Q6700 upgrading advice please

[scritchyrat]

As per topic, I currently have a Q6700 @3.2 on an Akasa Venom. Mobo is a P5Q pro and I'm using 4gig of OCZ DDR2 ram.

Now I'm primarily a gamer so I don't really need to do any editing etc. but I've had this system for a few years now, and I know it's long in the tooth. To this end, I can get an i7 920 and Gigabyte GA-X58A-OC for a little under the price of a retail i2500k.

My question is, is it a worthwhile endevour? I know socket 1366 is a dead end too but is the extra £100 or so (before getting a 1155 motherboard) worth it over the older i7, or should I just keep the Q6700 and keep slowly saving for IB (more likely Haswell the rate I save at).

Any thoughts welcome

 

[cmndr_andi]

Hi there,

You are using a GTX 470 GPU, right?

If you can't afford an i5 2500K + Z68 board then I would be tempted to go for an i3 2100 series CPU like this one and a good value Z68 board like this.

I say this because Bloomfields are nice chips, but they are pretty old, hot CPUs plus the X58 boards don't offer any upgrade path and they don't support new features like native SATA3.

Therefore, if you go with an i3 sandy bridge CPU and gigabyte Z68 board then you will be able to run games well today and you have the ability to upgrade the CPU to a super-quick quad core Ivy Bridge i5 3570K (or second hand i5 2500K) in the future.

In fact, looking for a good deal on a second-hand i5 2500K is a good option right now.

 

[scritchyrat]

Yeah, using a 470. I was looking at the i3 2120 but I assumed it was a bit of a down step from a quad, even one as old as the Q6700 (not to mention they can't be clocked).

I've had a look on the auction site for i2500k deals but for the prices they go for, you may as well buy new. I don't have access to the MM unfortunately so I can't check for deals in there

 

[cmndr_andi]

Even with no overclocking the i3 2100 series are one really good set of gaming CPUs, here are some i3 gaming tests compared to other CPUs (the i3 2120 is also touch faster than the i3 2100 shown in these tests):

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/...core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/20
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-2120-2100_5.html#sect0
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-fx-pentium-apu-benchmark,3120-3.html

Going for an i3 now gives you the advantage of getting really nice gaming performance now (due to its excellent single threaded performance) and the ability to sell off the CPU down the road and drop in a Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge K series quad core when you have the money and want another big performance boost.

 

[uk_unbeliever]

This isn't what you asked but i've got the same CPU and MB and can OC to 3.7ghz within safe voltages. In my experience 3.2- 3.6/7 does provide a worthwhile gain especially in games that don't make proper use of 4 cores.

To be fair, it will be much greater gains if you upgraded, but if you're hanging out for a big upgrade maybe try for 3.6 and see if it makes a difference in the games you play. The way I look at it, the Q6*** chips are tough as nails so stay under 1.5volts / about 70C and it will be fine- if you're planning on upgrading soon there's little worry in running the CPU a bit hotter for a few months. Worth a try. If you're waiting a couple of months there could be better prices on second hand sandbridge.

Saying that, if you can get the i7 920, mobo and Ram (+ your cooler will fit it) for <£150 I'd be tempted by that personally. Not sure if you were saying you'd get the RAM also for that price.

The arguments for i3 + z68 are sound if you're on a tight budget but personally I'd rather upgrade making a big jump (2500k/ ivybridge), or upgrade cheap (i7 920).

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I went from a Q6600 at around 3GHZ to a Core i3 2100 myself and CPU utlisation dropped in all the games I tested. For instance during Crysis2 the Q6600 was pegged at nearly 100% on all 4 cores,whereas with the Core i3 2100 it is significantly less. This was with an overclocked HD5850 1GB running at around 925MHZ for the GPU core.

The reason I went with a Core i3 2100, is because, I built a mini-ITX based computer to replace my near four and a half year old Shuttle SD37P2 which started to have some issues.

At a later date I can get a Core i5 or Core i7 to replace the Core i3 when it becomes a limiting factor for running the games I play.

 

[scritchyrat]

Thanks for the replies and the info guys

uk unbeliever:- I've tried getting higher than 3.2, but it was unstable at 3.3. I guess my slow ram is what is holding me back
And no, the price I can get the mobo and cpu for (just under £200) is excluding ram, so I guess you're looking at another £40-50 or so for 8gigs worth some semi decent stuff; also, the Gigabyte board has a simply wonderful black and orange colour scheme

cmdr andi and CAT: - wow, I didn't realise that the i3 was so efficient that its two cores were better than the four on the Q6700.
I must admit, it does appeal to me but I can't help thinking that if you're spending nigh on £100 for the 2120, you may as well plonk another £70 down and get the 2500k.

Gah, I come here to help make my mind up and I'm in even more of a cofuzzle now!

 

[uk_unbeliever]

What RAM do you have? There are loads of RAM/CPU ratio options in the bios If I recall (I've got 1066mhz RAM so haven't used the lower settings)-They are in the same section as the CPU multiplier option. You should be able to keep the RAM running at a lower frequency that it is happy with.

At least give it a go before buying new gear! the extra multiplier on the Q6700 (over the Q6600) means your motherboard won't be breaking a sweat getting it to 3.2ghz

re: i7 920- if its £200+ for CPU+MB (and adding RAM) I wouldn't bother- as cmdr_andi said it is now obselete- worth it if it were a real bargain but not when you can get a Sandybridge set up for another £60-70ish

 

[El Jimben]

I must admit, it does appeal to me but I can't help thinking that if you're spending nigh on £100 for the 2120, you may as well plonk another £70 down and get the 2500k.

This really. As good & cheap as the i3 2100 is you'd be crazy to get a dual core CPU when so many games & applications now take advantage of multiple cores/threads.

 

[Krono5]

2500k would be your best bet, especially if you can wait another month until prices drop.

 

[scritchyrat]

What RAM do you have? There are loads of RAM/CPU ratio options in the bios If I recall (I've got 1066mhz RAM so haven't used the lower settings)-They are in the same section as the CPU multiplier option. You should be able to keep the RAM running at a lower frequency that it is happy with.

At least give it a go before buying new gear! the extra multiplier on the Q6700 (over the Q6600) means your motherboard won't be breaking a sweat getting it to 3.2ghz

re: i7 920- if its £200+ for CPU+MB (and adding RAM) I wouldn't bother- as cmdr_andi said it is now obselete- worth it if it were a real bargain but not when you can get a Sandybridge set up for another £60-70ish

The ram is some OCZ platinum PC2-5300(333htz) DDR2 stuff. I know it's a bit slow which probably cripples my OC'ing ability.