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CPU Advice

MADMAN69UK

MADMAN69UK

MADMAN69UK

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Joined
26 Sep 2005
Posts
875
Location
Midlands
Bore da :)

It seems it's time again to maybe look at a CPU upgrade. It's been quite a while since my last purchase.

I'm currently running:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail

On this motherboard:
Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

I was looking at:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.83GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 2.40GHz Guaranteed to run at 3.30GHZ (1466FSB) - Retail

I seem to see lots of good posts about the Q6600. Firstly, would that work ok with the motherboard I mentioned above? And secondly, would the Q6600 be the better purchase of the two at this moment in time?

I also wondered why this card was so much more expensive than the rest:
Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme Edition QX9775 "LGA771 Yorkfield" 3.20GHz (1600FSB) - Retail

Cheers :rolleyes:
 
Ok, so the message I'm getting is that the Q6600 would be a good purchase?

I really have no experience with over-clocking at all, but I have this case:
Akasa Eclipse 62 Aluminium Case - No PSU

And this CPU cooler:
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)

If I went with the Q6600, would I be able to ramp it up a touch (say to 2.8 maybe) without needing extra kit?
 
Ahh ok. I just assumed there would be a noticeable difference between a dual and a quad. Is that not the case?

Would I require extra hardware to overclock my current CPU, or would the case and cooler I have now be ok?
 
RJC said:
GX-091-PC_60.jpg
Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail£161.99
(£190.34) £161.99
(£190.34)
Click to expand...

Do you have that in an NVidia option per chance? :)
 
Tetras said:
I really don't think it is worth buying an E8400 and P5Q when you have an E6600 and P5N-E SLI.

This seems to be a case of upgraditus :p
Click to expand...

I was a bit disappointed with my machine while running Crysis. I had to turn a lot of detail down. I know it's a pretty demanding game but I'd have liked it to run smoothly.

I'm looking to put together a high end gaming machine but don't really know what that will require. Any advice greatly appreciated :D
 
pastymuncher said:
Your P5N-E Sli will clock your E6600 fine with a Freezer 7 Pro. You do not need a new motherboard or cpu. Once your E6600 is overclocked from stock you will see a big performance boost. Can't remember seeing it, but have you said what graphics card you already have? I suspect that judging by the rest of your rig maybe a 7800/7900 series or maybe even a early 8800GTS 320/640mb? If so then changing to a new 4800 series or GTX 260 will be a big upgrade.
Click to expand...

My current graphics card is:
OcUK GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - OEM

I have a thread in the Graphics Card forum also and someone recommended this:
MSI ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2048MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Not really an ATI fan due to experiences in the past, but the general consensus is that they've improved a lot recently. So would the above mentioned graphics card be ok? And shouldn't be a problem with my current motherboard?

So with my Freezer 7 Pro, what sort of level would I be safe ramping my CPU up to? I like to skirt just below the maximum recommended :)
 
Last edited:
manic111 said:
Just buy the Freezer 7 and see how it clocks; if you don't get very far then come back; the Freezer 7 won't be a waste of cash either way.

There is no maximum recommended, clocking depends too much on how lucky you have been with the chip for that. I would be surprised if you couldn't get at least 3ghz out of it though, and possibly up towards 3.4
Click to expand...

I already have:
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)

Does that mean I should just be able to go right ahead and wack my current CPU up to 3Ghz? :eek:
 
pastymuncher said:
Did'nt realise you had a GTX. That changes things a bit. I reckon you are looking at 3.2-3.4Ghz for the E6600 and that will release some extra performance from your GTX. Do some benching before and after your cpu overclock. Then decide if you really need a new graphics card. What res do you game at?
Click to expand...

I game at 1680 x 1050 normally.

As you can imagine, I didn't get a very smooth play with Crysis. Had to turn a lot of the fancy effects down.

Wouldn't the ATI improve that quite a bit with the extra memory? I know I know, I'm a plebtard :)
 
Ok, I'm building in confidence for an overclock :rolleyes:

I've flashed my BIOS to the latest version in preperation. Will do a backup tomorrow and maybe get started with an overclock later on. Hopefully I can get her up to a comfortable 3.0 - 3.2 :)

Regarding graphics... you really don't think I'll see much improvement from upgrading to this:
MSI ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2048MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail
 
I'm also looking at this:
Acer G24 Widescreen Gaming LCD Monitor - Orange/Black

So with the ATI card I'd be upping the rez to 1920 x 1200. Does that sound more worthwhile? :)
 
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