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Worth upgrading Q6600?

Rozzy85

Rozzy85

Rozzy85

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Joined
27 Jun 2008
Posts
1,538
I've had this CPU for around 4 years. The computer is old by todays standards but it's still fast enough for my needs so I won't be doing a complete upgrade for a while yet. I do a lot of rendering and compiling on this machine so the CPU is the key component when rending texture maps.

Would it even be worth considering upgrading this to one of the higher end chips? I'm guessing LGA 775 CPUs can only really be obtained used now. I can't help but think the high end chips will still be grossly overpriced even used compared to the i5/7 CPUs and so I may as well just hold of.
 
If you can get a 3570k I think you will be :eek: when you see it in action.

I have just upgraded from a Qx9650 to a 3570k and all my games run so smooth, and I have just noticed my ping has also improved by a factor of three.
 
Ive just upgraded to the 3570k my self from the fantastic q6600 ,in terms of performance its quicker but if you really look into the cost of the upgrade then i think its not a amazing step. The wife has now the q6600 @3.2 with a ssd and in windows its nearly as quick as my machine, so my advise is if you are happy as you are then its not worth it.
 
I "upgraded" from a E8500 running at 4Ghz to a 3570k at 4.4Ghz.

I like the fact that I now have SATA III support and I do like the use of USB3 for my external USB 3 hard drives.

Performance wise for what I use mine for I can say that I have noticed very little difference. I suppose, game wise, Shogun II and Civ V is a little quicker now at the end turn time, whilst waiting for the AI. I am hoping that when the expansion for Civ V is released it will help when I play on the late game large maps.

I have not used the rebuild as yet to render any of my 1080p home family videos as yet as I haven't taken enough with my camera for them to need any editing. Maybe I will see some differences when I do. I am hoping this is where the quad will help as this would often maximise both my cores of the E8500.

I am not disappointed with the money that I could afford to spend (£260 for the motherboard and chip) and what I got as I realised how fast my E8500 was running and I already had SSD drives fitted, albeit SATA II. But SATA II to III in real terms has meant no difference for me.

When you are doing what you need to with the Q6600 do you find that all four cores are being maxed out...?

I did find that when rendering, as I noted, and also when playing Civ V I found that the E8500 was maxed out on both cores and also used up all the 1GB of my GTX460, albeit I have not changed the GPU.
 
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I encode avchd x264 disks.

using my normal profiles on my old q6600 G0 stepping cpu @ 3.8ghz, my encode times were around 40 hours


using my new intel 2600k @ 4.4ghz my encode times are now under 6 hours

so over 6 times quicker in encoding, and about 5 when not overclocked
 
I have a i7 920 it's a couple of years old now but I still find it decent, I also have an E6600 2nd machine and after using the i7 it seems slow but it's still very usable. Whereas the machine it replaced was so old and slow it was unbearable. Using the W32prime benchmark the E6600 scores 32 seconds on the 2nd test, the i7 just 9 seconds at standard clock speed, if I'd ever tested the old machine I expect it would be laughable.

There a world of difference between fast, usable and unacceptably slow. If you're happy with what you have then thats all that matters.
 
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go for it! I went from a Q6600 to my 2600K. I was apprehensive at first but now I have seen the light. Plus you can obviously benefit from Pci 3.0 and Sata 3 as well as dirt cheap DDR3 memory (at least for now)
 
PC wrecker said:
Ive just upgraded to the 3570k my self from the fantastic q6600 ,in terms of performance its quicker but if you really look into the cost of the upgrade then i think its not a amazing step. The wife has now the q6600 @3.2 with a ssd and in windows its nearly as quick as my machine, so my advise is if you are happy as you are then its not worth it.
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I simply do not agree with this.

The difference between a Qx9650 and a 3570k is night and day.

The difference is quite outstanding imo.
 
I can agree very much with what PC wrecker has written, for the reasons I noted previously. I have seen nothing amazing but I could afford the £260 it cost me to change so I'm not disappointed.

Also I have not seen any "night and day" differences but hopefully I will see some improvements when I need to render a video etc.

One of the biggest and most recent changes for me was to go to a SSD from a mechanical drive. However I have got used to that and now I tend to notice how slow other systems are without one rather than how fast mine is.
 
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I am also with Vimes and PC wrecker.
I went from a Q9650 OC @ 3.6, 8Gb DDR2 RAM, Asus P5QL Pro, GTX 460 1Gb - to a Gigabyte Z77 board Z77X-UD3H, I5 2550k, 8Gb 1600Mhz Corsair Vengeance, GTX 460 1Gb and there just simply is NOT the massive difference some are saying.

Stock clocks vs stock clocks and I would honestly think I had just done a minor upgrade.

Now running a rather simple OC on the I5 @ 4Ghz - 40x100, and while the benchmark numbers are almost double the speed of the Q9650, Windows and games are around the same - sure, the GTX 460 is the bottleneck here, I know, but nothing really feels that much snappier. Even with the I5 @ 4.5ghz 45x100 1.3v, and I just thought it wasn't worth the extra idle heat it was producing - 51c vs 40c at my current 4ghz clock.

I hate the damn Gigabyte BIOS, I seems to be missing my old Asus "Blue" BIOS screens. Heck, this Gigabyte BIOS locks up hard when I have a USB PS2 & Xbox360 joystick connected. Unplug them and the BIOS is fine. Plug 'em back in and the BIOS locks on the first screen. Could be trying to detect them as a mouse ? Who knows.

Anyway, the above is just me being totally honest. I love it that I am finally on new tech, but part of me will hugely miss the 775 socket - Heck, I have been with it since the end of 2006, and I feel a bit sad letting the old dog go.
 
opethdisciple said:
I speak from a purely games perspective.

The difference is quite remarkable going from a Qx9650 to a 3570k.
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I am not making the above up. The 3570k makes a massive difference compared to my Qx9650.

I had my new 670 in the old rig before I paired it up with my 3570k and it was good, but pairing it up withthe 3570k, things are a lot smoother, snappier and react to me, rather tham me having to react to the computer.

Only played Skyrim and BF3 so far, but big difference. Well worth it.

I would say any Core 2 cpu (dual or quad) the upgrade is very well worth it.

You will be :eek: at the difference. (In games)
 
I don't know why people are mentioning gaming, rendering is a completely different kettle of fish. From my experience with rendering in solidworks, they like lots of cores. The upgrade to even the best lga775 would be just as expensive as buying a newer build but offer no where near the performance boost.

Since your not looking to upgrade in a while, I would be looking at the next round of offerings from Intel and AMD. AMD does get a lot of bashing but one thing they are good at is rendering. you want to be looking at cinebench benchmarks for the best comparisons of what you need.

If rendering is a source of income I would say upgrade asap since the new hardware will pay for itself in time savings. if its just for fun, hold off for the next tock cycle.
 
I recently upgraded from [email protected] > i5 760@4ghz

Its quite a bit faster and will have cost me £40 for the upgrade.

IMO, its worth doing. No point in spending hundreds on Ivy if your Q6600 is adequate for most things. The extra cpu power on the i5 is so much better in 8 player Starcraft and GTA4
 
Apologies for what may be an obvious question - I'm kinda out of the loop when it comes to CPU's. Is this a good "bang per buck" upgrade?. Assuming the total cost will involve a new mobo, RAM, CPU and probably GPU at some stage?.
 
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