Still using trusty Q6600

Mr Oblong · 25 Jul 2015 at 17:20

DX12 is likely to give a new lease of life to many CPUs too, so we may get even more years of gaming out of these old clunkers

altich88 · 25 Jul 2015 at 19:06

I'm still using my i5 750 @ stock. I'd probably keep it for a while if it was easier to get 1156 boards still - fed up with my massive ATX tower.

Killer7xx · 25 Jul 2015 at 22:30

Mr Oblong said:
DX12 is likely to give a new lease of life to many CPUs too, so we may get even more years of gaming out of these old clunkers

That's what we're all hoping for. It could be good news for people who use AMD CPUs as well since the FX series is supposed to be better supported by DX12.

OspreyO · 25 Jul 2015 at 23:14

What will DX12 do? (not following hardware anymore).

Mr Oblong · 25 Jul 2015 at 23:35

OspreyO said:
What will DX12 do? (not following hardware anymore).

The thinking goes that DX12 is a much more lightweight API so the CPU will spend more time tearing directly into the task it's been given.

For certain games with heavy CPU load, it should give a healthy boost (many games aren't CPU limited in normal scenarios anyway).

Akagi · 25 Jul 2015 at 23:45

The Q6600 really was one of those CPU's which was 'the one' to buy. The only ones since then have been the i7 920 and the i5 2500K. They absolutely last for ages. Brilliant value for money if you don't get the upgrade itch!

They will be totally outclassed by current technology of course, but they are still rock solid and perfectly capable for desktop usage and light gaming!

I had my Athon 64 6000+ for ages. In fact I had it right up until I got my 2500K

I only recently changed the 2500K for a 2700K, and that was only because a good deal came up.

OspreyO · 25 Jul 2015 at 23:57

Thanks for the dx12 info.

I spent a few years with no desktop. Only recent picked up some old C2D and quads to play with and make cheap gaming rig for the kids (me). I found they work well but if they are paired with slow ram, hd or gfx it has a big impact. You can't spend much on a fixer upper as your quickly into G3258 prices.

That said you can pick up a C2D or quad machine with a basic spec perfect for upgrading old family computers very cheap.

Akagi · 26 Jul 2015 at 00:03

I sold a very decent Core 2 Quad rig for £100 recently! It was a:

Q6600 @ 3.2GHz w' Asus Royal Knight
Asus Striker II Extreme
4GB OCZ Gold 1066MHz DDR3
Radeon HD4890

And some reasonable quality supporting components, PSU, case etc, and an official Vista licence.

Bargain!

andy_mk3 · 26 Jul 2015 at 00:12

I was running a Q6600 until last year, when I felt it was a good time to upgrade to a 2500k while the Q6600 was still selling for reasonable money and the i5 was dirt cheap. I wanted a new motherboard too, to support xfire and USB3 etc. Then made the switch from i5 to i7 as that was also very cheap upgrade.

Akagi · 26 Jul 2015 at 00:13

andy_mk3 said:
I was running a Q6600 until last year, when I felt it was a good time to upgrade to a 2500k while the Q6600 was still selling for reasonable money and the i5 was dirt cheap. I wanted a new motherboard too, to support xfire and USB3 etc. Then made the switch from i5 to i7 as that was also very cheap upgrade.

You sir are doing it right!

andy_mk3 · 26 Jul 2015 at 00:20

Acme said:
You sir are doing it right!

Haha, indeed. I'd rather not pay £280 for an i7 when I can buy a 2600k for £100 which isn't that far off a 4790k. Plus after selling my 2500k for £80, it's a £20 upgrade.

Akagi · 26 Jul 2015 at 00:22

andy_mk3 said:
Haha, indeed. I'd rather not pay £280 for an i7 when I can buy a 2600k for £100 which isn't that far off a 4790k. Plus after selling my 2500k for £80, it's a £20 upgrade.

I sold my 2500K for more than I bought my 2700K for!

eggbert · 26 Jul 2015 at 10:34

Epic chips,

I went q6600 -> 920 & the only reason I left the 920 was for USB3 and SATA3

I honestly think my 920 whoch ran 4ghz would have still done me to this day if it wasn't for the upgrade itch.

ukxenon · 26 Jul 2015 at 16:19

if you computer is still doing everything you want it to then why upgrade? BUT if you want to then wait for skylake.

iMacMart · 26 Jul 2015 at 21:54

My Q6600 is still running at 3.6 fine, don't really game but with 8gb and a 240gb ssd it's perfectly fine for the odd game and the wife to do offie bits on

ugly ferret · 26 Jul 2015 at 22:15

I was still using my q6600 at stock with a 970gtx till I upgraded to a haswell xeon a couple of weeks ago. Ran games surprisingly well at 4k, I suppose because it's so gpu limited at such a high res! Not so good for getting silly frame rates in benchmarks but ran pretty much every game I tried at at least 60fps at 1080p. Really struggled with far cry 4 though, seemed to run at the same framerate no matter what resolution.

Mr Oblong · 26 Jul 2015 at 22:54

I feel like the 'wait for [Intel's next chip]' has disappointed for a long time.

It feels like all they care about these days is improved battery life, the rest of the budget/die-space goes to the integrated GPU.

Where's my single-threaded beastly performance?!

C64 · 26 Jul 2015 at 23:06

Mr Oblong said:
I feel like the 'wait for [Intel's next chip]' has disappointed for a long time.

It feels like all they care about these days is improved battery life, the rest of the budget/die-space goes to the integrated GPU.

Where's my single-threaded beastly performance?!

g3258

iMacMart · 28 Jul 2015 at 12:25

At 3.6 is there any compatible chip I could drop into my rig for a bump or is it hardly worth the it?

M

Mr Oblong · 28 Jul 2015 at 13:46

C64 said:
g3258

How have I missed this little beast? What a chip!

I think there might be issues with some games that demand a quad core, but the value is blinding once they're past 4.2 Ghz.