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Cheap CPU upgrade

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To answer everyone's question:

I have been trying to sell the 660ti for some time now, may turn to craigslist

My parents don't know about these upgrades since I'm using free stuff and the 26 dollars are from people or swagbucks (google with more ads and they give you free stuff, hard to explain).

I could do the electrical tape and ink trick but don't wanna kill this cpu

I didn't buy the 660ti, I won it in a contest

The best CPU that will work with this dell is a Q6600. The only other duel cores that will work are the E6xxx E4xxx series.

My case can't fit the 660ti so its sitting here.

I can't use the real money I have saved up since I have to get all As (not to make an excuse but at my school its almost impossible to get all As and have a competitive workload)

I think my parents will let me build a new pc next year some time since I'll be apply to colleges.
 
toyota said:
oh. well he should sell it then.
Click to expand...

Already offered via pm a offer of a trade of my sure to fit compatible with his dell msi tf3 7850 for his 660ti and even offered a small cash amount of his choosing which was $50 on the side as also pay for shipping but he only deals locally.

Selling it locally on craigslist is gonna be the only option to sell for him.
 
T_Yamamoto said:
To answer everyone's question:

I have been trying to sell the 660ti for some time now, may turn to craigslist

My parents don't know about these upgrades since I'm using free stuff and the 26 dollars are from people or swagbucks (google with more ads and they give you free stuff, hard to explain).

I could do the electrical tape and ink trick but don't wanna kill this cpu

I didn't buy the 660ti, I won it in a contest

The best CPU that will work with this dell is a Q6600. The only other duel cores that will work are the E6xxx E4xxx series.

My case can't fit the 660ti so its sitting here.

I can't use the real money I have saved up since I have to get all As (not to make an excuse but at my school its almost impossible to get all As and have a competitive workload)

I think my parents will let me build a new pc next year some time since I'll be apply to colleges.
Click to expand...

I kind of feel like the 660ti is the one thing you should keep- it's the one thing that will lose you the most money if you sell it! Definitely don't turn to something like Craigslist, you're going to get a really crappy price for it. If you're going to be cash strapped for a while, hang onto it and wait until you get to build that new PC, then you'll have a sweet GPU to go in it. If you sell it now to buy an upgrade for your old machine, you'll be kicking yourself when you build your new rig and have to settle for something like a 650.
 
NTMBK said:
I kind of feel like the 660ti is the one thing you should keep- it's the one thing that will lose you the most money if you sell it! Definitely don't turn to something like Craigslist, you're going to get a really crappy price for it. If you're going to be cash strapped for a while, hang onto it and wait until you get to build that new PC, then you'll have a sweet GPU to go in it. If you sell it now to buy an upgrade for your old machine, you'll be kicking yourself when you build your new rig and have to settle for something like a 650.
Click to expand...
This, keep it till you can upgrade the rest of your rig & sell it only if you get a real nice deal !
 
R0H1T said:
This, keep it till you can upgrade the rest of your rig & sell it only if you get a real nice deal !
Click to expand...

keeping it is also losing money, he can't use the card properly and the card value is decreasing all the time...

the money he can get from the card is what can be used to afford a complete upgrade... which would give a better result than a 660 Ti with a slow CPU.
 
Blastman said:
Anandtech tested 4MB vs 2MB L2 cache performance CPUsIntel's Core 2 Extreme & Core 2 Duo and the larger L2 averaged 3.5% faster on a bunch of programs. Not really worth it. As others pointed out, the only real upgrade would be to a much faster C2D or a quad like the Q6600.
Click to expand...

You cant just measure the effect of cache by looking at benchmarks though. Extra cache doesnt help if the benchmark fits in cache, and benchmarks tend to fit in cache. Cache really helps if your operating system has a few really busy threads going, like something javascript in your browser always running. That type of scenario will get a huge boost which will make your computer feel measurably faster. I'm talkiing about something like surfing ebay while having a youtube open in another window. Ebay is really cpu heavy nowadays. You can notice 4M cache vs 2M. The difference isnt huge, but its much larger than 4%. You really notice the cache on the E8xxx series.

OP: If there is any way the you can use an E8xxx series cpu that is what you should aim for. They are all clocked high and have 6M cache.
 
SPBHM said:
keeping it is also losing money, he can't use the card properly and the card value is decreasing all the time...

the money he can get from the card is what can be used to afford a complete upgrade... which would give a better result than a 660 Ti with a slow CPU.
Click to expand...
OR he could trade it, selling it outright will not be a smart move IMO but I guess it depends on what he wants but more importantly what value he's getting out of a trade/sale as the case maybe.
 
SPBHM said:
keeping it is also losing money, he can't use the card properly and the card value is decreasing all the time...

the money he can get from the card is what can be used to afford a complete upgrade... which would give a better result than a 660 Ti with a slow CPU.
Click to expand...
I can afford a complete upgrade, I have 800 dollars in cash sitting in my room, I just can't use the money since my parents won't let me upgrade using that. I have amazon giftcards and stuff. I've been using that and free stuff to upgrade this old chugger.
sm625 said:
You cant just measure the effect of cache by looking at benchmarks though. Extra cache doesnt help if the benchmark fits in cache, and benchmarks tend to fit in cache. Cache really helps if your operating system has a few really busy threads going, like something javascript in your browser always running. That type of scenario will get a huge boost which will make your computer feel measurably faster. I'm talkiing about something like surfing ebay while having a youtube open in another window. Ebay is really cpu heavy nowadays. You can notice 4M cache vs 2M. The difference isnt huge, but its much larger than 4%. You really notice the cache on the E8xxx series.

