the slightly higher clockspeed the i7, is a fair bit faster. This is not only due to the hyperthreading but also the base performance of the nahalem architecture is faster clock-for-clock compared to the Core 2.

That all said, I would not suggest upgrading from a Q6700 to an i7 right now. The next generation of intel CPUs called "Sandy Bridge" will be released at the start of January 2011 - so that is less than 2 months away. If you feel you can wait, I would.

 

[DragonQ]

Depends what you're doing...

 

[w00t3rs]

Hi there,

I am presuming you mean GHz, not "Mz" .

As for performance difference, it really depends on what you are doing. This benchmark shows how a stock Q6600 (2.4GHz) compares to a stock i7 920 (2.66GHz) in a range of CPU limited tests. Even accounting for the slightly higher clockspeed the i7, is a fair bit faster. This is not only due to the hyperthreading but also the base performance of the nahalem architecture is faster clock-for-clock compared to the Core 2.

That all said, I would not suggest upgrading from a Q6700 to an i7 right now. The next generation of intel CPUs called "Sandy Bridge" will be released at the start of January 2011 - so that is less than 2 months away. If you feel you can wait, I would.

Thanks that helped a lot, I will have a look and see what I can find about the "Sandy Bridge" CPU range.

 

[coldfused]

lol @ 4Mhz

 

[pastymuncher]

A Q6700 at 4Ghz is hardly going to struggle with anything. What do you use the pc for?

 

[Cleeecooo]

Wait for sandybridge

 

[Superjeep4x4]

What some fail to mention is that new tech is going to bring premium prices. Not just the chip but the MB that goes with it. If money is no issue then by all means wait but the reality is to most money IS a issue so new tech is not always the best.

People will talk about EOL(end of life) for the current stuff and even the C2D line like they are tainted but the reality is with the way Intel is pushing out these new cpu's and different sockets I do not see much that will not be EOL after a year anyways even though they are perfectly good kits.

Unless your doing stuff that needs pure raw cpu power and cores I see no reason to wait as the current cpu's are incredibly fast. If its a general use/games/light encoding type work then frankly your Q6700 at that speed is more than enough.


just some food for thought:

 

[cmndr_andi]

What some fail to mention is that new tech is going to bring premium prices. Not just the chip but the MB that goes with it. If money is no issue then by all means wait but the reality is to most money IS a issue so new tech is not always the best.

I'm not sure what you mean by bring "premium prices", I imagine that the new sandy bridge LGA 1155 boards and CPUs will cost a bit more than what we can buy i5 and P55 hardware for right now. However, I certainly wouldn't expect these new "mainsteam" sandy bridge products to arrive and cost any more than what the "mainstream" nahalem parts (LGA 1156) cost on release, which were (in my mind at least) well priced.

People will talk about EOL(end of life) for the current stuff and even the C2D line like they are tainted but the reality is with the way Intel is pushing out these new cpu's and different sockets I do not see much that will not be EOL after a year anyways even though they are perfectly good kits.

Unless your doing stuff that needs pure raw cpu power and cores I see no reason to wait as the current cpu's are incredibly fast. If its a general use/games/light encoding type work then frankly your Q6700 at that speed is more than enough.


just some food for thought:

I totally agree with this statement - going by current form you can't expect to do a worthwhile CPU-only upgrade on a modern intel platform as they seem to change the sockets every generation (in part at least because maintaining backwards compatibility can hamper increasing performance). Therefore judge each platform on its merits, not how upgradable it is.

However, if you will make use of CPU power then there is a good reason to upgrade to the latest tech. Also if you are only now planning to upgrade then the <2 month wait may be worth it due to faster tech - so long as you have a system that will tide you over until then. But that all said - many of us do not need this power since we mainly play games. Personally, two of my friends are running overclocked Q6x000 CPU, playing modern games and upgrading simply hasn't crossed their minds as their current CPUs are "fast enough" for what they are doing, the same can be said for many current CPU technologies such as i5 and Phenom II.

 

[easyrider]

Yes but not enough to warrant the upgrade and expense