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E8500 to Q9550..worth it?

MikeB

MikeB

MikeB

Associate
Joined
23 May 2006
Posts
1,774
My specs are as follows

e8500
4gb ram
260gtx

Mostly use the pc for gaming and some lightroom/photoshop work, I also store a lot of dvd's on here but in their orginal format (minus menus etc).

Would I notice a difference with a quad core?
 
You noticing low framerates in any games? If so then changing to the quad core might give you a nice little performance boost.
 
not really, reason I'm asking is I have just rebuilt machine and running multiple copies and updates at the same time, wondering if it's me overloading the discs or cpu, kind of a whim thing, I'd assume I could sell my chip and upgrade to the q9550 for about £60 so checking if it's owrth it
 
What frequency have you got the E8500 at? You can get (with the later steppings) a Q9550 towards 4GHz, so it'll be like having an E8500x2...
 
I think it is worth it, depends on to things though, do you play fairly intense games? for example Bad Company 2 dedicates 1 core solely for sound.

How long do you want to keep the system? If you want to prolong the usable life of you computer, the Q9550 will last you a long time,
this saves money on expensive DDR3 (Mobo, Ram, CPU) upgrade. In the future it may be cheaper to go DDR3, that is if RAM prices ever settle down.

As said before look out of E0 stepping, and overclock it a little bit.
Don't do it for the sake of it, you have to justify it with yourself.
 
cheers, no desire to upgrade properly as I can't see the need.

I'll see if I can pick up a cheap q9950 for now I think.

Thanks all
 
What he said^.

And if you haven't overclocked, then you won't feel any loss due to a lower frequency, so if you justify it, it'll feel like having two E8500s.

Also depends on what games you're playing (though they are moving towards multi-core use). GTA IV is notoriously bad on dual-cores. It was certainly rubbish on my E8400 @4 GHz, so I upgraded to a 955 BE.
 
MikeB said:
cheers, no desire to upgrade properly as I can't see the need.

I'll see if I can pick up a cheap q9950 for now I think.

Thanks all
Click to expand...

Cheap normally means C1 stepping, make sure you are not being miss sold, ask for CPU-Z screen shot and the chip VID.
 
S second hand Q6600 would be a better option if you cant get a q9550 for sensible money.
 
I would be look at spending 110-120 for a Q9550, Q6600 go for about 75-85.

I would still go for the Q9550 though since they are quicker, have higher stock frequency (you don't seem to keen on overclocking), more cache, 45nm tech (nice and cool), overclock like stink..

Oh I might be being bias as I love my setup ;)
 
I found an upgrade from e8500 @ 3.8 to q9400 @ 3.6 to be well worth it for BFBC2. As previously mentioned, the key to the value of this upgrade is selling the e8500 while it still commands a decent price. FYI I got $150 AUD for mine in November.
 
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