OP: If there is any way the you can use an E8xxx series cpu that is what you should aim for. They are all clocked high and have 6M cache.
Click to expand...
my motherboard can't support newer C2D. I'm stuck on 65nm 1066mhz fsb cpus
 
sm625 said:
You cant just measure the effect of cache by looking at benchmarks though. Extra cache doesnt help if the benchmark fits in cache, and benchmarks tend to fit in cache. Cache really helps if your operating system has a few really busy threads going, like something javascript in your browser always running. That type of scenario will get a huge boost which will make your computer feel measurably faster. I'm talkiing about something like surfing ebay while having a youtube open in another window. Ebay is really cpu heavy nowadays. You can notice 4M cache vs 2M. The difference isnt huge, but its much larger than 4%. You really notice the cache on the E8xxx series.

OP: If there is any way the you can use an E8xxx series cpu that is what you should aim for. They are all clocked high and have 6M cache.
Click to expand...
+1. Thanks to motherboards dying far more often than CPUs, I've done quite a few in-place C2D upgrades, and you do feel the difference, right off, even with a clock speed side-grade, such as an E4600 to a E6600.

If other options don't work out (I think some have been good, but his parents' limitations and judgement shant be worked around), going to a Q6600 will offer a 33% boost on clock speed alone, a major boost for multitasking and multithreading applications, and is cheap.
 
T_Yamamoto said:
To answer everyone's question:

I have been trying to sell the 660ti for some time now, may turn to craigslist

My parents don't know about these upgrades since I'm using free stuff and the 26 dollars are from people or swagbucks (google with more ads and they give you free stuff, hard to explain).

I could do the electrical tape and ink trick but don't wanna kill this cpu

I didn't buy the 660ti, I won it in a contest

The best CPU that will work with this dell is a Q6600. The only other duel cores that will work are the E6xxx E4xxx series.

My case can't fit the 660ti so its sitting here.

I can't use the real money I have saved up since I have to get all As (not to make an excuse but at my school its almost impossible to get all As and have a competitive workload)

I think my parents will let me build a new pc next year some time since I'll be apply to colleges.
Click to expand...

Case? Who needs a case? Just run your rig open case or naked. Heck if you are desperate just make a case out of cardboard.
 
T_Yamamoto said:
I think I'll do that this summer. Except my cooler is too big lol.
Click to expand...

Hey, if you're running it without a case there's always the backup cooler:

allaire-desk-fan.jpg


If you want any inspiration for a properly ghetto setup, check out IDC's wall mounted compute cluster some time. 😀
 
When BF3 was in beta,i was running a open build with no case,had a 6790,a e8200 and 4gb of ram sitting on top of a anti static bag on top of a motherboard box with a big box fan blowing on it and it worked well for a good couple weeks till i bought a case for it.
 
This is his problem... Huge BTX Cooler


0351mfg_20.jpeg


It seems possible though. When [H] starts working again you can see
 
Last edited:
skipsneeky2 said:
When BF3 was in beta,i was running a open build with no case,had a 6790,a e8200 and 4gb of ram sitting on top of a anti static bag on top of a motherboard box with a big box fan blowing on it and it worked well for a good couple weeks till i bought a case for it.
Click to expand...
I meant CPU cooler
NTMBK said:
Hey, if you're running it without a case there's always the backup cooler:

allaire-desk-fan.jpg


If you want any inspiration for a properly ghetto setup, check out IDC's wall mounted compute cluster some time. 😀
Click to expand...
CPU cooler, look below
Face2Face said:
This is his problem... Huge BTX Cooler


0351mfg_20.jpeg


It seems possible though. When [H] starts working again you can see
Click to expand...
Yeah, this this. LOL
 
I bet some thin zip ties would work for getting a fan directly on the heatsink. I've done that quick fix for other OEM boxes with no complaints.
 
T_Yamamoto said:
let me see if I can get the black shroud off it
Click to expand...

Here is a picture - Remove the two silver screws then lift the shroud back and it will come off.

5861-dell-J9761_zpsc38a3e48.jpg



EDIT:

It's actually not going to work because you need the shroud installed to hold the HS down. Your best bet is to cut the shroud back to allow access for the 660Ti. I have two of these shrouds maybe I can mod one and drop it off to you when you get the E6600?
 
Last edited:
Face2Face said:
Here is a picture - Remove the two silver screws then lift the shroud back and it will come off.

5861-dell-J9761_zpsc38a3e48.jpg



EDIT:

It's actually not going to work because you need the shroud installed to hold the HS down. Your best bet is to cut the shroud back to allow access for the 660Ti. I have two of these shrouds maybe I can mod one and drop it off to you when you get the E6600?
Click to expand...
even if I cut the shroud, it won't work, the card is doubleslot and the case doesnt support duelslot cards. Best bet is to use a PCI riser ribbon thing, which I dont have.
 
I can see why BTX didn't get much traction. ATX in a BTX case would lessen your problems. At least you have proof it can be done, good work Face2Face.
 
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