• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

QX9650 - worth it?

Flareon

Flareon

Flareon

Associate
Joined
2 Dec 2003
Posts
400
Location
High Wycombe, UK
I'm weighing up my options here. Currently the battle is between a Q6600 and the QX6950. Obviously that's a serious difference in price, with a difference of 600mhz clock and 266mhz FSB at stock, and the bonus of the unlocked multiplier on the QX.

I have to admit I've never really played with overclocking by multiplier. I understand the entire mechanic surrounding it, but have never put it into practise and am very interested in how much better it performs in the non-theoretical world, compared to FSB clocking.

A few questions:

1) If you had the spare money, would -you- get one?
2) People who already have an extreme - was it worth it?
3) Assuming I have infinite cooling capacity on the chip (not far off...), what sort of clock could I expect out of this thing? Is there even a max multiplier setting?

Otherwise, general thoughts please!
 
What's infinite cooling capacity exactly? Single stage should get into the 5 GHz range without too much bother. A usable 4.5GHz is easy enough on water, had mine to 4.8GHz on water to see of it would.
 
Last edited:
1. yes
2. yes
3. With Single Stage I got 5.3 CPUZ, IIRC around 5.5 with DiCE with Jokesters. With Cascade expect around 5.6, and Ln2. about 6ghz

Realistic stable clock would be around 4.5ghz
 
stigggeh said:
Qx's are never really worth it... i guess this one aint any different.
Click to expand...

Just depends - I bought the QX6700 when it first came out over 12 mths ago. The normal Q6600 and Q6700s came out many months later. It depends what price you put on having something now rather than having to wait. For me it was well worth the money, no regrets at all, that few months usage was well worth the money.

But today - where both the extreme and standard CPUs are available at the same time - agreed I would not buy the Extreme. The only value to me from the extreme was getting hold of the Intel Quad core for 24/7 fully loaded use ASAP
 
Unlike in the past the unlocked multiplier really is a ture advantage due to the non extreme 45nm chips having a locked low multipliers that really does hamper their overclocking potential.

If you have nothing to spend all that money on and you really feel the fastest processor available will definitely make a difference then the QX is what you should get.
 
You're bound to have mixed opinions. Whether it's worth it, it depends on other factors. It's not named extreme for no reason because you'll need "proper" cooling to go with it, to spend that money on a CPU I would not expect to have anything less than 4.5.
I would either get a pre-owned Q6600 to clock it to 3.6 and beyond or wait until the price cut in July and get a Q9650 or Q9550 at a much reasonable price.
 
Bang for buck the Q6600 is way better, clock it to 3.6 and its fast enough for pretty much anything and is soooo much cheaper.

If you have too much money and its burning a hole in your pocket then get a qx9650 as for clocking with the multi it just gives you more options but its faster to clock with the fsb so u balance it at say 450x9 that would give you 4050mhz clock speed and a fsb of 1800, should be able to get that kind of clock on air as well.
 
I’m eagerly waiting for the q9650 non extreme which has a really usable 9 multiplier so 4GHz should be easily obtainable :) it should cost the same as current q9450's when it comes out due to the expected core 2 price drop.
 
Hesky82 said:
I’m eagerly waiting for the q9650 non extreme which has a really usable 9 multiplier so 4GHz should be easily obtainable :) it should cost the same as current q9450's when it comes out due to the expected core 2 price drop.
Click to expand...

No, it's going to be around the same price as Q9550 now, around £280-£300 mark. It's the Q9550 which will cost the same as Q9450 now after the price cut.
 
The q9550 is more than that atm, anyway can’t say for sure until shops start stocking them. 280-300 does sound about right though.
 
I have been looking for a quad core chip that will do 4ghz+. Have had 3 Q6600 but none of them will reach over 3.6ghz. Have a Q9450 that will do 3.7ghz max. Bought a QX9650 oem chip off ebay for £400 which seems to be the going price and put it straight in at 4ghz 1.35v and 8 hrs prime max temp 52c no sweat going to try for higher it will probably do 4ghz on much lower volts but have tried yet going for max speed first. I am more than pleased. £600+ from an etailor is ridiculous though.
 
I would have been happy with a Q9450 clocking at 3.72ghz, for the extra money spent on the extreme you wouldn’t notice a blind bit of difference in reality. but if you must have a 4GHz Penryn quad realistically the qx is your only option I guess.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom