Intel Core 2 Quad QX9650 3.0 GHz for £175???

[icedbullet]

Hello all

I have found a Intel Core 2 Quad QX9650 3.0 GHz chip for sale for £175. It is described as being new...I'm seriously skeptical about this as I know these extreme chips usually cost a small fortune.



Anyone have any thoughts on the validity of this price? How much do 2nd hand versions of this chip usually go for?

 

[axer]

Seems a pretty good price if you ask me, I just sold a used OEM Q9650 on the bay for £180 with numerous offers around the £170 mark!

 

[pastymuncher]

It is'nt new if it's being used. Nice low volts for 4Ghz though it does seem rather cheap to me.

 

[psychas]

im selling cheery picked q9650 1.2125vid for 180 £ to

 

[mast3r]

that price has to be wrong?
I would expect to pay upwards of £250 for that chip.

 

[Thorburn]

Why? Its a 2 year old processor which has been eclipsed by Lynnfield and Bloomfield, has been overclocked, and will have no warranty as they are non-transferable.

Q9650 was available with the later E0 stepping around the £200 mark, new, boxed, with a warranty.

 

[mast3r]

simply because of its folding capabilities, unlocked multiplier and overclocking scope.

 

[Thorburn]

simply because of its folding capabilities, unlocked multiplier and overclocking scope.

Q9650 will fold just as well (duh), and probably overclock in the same sort of range, unlocked multiplier has some uses but in the pictures the overclock is being achieved without using them.

Given the temperatures that's under some pretty hefty cooling. Also worth saying the CPU-Z and the Orthos clock speed reports don't match up.

 

[icedbullet]

Q9650 will fold just as well (duh), and probably overclock in the same sort of range, unlocked multiplier has some uses but in the pictures the overclock is being achieved without using them.

Given the temperatures that's under some pretty hefty cooling. Also worth saying the CPU-Z and the Orthos clock speed reports don't match up.

Good spot. The guy says he has 10 of these so that's probably why the images don't match up.

Its one of those situations where it seems to good to be true...which means it probably is to good to be true.

Would I see much improvement over my Q6600 with one of these chips?

 

[mast3r]

a hell of a lot of improvement,

PS, Fold the same out of the can, YES.

I have A Q9650 and a QX in my folding farm, CPU alone i Achieve at least 1k per day on the CPU thread.

 

[Vertigo]

I bought a Q9650 for £155 a month or two back which I considered a very good price as they usually go for £170-£180. £175 looks like a steal for a QX9650 - effectively a Q9650 with an unlocked multiplier

 

[harryohh]

If you already have a quad core ,which according to your sig you do, I wouldn't bother with this.

I do think it's a very good price however especially if you only have a Core 2 duo or worse.

 

[AWPC]

Avoid it as an I7-920 smokes this by a long way & seriously doubt anyone has gotten hold of a brand new supply of these so long after they were made as most supplies bought these on special order outside of the big etailors!

Anyone can claim they have 10 OEM versions how would you know the difference & if they had not been heavily overclocked at some time??

Ask yourself this why on earth do you want to buy 3+ year old tech which now only has the unlocked multi as the main selling point??

 

[Vertigo]

Avoid it as an I7-920 smokes this by a long way

And would require a change of motherboard and memory, upping the cost.

TBH, I'd argue that upgrading to i5/i7 now is a waste of time and money - you may as well just upgrade the CPU and keep your mobo and memory and wait for Sandy Bridge early next year. There's very little a good C2Q won't handle so why not save money and make a bigger leap with the next generation?

 

[mike gunnz]

And would require a change of motherboard and memory, upping the cost.

TBH, I'd argue that upgrading to i5/i7 now is a waste of time and money - you may as well just upgrade the CPU and keep your mobo and memory and wait for Sandy Bridge early next year. There's very little a good C2Q won't handle so why not save money and make a bigger leap with the next generation?

Totally agree with pretty much all of this.

 

[Simple_Steve]

Dude, none of those screenies match up. Real temp is saying its 444, CPU-z is saying its 400x10 and Othoros is saying its 404x8.0... All im saying is this looks a little like a spot the difference sketch to me, not a single screenie at all! and also the QX9650 prob wont clock as high as a regular Q9650 aslong as the regular is an E0 series. The C1 uses more volts and gets a wee bit hotter. I'd say this one is too good to be true mate. But thats just me.

 

[Redmint]

Totally agree with pretty much all of this.

Yep seems logical to me too, although I personally don't see the QX chips giving that much advantage over the normal Q chips either.

 

[pastymuncher]

The biggest plus for him is the unlocked multiplier. He has a X38 board which, along with X48, are fsb limited when it comes to 45nm quads. The unlocked multiplier solves that problem.

For people saying swap sockets to i5/i7, why? It involves new mobo/ram/cpu and is substantially more expensive not to mention that 1156 is EOL Q1 2011 and 1366 EOL Q3 2011. He will be in exactly the same position next year as he is now.

 

[marscay]

Avoid it as an I7-920 smokes this by a long way & seriously doubt anyone has gotten hold of a brand new supply of these so long after they were made as most supplies bought these on special order outside of the big etailors!

I've had both and considering the cost i wouldn't recommend a i7 rig to anyone unless you're encoding h264 24/7, even then the improvements in speed aren't as big as you would expect. Don't get me wrong i7 rigs are good but value for money is poor versus a good 45nm core2 setup.

 

[mast3r]

did you buy this?