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Penryn or Q6600?

BlairH

BlairH

BlairH

Associate
Joined
1 Nov 2006
Posts
804
Location
Scotland
Hey guys.

I'm currently running an E6600 on an nVidia 680i, and was wondering whether or not it's worth waiting for the new 45nm quads. The Q6600 G0 stepping procesors are really good overclockers from what I can see, plus they aren't exactly expensive.

I've heard that the 45nm processors will be -clock for clock- 5% to 7% faster than the current Q6xxx series. Presumably, they'll run a tad cooler too! That said, their stock FSB is 1300, which means that there might not be enough headroom for overclocking on my 680i (which is an original pre-revision board)

What do you reckon? Penryn or Q6600?
 
Personally I would wait for Penryn, but see what other people say about it before committing yourself to anything.

Are you getting enough performance out of the E6600 at the moment, or do you actually need quadcore?
 
Klo said:
Personally I would wait for Penryn, but see what other people say about it before committing yourself to anything.
Click to expand...
Cheers for the input.

Are you getting enough performance out of the E6600 at the moment, or do you actually need quadcore?
Click to expand...
The main purpose of the upgrade would be to prepare my rig for multi-threaded games like Alan Wake and the like (Without having to swap out my motherboard when Nehahlem arrives). In the interim, I do a fair bit of video encoding and multi-tasking.

At the same time, I'll probably be having watercooling installed, so cooling the overclocked quad wouldn't be an issue.
 
I too am intrested in this. Im building before christmas hopefuly as all the new games come out and i dont ahve a pc to run them.

CPUs currently arn't the bottle necks in games so i dont beleive there is really much of an advantage of getting the new cpus other then bosting rights on your overclocks.
 
8igdave said:
I too am intrested in this. Im building before christmas hopefuly as all the new games come out and i dont ahve a pc to run them.

CPUs currently arn't the bottle necks in games so i dont beleive there is really much of an advantage of getting the new cpus other then bosting rights on your overclocks.
Click to expand...


nope the GPU has to play catch up these days :)

Stelly
 
Shouldn't that say yup then? :)

Its annoying to know that the new cpus will likely be around the asme price as the q6600 but i dont really have a choise as i need to build before christmas unless i dont want to be able to play any new games :o
 
The original EVGA 680i won't clock quads well at all. The newer rev will do 475ish fsb, more with mods. Penryn does run a LOT cooler. ;)
 
weescott said:
The original EVGA 680i won't clock quads well at all. The newer rev will do 475ish fsb, more with mods. Penryn does run a LOT cooler. ;)
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Yeah, I have a launch day EVGA 680i, so my guess is that I'm shafted unless I go for a top-dollar multiplier unlocked extreme edition. FSB overclocking of quads isn't exactly the 680i's strong point. That said, extreme editions are so expensive that I might as well go for a new motherboard and a Q6600 (or Penryn) instead.
 
Ring evga, they will exchange it and you pay fro the postage. They have excellent customer support and i remember them sending out a notice about being willing to exchange old rev boards.
 
Im in exactly the same postions as Blair

Got a E6600 and wondering between the Penryn cores in Jan-Feb or a Q6600 right now.

I think it will be better waiting as you will get to see how much better they are (not just clock-for-clock) but temps and OC'ing as well.

Also, if you don't end up buying one surely the Q6600 will drop in price?
 
Do older versions of 680i board support 45nm process cpu?

From EVGA FAQ:
To clear things up for everyone asking how you can tell the difference with the EVGA 680i SLI boards with the fix for the Intel Quad Core CPU; EVGA will be doing a small change to its part number for this particular SKU.

EVGA will modify the last digit of its part number to reflect this change

122-CK-NF68-AR will be replaced with 122-CK-NF68-A1
122-CK-NF68-TR will be replaced with 122-CK-NF68-T1

The AR/A1 is the full retail box, includes all cables and brackets and comes with a lifetime warranty upon registration.
The TR/T1 is the light version, does not include all brackets, manual comes on CD, has only the essential cables and comes with a 2 year warranty.
 
Another one in the same position :confused:

I am holding out for a little while longer, as my job is working in 3D CPU power is very important, and by looks of things Penryn is nearly twice as fast as the current Q6600!

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/29/intel_penryn_4ghz_with_air_cooling/page26.html

I'm hoping those benchmarks are pretty true to form...

For my case it's pretty much a no brainer, time is money and half the time in rendering makes for more production. As for the gamers, is it really worth it!?
 
Those benchies show a Q6600@Stock VS the £650 QX9650 OC'd to 4.0Ghz....not really fair when you consider the Q6600 can hit 3.6Ghz on a decent air cooler, and is 4 x cheaper!


Liam
 
liam8582007 said:
Those benchies show a Q6600@Stock VS the £650 QX9650 OC'd to 4.0Ghz....not really fair when you consider the Q6600 can hit 3.6Ghz on a decent air cooler, and is 4 x cheaper!


Liam
Click to expand...

I know what you're saying, I wish toms would do fairer test! So do you think that a 3.3Ghz OC for the Q6600 would hit near the mark of the QX9650 clocked at the same speed?

So 2m 34s would come down to 1m 43s region?
 
Rapacious said:
Correct me if im wrong, but the p30 revision of the 680i evga bios helped with tweaking the FSB when overclocking quads.
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That is correct

680i BIOS Update
Version: P30
Posting Date: 7/18/2007
File Size: 460KB
Improves overclocking support for Kentsfield 1333 FSB CPUs.

New P31 addresses issues below

680i BIOS Update
Version: P31
Posting Date: 10/04/2007
File Size: 444KB
Resolves issues with G0 stepping CPU’s and improves 1333MHz FSB Core 2 Quad and Duo stability and overclocking.
 
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Right, I now have my heart set on a QX9650, since my original, launch day 680i isn't exactly known for effective FSB overclocking on quads. However, since the QX9650 has an unlocked multiplier, I needn't worry about that right? (I'd be content with upping the multiplier by one notch or two)

That said, it's a 1333mhz FSB processor and, although my 680i officially supports that frequency (and THEN some with dual cores!) it might not be able to hit that default frequency with a quad core such as the QX9650. Would I be right in saying this?

Any thoughts?
 
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