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Core 2 Quads - Who still using them?

on a whole the c2q chip is still a very good cpu. it can still hold it own in most case when given a slight overclock when compare to i7 but their are thing that the i7 will do much better than what a c2q can do. so my advise if you got an c2q can get that extra bit of life out it, then do so as it will give you more time to save up. also most modern cpu cooler will let you overclock the cpu much better than what the cpu cooler that were available at time would let you do safely for example the cosair H series coolers or Phanteks ph-tc14pe cpu cooler.
 
Had my 9450 till a couple of moths ago when i went to a 3930k and there is a noticible increase in performance huge in some things small in others. 9450 was a cracking cpu for me got it to 3.4 and it handled pretty much all i threw at it they are good cpu's for people with a tight budget that want performance.
 
I am still using a xeon 3350 i bought 4 years ago. Only upgrade has been a gtx570 from a 280 in the original system, but i do have a ssd in the post now too. I was waiting for ivybridge but it didn't look like enough of a step forward from the sandybridge chip so i am hanging on for the haswell release now.

April - May next year the upgrade itch will really need to be scratched though.
 
I would say if you are a fan of playing mmos, upgrading from a Core2Quad to a Sandy/Ivy i5 would be the best move you make. I literally got more than double the frame rate on the demanding battles/scenes, with frame rate went from 22-25fps (Q6600 at 3.6GHz) to constant 58-60fps (i5 2500K at 4.5GHz) on the same 5850.
 
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Is it though? There is still demand for them and they are half the price of current gen stuff. A choice between a full upgrade for people who would need a new board, new cpu and ddr3 vs a single cpu.
 
G J said:
Wow are people really still paying over £100 for some Q9XXX chips? Crazy :confused:
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In my case I was waiting for Haswell and didn't have around £300-£350 to spend on new sandy/ivy i5 setup. Since Haswell is still around 8 months to 1 year away, I thought it would be better option to get the best mainstream Quad the lga775 has to offer to prolong the life of my current system and replace Q6600.

I was lucky to get Q9650 for £132 on MM as these cpus being rare are going for easily £150+ (some even sold for £170-£180 2nd hand) on ebay uk.

Q9650 ticked all the boxes in terms of easy 4Ghz overclock, low power consumption,cooler running and faster clock for clock; all the advantages over Q6600.

Selling Q6600 for £50 was good sale price aswell as 2nd hand market value is going down in the £40s bracket.

So overall for £82 cost, I can't really complain as Q9650 has definitely given nice performance boost over my Q6600.

Infact I am so pleased with it that I may even skip Haswell generation now ;)
 
i've seen on ebay a qx9650 for £179-£220 which is a very good cpu chip as it has the unlocked multiplier.
 
I kinda understand the whole don't want to upgrade the whole system thing but I used to own a Q9550 system and sold it when I worked out I could buy second hand a 2500 non-k, z68 motherboard and 8GB of ram for about £30-45 more then my Q9550 system sold for.

Though I can't bash it too much, if it wasn't for the high demand for my processor I proberly would still be using it today :)
 
I have a Q9650 (well it's on MM at the mo) not being used, shame really as it has so much potential, if my main rig supported it would have moved it to that from the Q6600.

Q6600 is still going strong, and I'll probably keep it till next year when Haswell is upon us. :)
 
I've got almost the same setup as you OP, but got my Q9550 running at 4.01GHz using the settings that pastymuncher stated in the threads linked below.

Tbh I'm still very happy with it's performance in BF3 (and it easily maxes BFBC2, the only two games I really play) so the only thing that would make me upgrade it sooner is just upgradeitis, but with Intel starting to show off it's next gen I can probably hold out for that and experience a decent increase. I expect I'll step up from a GTX 570 to a GTX 670 by xmas but otherwise very happy with this chip. Prior to it I had a Q6600 at 3.6GHz which my bro now has and is running at only 3.3GHz and he can enjoy BF3 on med settings with a GTX 260, so i'd say these C2Q chips still have plenty of life left in them (bearing in mind not all games are as CPU dependent as BF3).

subbytna said:
Try reading this lot - I think a 9450 has a lower multiplier so should be similar settings for you


http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18159678

then

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17858986&highlight=official+q9450

OC settings are a plenty in there :)
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As an aside im now considering using mine for server duties will be good sat under the stairs ticking over running my news feeds media duties and the like
 
Had a Q6600 and a 8800 GTS rolling along with 4GB of RAM without issues since 2007 but the upgrade itch kicked in and I updated to what is in my sig.

The old build still worked fine though, but did show its age in Battlefield 3 and Guild Wars 2 when running at 1920x1200 :)
 
Still doing most things with my Q9450. I'm not a gamer so the GPU is just a passive 6670. I'm currently negotiating for a Q9650 to give it a boost and will upgrade from XP64 to W7 if I get it.

I've had an i7 2600K since day one but it's a dedicated folder.
 
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