Overclocking vs value for money

[FixupSellon]

I know nobody will get too excited over lga775 sockets anymore, but it's what I'm using by choice..

My board asus p5q deluxe supports all or a wide range of core 2 quads including extremes from a list I found, now I haven't really put my 8400 to much test yet, got crysis yesterday, but not home to play it so I be looking forward to seeing what the game is like in general and also how it performs as I know this game(ether series) gets used as a benchmark amongst others And my computer from basically same era, but still look to upgrade.

Now the title comes from the f1 2015 game(likely never own any time soon, just using as example) because for minimum spec a c2q from Intel was listed rated @3ghz and from what I've seen only a q9650 and a qx equivalent comes with that stock.

So what I would like to know is, would say getting a q6600 if under £30 is good and overclock be it with my stock cooler or advanced be good value or just get the 9650 of its not much more overall? Or one of the 2.8ghz models?.

Basically would it be cheaper to buy 3ghz or overclock to it? Shame my 3ghz 8400 is only dual lol

 

[Jumper118]

if you get a quad you aren't going to get very far on the stock cooler. a q6600 is a fair bit slower than a q9650, the q6600 is 65nm as well whereas the q9650 is 45nm like your c2d e8400. if it was my money i would get a xeon x5450 or e5450 from china and do the 771 mod. they are around half the price of a q6950 and tend to overclock higher on lower voltage. if you get one with the E0 stepping like mine then you should have no problem getting it to 3.8-4ghz on your motherboard. i think this was on 1.35v-1.4v. http://hwbot.org/submission/2924067_jumper118_cinebench___r15_xeon_x5450_462_cb