Is there any point in upgrading?

[Jango]

I have an E6550. Would there be any point in upgrading to a Q6600 for £100, would I see much of an improvement in games etc?

 

[setter]

Not worth the upgrade if your primary use is gaming, there are very few games out at the minute that utilise a quad properly.

 

[Jango]

Thx for your reply.

Ok, how long until I should consider an upgrade?

It is a shame my motherboard (Asus P5N-E SLI) can't support 45nm, it would be so much easier to get hold of a quad-core if it did...

 

[thebandit]

I would wait until you feel you PC is showing its age, ie it's not able to give you acceptable performance in the apps / games you run. Generally you will find this is long after there is a sensible upgrade CPU that will plug straight into your current motherboard. Start saving a little each month now and by the time you have to upgrade you should have enough for CPU RAM and MB.

 

[gurusan]

Clock the E6550 to 3.4+ghz
No need to upgrade

 

[Jango]

I dont think my PSU is good enough for overclocking:

Here are the details on my PSU sticker:


(H.E.C) HIGH-QUALITY EVOLUTION COMMITMENT

HEC-550TD-PTE
__________________________________________________ _______
AC INPUT:..|...230Vac 50Hz 7A................................................ .|
__________|_______________________________________ _______|
DC OUTPUT:|.+3.3V..|..+5V..|...+12V1..|..+12V2.|..-12V...|..+5Vsb.|
__________|_______|______|________|_______|_______ |_______|
MAX.A:......|..30A....|.38A....|....18A....|..17A. ...|...0.3A..|...2A.....|
__________|_______|______|________|_______|_______ |_______|
....+5V8+3.3V COMBINED 185W...........TOTAL OUTPUT 550W..........|
__________________________________________________ _______|

What do you think? I am also going to need a Freezer 7 Pro of course.

Thank you for all your advice

 

[SfnX]

whats your specs?

 

[Orcvader]

You should be able to overclock it with that power supply, but yeah it depends on what other hardware you got.

 

[PaulyD]

Should be able to pick up a Q6600 for cheaper than £100, espcially second hand, paid £55 for one which was cheap by standards, usually go for £70 odd?

Sell yours as well and its a lot cheaper.

However, my advice would be to stick with what you got and overclock it. a quad at 2.4 is good but 2.4 isn't fast at all these days

 

[Geckovich]

If you intend to overclock if you do get a quad then you'll also need a new motherboard anyway, regardless of PSU.

Those boards are notoriously bad for clocking 65nm quads. I used to have one, the highest it could get my current q6600 (now sat at 3.8ghz) was 2.7ghz.

 

[PCZ]

Janon
The P5N-E SLI will work with a q6600, but only to around 3ghz.
333mhz is about all the FSB it will tolerate with a quad.
Won't be particularly stable at that speed though.

Some never got that high, there were so many FSB holes it's was hard to tell if you had reached the limit or needed to up the FSB some more to jump the hole.

A lot of folks on here had or still have that board it was a popular budget SLI solution back in the day.

The board will be happy with the chip you have now.
As has already been suggested overclock it a bit.
If you buy anything then perhaps a Freezer 7 pro or similar to keep the temps in check.

If you decide to run a q6600 in it anyway be careful not to push it too far.
Those boards are getting on a bit now and likely with the current draw from a q6600 at high clocks the VR's will go pop.