Still using trusty Q6600

joeyjojo · 29 May 2015 at 11:14

Poneros said:
Speaking of the Q9550, I recently found a post about a fine chap that ran a whole slew of tests comparing it to the i7 860 & i5 2500k. It's surprising how well the old chips compete.

What a champ. The second chart in post #3 is very useful (the top 40 CPU bound games).

Grey M@a · 29 May 2015 at 11:17

I sat on my Q6600 for 5 years before upgrading to the i7 4790k

It's still sat in the old case with the mobo and memory, just need a HD and a PSU and could use it as a backup machine.

Might just move it on though to get it our of the way. Great chip, started to struggle a little with some of the newer games but the games I mainly play it was spot on. Only upgraded as at the time OcUK had a cracking bundle on offer at the end of November.

MG42Maniac · 29 May 2015 at 11:23

I'm using a Q9650 @ stock with 8GB and a 256GB MX100 for Plex duties. It performs flawlessly and I'm sure if I stuck a decent GPU in I could game on it. My only slight gripe is that the power consumption is a little on the high side. I've got overclocked 4770Ks in both my HTPC and Gaming PCs but leave encoding duties to the Q9650 as it's still a good little performer.

ginjaninja · 29 May 2015 at 13:37

fumbles22 said:
I've just come from another thread where I mentioned my old Q6600!

It's a great processor, and I was using it till last year. However, upgrading to a xeon x5460 is a MASSIVE improvement. The temps were the first things that I noticed, and it is much snappier when loading things.

You can buy an x5460 for £18.99 on ebay. Apparently, it also overclocks better. I haven't tried myself though.

i think my q6600 is on x38 lga775

x5460 is lga771....so how does it fit?

Rroff · 29 May 2015 at 13:44

Its a fairly substantial modding job but it does work.

I've got I think a x5420 someone modded but then wussed out on chopping up the socket on their motherboard and I never got around to doing anything with.

ginjaninja · 29 May 2015 at 13:55

awww.got my hopes up..for a cheap upgrade
http://www.overclock.net/t/1431723/mod-lga775-support-for-lga771-xeon-cpus

too rich for my blood.

fumbles22 · 29 May 2015 at 14:50

i think my q6600 is on x38 lga775

x5460 is lga771....so how does it fit?

This is my understanding:

775 is the number of pins on the socket. So, a 771 socket uses 4 fewer pins.

The Xeon 771 processors have all their pins in the same place as the 775 processor (not including the 4 "missing" ones) except for two that have been swapped round. This was originally put into place to stop people buying the cheaper Xeons instead of the more expensive Core 2 Quads.

To get round this problem, you need to put a "sticker" on the bottom:

http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/muzd-Z_EJ1dKSNOKZ5jwRjA.jpg

** No hotlinked images please **

This sticker swaps those two pins round so they work in a 775 socket.

You will also need to use a stanley knife to cut some of the plastic out of your 775 socket. I hit the pins a few times, but my computer still works!

You also need to mod your BIOS. Delidded.com (or here) is an excellent source for doing this. You will have to look up your motherboard on the manufacturers website to see if you have an AMI BIOS or the other one (can't remember it off the top of my head).

After the mod you will be able to fit both Core 2 Quads (775 socket) and Xeons (771 socket). Personally though, Xeons are so much cheaper than C2Qs so you won't be going back after you've made the change.

EDIT: ginjaninja, that's one of the sources I looked at when I did the mod! This was back before I made an account, and trawled the forums without posting anything.

bowza · 29 May 2015 at 18:39

just found this thread, looks interesting, just done a quick read up then searched the auction site, found someone selling pre modded chips so I dont need to risk injury cutting the tabs of the socket,

so the question is will I notice much of a difference over my E8400 @ 3.8ghz with a L5420 @2.5ghz

While I wait for Skylake.

any thoughts thanks Bowza

joeyjojo · 29 May 2015 at 22:35

bowza said:
so the question is will I notice much of a difference over my E8400 @ 3.8ghz with a L5420 @2.5ghz

With such a big overclock on the E8400 it's a tough call. Might be slower in some stuff.

If you're looking for a stopgap a Core 2 Q8xxx or Q9xxx, or Xeon X32xx or X33xx would involve less faffing with modding.

(I use an X3320 and it's great.)

Dervious · 29 May 2015 at 23:42

faceman123 said:
Welcome, anyway yeah keep the q6600 if its still going strong, but bear in mind a g3258 would destroy it it's £55

+ the cost of a new motherboard ?

Dervious · 29 May 2015 at 23:49

Andy7 said:
The i5 2500k and i7 2600k were even better. I have a 2600k@ 4.8Ghz and don't see any reason to change it at the moment. After the Sandy chips you only get a 5% increase with each generation.

