Upgrading on a budget??

ichabod crane

ichabod crane

ichabod crane

Man of Honour
Joined
14 Aug 2005
Posts
5,270
Location
York
I am wanting to upgrade my PC but on a very tight budget, as I seem to be stalling allot of the time.

The main components of my system are -
CPU - core2quad Q6600
Ram - 8gb DDR2
GPU - Ati HD5770
Main board - Asus P5QL-E

I want to upgrade my cpu to get the most significant improvement would this mean a new main board and ram as well?

But I don't want to spend more than £200, so what are my best options or do I have no chance?

Thanks
 
Last edited:
OCing isnt that dangerous, if youre willing to spend a little time then you can get extra performance free, once youve settled on your OC and tested it properly you shouldnt get any crashes
If however youre really anti OCing for whatever reason then what is your mobo? you didnt say
 
The problem with Q6600 is that it needs to be overclocked for it to shine...and unless the application you uses uses the 3rd and 4th core, for most things it will be running like a dual-core at 2.4GHz.

I'm gonna take a guess that for application or software you use for work most likely doesn't benefit from the extra cores. Since you have make it clear that you don't want to overclock, I think the best option you could go with is probably try to find a cheap 2nd hand E8600, which is a dual-core at 3.33GHz.
 
95thrifles said:
OCing isnt that dangerous, if youre willing to spend a little time then you can get extra performance free, once youve settled on your OC and tested it properly you shouldnt get any crashes
If however youre really anti OCing for whatever reason then what is your mobo? you didnt say
Click to expand...

I dont have the time for overclocking nowadays, main board though is an asus P5QL-E.

geoirv23 said:
Is it a dual core? (E6600) or a quaed (Q6600)
Click to expand...

Sorry my error core2quad :p
 
Marine-RX179 said:
I'm gonna take a guess that for application or software you use for work most likely doesn't benefit from the extra cores. Since you have make it clear that you don't want to overclock, I think the best option you could go with is probably try to find a cheap 2nd hand E8600, which is a dual-core at 3.33GHz.
Click to expand...

According to windows task manager, AutoCAD and 3Dstudio are working across all 4 cores.
 
well it depends on the boards BIOS (easily updatable) and revision, see support list here, you could possibly drop in a Q9550/Q9650 if you can source one, second hand is prob best bet
Alternatively you could pick up an AM2+ mobo and new AM3 CPU such as a 955/965 or even a 1055 for hexcore, this might go just over the £200 mark though, though not by far
 
95thrifles said:
well it depends on the boards BIOS (easily updatable) and revision, see support list here, you could possibly drop in a Q9550/Q9650 if you can source one, second hand is prob best bet
Alternatively you could pick up an AM2+ mobo and new AM3 CPU such as a 955/965 or even a 1055 for hexcore, this might go just over the £200 mark though, though not by far
Click to expand...

What would give me the best performance increase overall, a second hand Q9550/Q9650 or a budget upgrade of cpu/mobo/ram of either intel or amd?

What could i get upgrade wise for my £200 from intel?
 
ichabod crane said:
According to windows task manager, AutoCAD and 3Dstudio are working across all 4 cores.
Click to expand...
It doesn't really work that way. I'm playing a mmo which show activity over the 4 cores, even when the game is single or dual threaded.

A quick google review that AutoCAD is a single-threaded app:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?linkID=9240617&id=15224826&siteID=123112

Where as the 3D Studio does seem to take advantage of the extra cores:
http://www.behardware.com/articles/780-7/intel-core-i5-and-core-i3.html

So the way I see it, you got two options...either overclock your Q6600 to higher clock speed, or if not overclocking, grab a i) 9550/9650 (if you existing motherboard support it) or ii) AM2+ board that use DDR2 memory and can use AM3 CPU, stick a Phenom II X4 965BE/970BE onto it (was gonna recommend considering the Phenom II x6 1055T, but don't think AM2+ board support it, and not sure if 3D Studio would even make use of the 5th and 6th core).

So bascially what 95thrifles suggested.
 
Last edited:
Your missing out on so much more by not overclocking that Q6600.

I can understand you not wanting to cause system instabilities but your motherboard should be up for the task.

I too have a Q6600, P5Q Pro, 8GB DDR2 and until recently the 5770 (replaced with GTX 460) I have no problems with the things I do, infact its such a pleasant system, runs all my games with no issues and encodes in relatively good times (comparison to i7 processors)

Do you know if your Q6600 is a G0 revision? seriously... spending the money on converting to DDR3 and a new motherboard wont improve performance that much... I have looked at all the possible upgrade paths and the only suitable advantage for me is to buy a Q9650 that will overclock to the same levels as my Q6600 but will run cooler on less voltage.
 
Last edited:
Third (and best :)) option...

Sell your current mobo/ram/cpu. That gear is still very desirable to people who'd happily overclock the nuts off it. With your now much more than £200 budget, get yourself a decent new mobo/cpu/ram. i5/i7/AMD x6 should be doable. Consider a pre-overclocked bundle from here if you're worried about overclocking yourself. The current gen of CPUs, particularly Intel, are such good stable overclockers that you're really missing a trick if you dont exploit that capability.
 
^ not a bad option for someone who runs a stock Q6600 however, people have mentioned (on these forums) moving from a Q6600 (overclocked) to i5 was not as big an increase they expected.

I can't comment since I have not got the components to compare but its been said.
 
iTek said:
Do you know if your Q6600 is a G0 revision? seriously... spending the money on converting to DDR3 and a new motherboard wont improve performance that much... I have looked at all the possible upgrade paths and the only suitable advantage for me is to buy a Q9650 that will overclock to the same levels as my Q6600 but will run cooler on less voltage.
Click to expand...

It is a GO revision yes, how hot does yours run? Mine currently at stock and idle is running at core 0 38, core 1 33, core 2 30, core 3 35 which I think is high.
 
iTek said:
^ not a bad option for someone who runs a stock Q6600 however, people have mentioned (on these forums) moving from a Q6600 (overclocked) to i5 was not as big an increase they expected.
Click to expand...
A Q6600 overclocked to 3.7GHz is roughly as fast as a stock speed 2.66GHz i5 750/i7 920. However, if the graphic card they are using is at a single GTX480 or anything lower than it, the frame rate in actual gaming probably won't be much different. The real benefit of overclocked i5/i7 coming in to play is when people SLI/Crossfire two or more mid to high-end graphic card.

In terms of software and apps that really use CPU for its raw power (unlike gaming), the difference between Q6600 and the i5/i7 are huge.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom