Should I get new system? Advice needed...

Legend

Legend

Legend

Soldato
Joined
31 Dec 2006
Posts
7,224
Hi. I currently have the following setup;

- Intel 975XBX2 mbd
- Q6600 2.40 GHz
- Nvidia 8800GTX
- 4GB RAM

It's not running bad... although having a few niggles with it in Windows 7. I am thinking about upgrading though, in the hope i will see big improvements across the board. But it's been a while since i've looked into things, so not sure what the state of hardware is, and if it's worthwhile.

Some of the OC systems seem good deals, as I don't really have the time to be building a system from scratch right now.

I don't play lots of games, but would like the chance to be able to do if I wished. Not my priority though. I do video editing, photoshop, after effects, that kind of stuff.

Any advice? Many thanks...

:cool:
 
Get a good cooler and overclock the CPU, best option really, you could spend £600 on a new CPU, Mobo and RAM but wouldn't see a massive jump for the editing you do as the Q6600 is still good compared to the i7. Maybe throw in another 4gb of RAM?
 
How does the Q6600 compare to the i3 then? No comparison? Or any of the AMD CPUs?

And the 8800GTX is still OK? I've had that for what seems like forever!
 
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3704&p=8

As you can see the Q6600 is right on the heels of the i3s even though it is very old now and has quite a slow clock speed. With a cheap but effective cooler such as the Coolermaster 212 Plus or Titan Fenrir I reckon you'll be able to overtake the performance of the i3s. I personally have my Q6600 at 3.6GHz, which is not at all uncommon.

Certainly not worth upgrading to an i3.

Use the drop down list in that review to check the gaming performance, too. And remember there is a big performance jump from 2.4 to 3.6GHz.

Unless you play really cutting edge games at max settings you don't need to upgrade from the 8800.
 
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail [BX80601920]
Click image to enlarge
£220.99 inc VAT


Asus P6T SE Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard [90-MIB870-G0EAY00Z]
Click image to enlarge
£150.98 inc VAT
£128.49 ex VAT

Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 (1600MHz) Tri-Channel (PVT36G1600ELK) [PVT36G1600ELK]
Click image to enlarge
£122.99 inc VAT
£104.67 ex VAT

plus you could get a 4870 or 4890 for about £100 on bay
 
i have a similar system
- Asus M2N4-SLI mbd
- Athlon X2 3.04ghz
- Nvidia 9600GT x 2
- 4GB RAM

its great but yes we both could upgrading to the next generation :)
 
Legend said:
Having not OC'd myself before, i was attracted to some of the packages on the site, such as this one;

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=bu-042-oe&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=1677

with that extra boost, would it not overtake the q6600?
Click to expand...

i don't think that bundle would be much of an upgrade for encoding and the like, if you do a lot of encoding and cpu intensive stuff one of these two bundles would be a much better upgrade -
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=bu-010-ob&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=bu-008-ob&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=

there is also a pretty good guide to your motherboard here which may help you if you decide to have a go at overclocking your q6600. it should reach 3ghz without any problem.
http://www.peakin.com/xbx2/index.html#oc

and your 8800gtx will still play just about any game with high settings up to 1920 x 1200
 
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Legend said:
Having not OC'd myself before, i was attracted to some of the packages on the site, such as this one;

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-042-OE&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=1677

With that extra boost, would it not overtake the Q6600?
Click to expand...

Well you're never going to learn how to OC if you let OcUk do it for you and charge you for the privilege!

As I already said I don't think it's a worthy upgrade, but by all means blow £320 on it if wasting money is your thing.
 
OP, get a new cooler - preferably one that will fit an LGA1156/1366 socket too. Try overclocking your CPU, learn how yourself, its not hard and that 6600 is a great chip to learn on.

Next step should be a new GPU if you feel performance is lacking.

I wouldnt spend any more on 775 kit if I were you. If overclocking is board limited then you might aswell spend the money on a more substantial overhaul to get things going again.
 
I can get my high VID Q6600 upto around 3.1GHZ to 3.2GHZ on my flexATX 975X motherboard(which has limited overclocking options) and this is in a Shuttle SFF with the bundled ICE cooler. With a full sized 975X motherboard and a better cooler you would probably do better especially if your Q6600 has a lower VID than mine.
 
Thanks for the tips. Certainly not my intention to waste money. I didn't know how the i3 (or the other CPUs) stacked up against my Q6600, but good to know i'm not light years behind.

I know OC'ing isn't supposed to be that hard, but I must admit when i read that link posted by chipps above, my eyes do kind of glaze over a bit.
 
I'm in the same boat, but those i7's (920's in particular) will have to come down by at least 25% before i upgrade as i don't think it'd be worth the expense to upgrade the lot.
 
Legend said:
get them to overclock it risk free and having the whole thing guaranteed in the bargain! Sounds like a pretty good deal if you ask me!
Click to expand...

It isnt as guaranteed as you would think. Ive always thought it more important to be able to understand and trouble shoot your own kit than save a £10.
 
BIGBC said:
It isnt as guaranteed as you would think. Ive always thought it more important to be able to understand and trouble shoot your own kit than save a £10.
Click to expand...

:eek: i thought it was guaranteed s long as you don't flash the bios or play about with the settings yourself.

to the op - sorry if that link i posted confused you, once you get your head round it it does make more sense
 
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If I had that system i would keep it till the Hexacores are released and the next Nvidia cards are created.

Just a personal preference.
 
chipps101 said:
:eek: i thought it was guaranteed s long as you don't flash the bios or play about with the settings yourself.
Click to expand...

Oh no I didnt mean it like that, OcUK do guarantee it as long as you follow all their little rules. There are a lot of people who report them being unstable, not even being saved to the BIOS or working properly. This is what I meant - its not as guaranteed as you would expect from a professional service.
 
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