Until Intel release something that can blow it out of the water I will stick with what I have

I bought an i5 2500k in the same week that Ivybridge was released. That proved to be a decent decision, the 2500k was "cheap" (about £35 cheaper than the new one) and easier to keep it's temperature down when overclocked.

I also have no desire to upgrade. The rate of CPU advancement has levelled off greatly in the past few years.

fumbles22 · 30 May 2015 at 09:31

just found this thread, looks interesting, just done a quick read up then searched the auction site, found someone selling pre modded chips so I dont need to risk injury cutting the tabs of the socket,

Do they mean that they've just stuck a sticker on it and called it "pre-modded"?

The Xeons have been "rotated" when compared to the C2Qs (ie. the "cut outs" at the side of the chip are in a different place). You'll still need to cut the plastic tabs out of your motherboard. This is daunting, but actually really easy.

You can type it in on youtube for some tutorials, but I followed the instructions on delidded and it worked fine. You might want to check on delidded to see if your motherboard has already been tested. I've probably posted the link already, but you can check here.

It looks like lots of people are still doing it. The website used to be some plain text thing, but it looks much better now. The motherboard list is also more extensive. If you do mod your motherboard, and delidded doesn't have the chip and board you used listed, leave a comment at the end. I left a comment when I did my board and they changed the P5B-DE to the right section, and also added the X5460 to it within a few hours.

regulus · 30 May 2015 at 10:23

Muel said:
I had an AMD 965BE until a week or so ago. Had it 6 years but was finally time to upgrade, so I've built a 5820k system now with SLI Gigabyte GTX960 G1 4gb cards. The different is night and day! Move on, you'll regret not doing it sooner.

Haha, I also had the 965BE up until last year. I think Crysis 3 made me upgrade to a 8320 (figured AMD needed all the help they can get so stayed with them). Difference was pretty great. The 965 was actually a decent little chip. Still got it too.

bowza · 30 May 2015 at 11:24

The Xeons I found on auction site, had the sticker applied, and also the chip had been drilled so you don not need to cut the 2 tabs of the motherboard socket, so to look at the chip there are 4 cut outs on its edge so iy drops straight in, really tempted but dont want to drop £40 on one if overall its slower than my 3.8 core 2 duo

Bowza

joeyjojo · 30 May 2015 at 12:02

^ for £40 you can get any 775 quad you like (apart from the QX) if you keep an eye on the auctions.

Q9400s have gone as low as £16, Q9500s for £38, a Q9550 for £26, etc.

Pleiades · 30 May 2015 at 12:25

Dervious said:
+ the cost of a new motherboard ?

True, though I guess it's a good excuse to upgrade (I waited until all the '3's came along: USB 3, PCI-E 3.0, SATA 3, DDR3)

I went from Q6600 to G3258 hoping it'd do until Broadwell came along - It might be doing further duty tbh if the rumours about how lacklustre Broadwell is are true

Haven't noticed a huge difference between the 2 chips but remember the Pentium is only dual core so can only really be a stop gap IMO. I doublt it'll last even 1/4 of the time in my PC that the Q6600.

mzal · 30 May 2015 at 12:41

bowza said:
The Xeons I found on auction site, had the sticker applied, and also the chip had been drilled so you don not need to cut the 2 tabs of the motherboard socket, so to look at the chip there are 4 cut outs on its edge so iy drops straight in, really tempted but dont want to drop £40 on one if overall its slower than my 3.8 core 2 duo

Bowza

I got a xeon x5460 and its running stable at 4.3ghz cutting the tabs on the board was simple enough just a bit nerve wracking.

ginjaninja · 30 May 2015 at 12:57

thanks, the asus maximum formula is only compatable with 3xxxx xeons according to delided....what is the best 3xxxx xeon and is it worth considering over 3.2Ghz q6600....?

Dup · 30 May 2015 at 14:25

I still have a Q9550. Never got more than 3.4GHz out of it running 4GB Corsair 8500, 840 250GB SSD and 2x 6970s. Game at 2560x1440 quite happily for most games. Obviously probably don't see 60 frames for most games vey often but I don't look at frame rates and they play just fine for my liking.

Wondering if GTAV is a good idea or not.

ginjaninja · 30 May 2015 at 15:44

Dup said:
I still have a Q9550. Never got more than 3.4GHz out of it running 4GB Corsair 8500, 840 250GB SSD and 2x 6970s. Game at 2560x1440 quite happily for most games. Obviously probably don't see 60 frames for most games vey often but I don't look at frame rates and they play just fine for my liking.

Wondering if GTAV is a good idea or not.

it will be fine as a cpu for gta v....its well optomised and runs great on my 3.2ghz