Need a price sensible boost to my rig please.

-BA- · 8 Mar 2011 at 10:05

Need to give my rig a bit of a boost but can't afford to consider a mobo/cpu/ram switch at this stage. I am considering either the Q9650 or Q8400 as a possibility. Could you guys take a look at my rig in my sig and see if you think this would be a good option?

I know overclocking the Q6600 should be the no-brainer here but I just can't get my system stable with it. Kinda gutted really.

Is it worth upgrading to 8GB over the 4GB of 6400 I have now?

Cheers all.

Emphacy · 8 Mar 2011 at 10:08

Why can't you get your system stable with it? High VID? Maybe upgrade your memory to PC8500. I'd be looking on the MM or elsewhere though, the prices for DDR2 have shot up!

The Dominator PC8500 memory is now £120, It was £50 last year! :O
8GB is useless unless you're doing rendering/ heavy graphics design and animation etc etc. Most games don't use over 4GB memory anyways.

koolpc · 8 Mar 2011 at 10:13

8gig not worth it. Lots of people say an SSD is a good boost

-BA- · 8 Mar 2011 at 10:16

Emphacy said:
Why can't you get your system stable with it? High VID? Maybe upgrade your memory to PC8500. I'd be looking on the MM or elsewhere though, the prices for DDR2 have shot up!

The Dominator PC8500 memory is now £120, It was £50 last year! :O
8GB is useless unless you're doing rendering/ heavy graphics design and animation etc etc. Most games don't use over 4GB memory anyways.

Thanks for the reply. I am not sure about the VID in all honesty. Can I use CPUID to check that (edit: I see it's CPU-Z)? I just couldn't get it to run stable, even at 3GHz. I did follow a guide for the chip with 680i SLI but it just wouldn't run right for me. If someone could recommend a better guide, I am still keen to make it my cheapest upgrade.

Is the performance jump from 6400 to 8500 a big one if I just stuck with 4GB? Gaming is my main interest.

What do you reckon about the cpu options?

ChrisD. · 8 Mar 2011 at 10:45

What timings and V are you running, both the CPU and RAM? The Q6600 should go to 3.2 no problems, but you need the right V on the RAM, 8*400 should do nicely.

-BA- · 8 Mar 2011 at 11:31

I think this was the guide I used the last time I tried. I can't see the photos from work as photobucket pics won't load here.

Pretty sure I followed it to the letter for my ram and even played around a bit.

Any other recommendations would be most welcome.

Skilty · 8 Mar 2011 at 13:44

8gb is useful if you are running memory intensive apps. I have 8gb and no paging file. Could I see the difference between 4 and 8? Not really.

Biggest performance boost for me was moving to SSD. For around £90 for a 60GB drive (vertex 2E) it is one of the best upgrades for the money.

You should be able to get that Q6600 up to around 3.2ghz

Never had a Q6600 but here is a relatively older guide for overclocking your stepping:

http://gameandtechreviews.wordpress.com/2007/12/12/q6600-g0-stepping-overclock-guide/

-BA- · 8 Mar 2011 at 14:15

Skilty said:
8gb is useful if you are running memory intensive apps. I have 8gb and no paging file. Could I see the difference between 4 and 8? Not really.

Biggest performance boost for me was moving to SSD. For around £90 for a 60GB drive (vertex 2E) it is one of the best upgrades for the money.

You should be able to get that Q6600 up to around 3.2ghz

Never had a Q6600 but here is a relatively older guide for overclocking your stepping:

http://gameandtechreviews.wordpress.com/2007/12/12/q6600-g0-stepping-overclock-guide/

Thanks for the guide Skilty, will check it out when I get home. With regard to the SSD, would I need to have my OS running on it to see its benefits or could I buy one and use it as a game installation drive and still get good performance?

Jedeye · 8 Mar 2011 at 14:40

Get the SSD. It made the biggest difference to my rig by far, although it was somewhat less awesome than yours.

-BA- · 8 Mar 2011 at 15:12

As per my post though, do I need to put my OS on it or could I just install the games to it? I absolutely loathe reinstalling my pc.

Redmint · 8 Mar 2011 at 15:16

You *could* just use an SSD for games, however it would be a bit of a waste. The main reason for getting an SSD it for faster windows load times and 'snappier' responses.

-BA- · 8 Mar 2011 at 15:20

Redmint said:
You *could* just use an SSD for games, however it would be a bit of a waste. The main reason for getting an SSD it for faster windows load times and 'snappier' responses.

In general I can live with the performance of my loads times although I would love to see better load times in games, that is for sure.

What I am generally looking for is a performance increase in games and a generally quicker response from the pc.

atheos · 8 Mar 2011 at 15:28

-BA-,

I have the same board and cpu as yourself and i have to agree, it is hard to get a stable overclock.

I just gave up on it and plan to go SB as soon as i can.

I need to give it a proper go, once i have a new system.

Columbo · 8 Mar 2011 at 15:31

2nd hand mobo from the MM and clock that Q6600 would be the route I'd choose. P35, P45, X38 or X48 chipset is where I'd be looking.

The 680i boards were well known for being terrible at clocking quad core chips.

Its not like you need it for SLI when you are using an ATI card and you could always sell on the 680i on to atleast pay for some of the spend on a new boards.

You'll hit 3.2 - 3.4ghz with ease.

edit: there's an A-Bit IP35 Pro in the MM currently for £30, well worth a look imo.!

-BA- · 8 Mar 2011 at 15:40

Yeah sadly when I built the rig I installed a BFG 8800 GTX and intended to go SLi but the GTX was an absolute dog.

Really was hoping for a quick fix. Would I not see a performance boost from the 8400 or the 9650? Must confess I don't even know if my board could handle them.

-BA- · 8 Mar 2011 at 15:47

A quick google suggests the 9000 series are a bit hit and miss. Need to check if I have an A2 board and P33 bios.

atheos · 8 Mar 2011 at 15:47

-BA-,

Make a thread, and we could try and help each other with hopefully the help of some of the knowledgeable people here.

I would love to get an OC of 3.2 to be honest.

atheos · 8 Mar 2011 at 15:48

-BA- said:
A quick google suggests the 9000 series are a bit hit and miss. Need to check if I have an A2 board and P33 bios.

I think you mean A1?

Columbo · 8 Mar 2011 at 16:01

-BA- said:
Yeah sadly when I built the rig I installed a BFG 8800 GTX and intended to go SLi but the GTX was an absolute dog.

Really was hoping for a quick fix. Would I not see a performance boost from the 8400 or the 9650? Must confess I don't even know if my board could handle them.

In all honesty no.

The Q8400 is cache crippled and you may well see a decrease and the Q9650 while still a superb chip will give you no real world boost compared to your current chip.

Plus the Q9650 will probably cost more than double what your Q6600 is worth making it a not very sensible change.

Skilty · 8 Mar 2011 at 16:02

-BA- said:
Thanks for the guide Skilty, will check it out when I get home. With regard to the SSD, would I need to have my OS running on it to see its benefits or could I buy one and use it as a game installation drive and still get good performance?

SSD should host your OS, swapfile ideally should not be on the SSD.

My setup currently has an 80gb Intel x-25m with Windows 7 installed on it and then my most played games.

The rest are installed on a normal HDD.

As other posters have mentioned, with a Q6600 no point in going for Q8400 and a Q9550 or Q9650 will gain you very little. In all honesty the m/b ain't all that and I would be looking at a replacement if you are going to overclock.