Need upgrade advice E6700 > Q9550

[NickelPlate]

Hey All,

I'm contemplating replacing my aging E6700 @ 3.4Ghz with a Q9550. Based on my system specs (see signature), do you feel this would be a worthwhile move? I've got the latest BIOS for my MB and the Q9550 is on the officially supported list.

I'm pretty sure if I want to move past the stock 2.83Ghz though, I'm going to need a RAM upgrade and would like some advice here. I'll probably stick with my Zalman cooler and I'm not sure how high I'll be able to go on air so I don't want to over buy the RAM.

Thanks as always for the advice.

NP

 

[AMDScooter]

Hey All,

I'm contemplating replacing my aging E6700 @ 3.4Ghz with a Q9550. Based on my system specs (see signature), do you feel this would be a worthwhile move? I've got the latest BIOS for my MB and the Q9550 is on the officially supported list.

I'm pretty sure if I want to move past the stock 2.83Ghz though, I'm going to need a RAM upgrade and would like some advice here. I'll probably stick with my Zalman cooler and I'm not sure how high I'll be able to go on air so I don't want to over buy the RAM.

Thanks as always for the advice.

NP

The question is do you need the new 45nm die (cooler/less power), extra 2 cores and extra cache? What apps do you run?

Let me share my story with ya. I have an ASUS P5KC and was running my e6850@ 3.6Ghz stock vcore with a Thermalright SI-128 SE HS/fan and some nice OCZ DR2 6400. It ran everything I had fine... games.. apps.. name it. But then again I'm a hardware addict and love to upgrade if it makes sense. I was going to upgrade to an I5 or I7. Then I looked at the specs... how the next gen I5&7 might need new mobo's and differences in performance with fastest Q series quad cores and what the total cost of the upgrade to an I5 or I7 system would cost and said to heck with it. Went to Microcenter and got the Q9550 for about $130(I had a gift card, usually about $170) and then stopped at frys for a nice deal on some speedy DDR3. Got the whole thing installed in less than 30 minutes and have it running at 3.65Ghz stock vcore as I type.

My fav game COD WAW loves the extra cache and cores. Other than that it does not feel any faster even though it is. Was it worth it to me personally? Yes. YMMV.

Good luck.

 

[AMDScooter]

wrong thread... sorry

 

[zagood]

Spotty BIOS support for that CPU on the P5BE. In general it's a good upgrade, but google for compatibility - there are both horror and success stories.

You'll need 800mhz ram to overclock (at the least). I'd recommend 1066.

Considering you need to buy new ram, and probably should buy a new motherboard, an i5 setup would be comparable in price and perform better.

 

[NickelPlate]

Well the intent was to stretch the life out of my current setup with a quad upgrade without spending a load of cash. But after reading some of the posts over at the Asus forums, it sounds like it might be a bit of a crapshoot even though Asus has added support for it in their BIOS.

Thanks for the replies.

NP

 

[AMDScooter]

Sucks, I had not heard about that ASUS board having spotty support for the Q9550. I plugged mine into mt P5KC and was off and running with no issues whatsoever. Good luck on your choice.

 

[AzN]

Spotty BIOS support for that CPU on the P5BE. In general it's a good upgrade, but google for compatibility - there are both horror and success stories.

You'll need 800mhz ram to overclock (at the least). I'd recommend 1066.

Considering you need to buy new ram, and probably should buy a new motherboard, an i5 setup would be comparable in price and perform better.

I don't know about all that. I searched the web only to find year old threads of compatibility issues. In recent threads bunch of guys hitting 3.8ghz with Q9550 on their P5B.

 

[zagood]

Like I said, you can find both. Personally I wouldn't be willing to take the chance, if I were going to drop that much money anway I'd go i5.

Might also depend on the stepping of the CPU. Looks like C0 has the earliest beta support, with C1 and E0 coming later (with a dif. bios for each).

 

[deanx0r]

What kind of spotty support are you referring to? I just upgraded my E6600 to a Q9550 on an old Asus P5B-D. Running 3.6GHz on it now with no hiccups.

 

[zagood]

Hey, I'm just giving him fair warning. A beta BIOS is beta for a reason, if they had 100% compatibility it would be an official release. He did his own research and came to the same conclusion that I did. If he decided to go that route, I would have said cool, let us know what happened.

I'm glad the upgrade worked for you, and it's worked for most people. But how many times has someone said "it'll be fine" for something you're ready to drop money on, and then found out it wasn't?

We enjoy a hobby where there are inherent risks of wasting large amounts of time and money. For someone who doesn't have the experience, they need to know about those risks, and if they decide it's worth it, great!

 

[AzN]

Hey, I'm just giving him fair warning. A beta BIOS is beta for a reason, if they had 100% compatibility it would be an official release. He did his own research and came to the same conclusion that I did. If he decided to go that route, I would have said cool, let us know what happened.

I'm glad the upgrade worked for you, and it's worked for most people. But how many times has someone said "it'll be fine" for something you're ready to drop money on, and then found out it wasn't?

We enjoy a hobby where there are inherent risks of wasting large amounts of time and money. For someone who doesn't have the experience, they need to know about those risks, and if they decide it's worth it, great!

Everything is pretty much beta these days. Even retail games that have bunch of bugs etc...

The older bios had hickups and the newer bios don't.

Why get a new mobo and drop cash when you can use the same mobo to do pretty much the same thing?

 

[Mothergoose729]

I don't think that, given your current setup, a quad core would make a whole lot of sense for gaming right now. Probably be better of just leaving your system alone, a graphics card upgrade would go much further then a CPU upgrade.

If you compile programs, use 3d modeling programs and professional media apps, or anything in between on a regular bases then a Q9550 would be a god send. Otherwise, 150 bucks towards a GTX 260 or HD 4870/5770 would do you much more good.

 

[Mothergoose729]

I don't think that, given your current setup, a quad core would make a whole lot of sense for gaming right now. Probably be better of just leaving your system alone, a graphics card upgrade would go much further then a CPU upgrade.

If you compile programs, use 3d modeling programs and professional media apps, or anything in between on a regular bases then a Q9550 would be a god send. Otherwise, 150 bucks towards a GTX 260 or HD 4870/5770 would do you much more good.

 

[NickelPlate]

Well I went ahead and took a chance. I loaded BIOS defaults, installed the new Quad and voila. Booted the first time and auto detected just fine. It makes a big difference with the multi-threaded apps and games that utilize more than 2 cores like l4d2, which I play also.

Thanks again everyone for your input. Now how much do you think my E6700 is worth on fleebay?

 

[dguy6789]

Glad everything worked out for you. It is against forum rules for people to tell you how much something is worth. I suggest going to a site that sells them and seeing how much they go for.

 

[cbn]

Hey All,

I'm contemplating replacing my aging E6700 @ 3.4Ghz with a Q9550. Based on my system specs (see signature), do you feel this would be a worthwhile move? I've got the latest BIOS for my MB and the Q9550 is on the officially supported list.

I'm pretty sure if I want to move past the stock 2.83Ghz though, I'm going to need a RAM upgrade and would like some advice here. I'll probably stick with my Zalman cooler and I'm not sure how high I'll be able to go on air so I don't want to over buy the RAM.

Thanks as always for the advice.

NP

What are you trying to do?

Or do you want to buy Q9550 pre-emptively before the price increases (as supply drys up)?

 

[waffleironhead]

What are you trying to do?

Or do you want to buy Q9550 pre-emptively before the price increases (as supply drys up)?

I suggest reading the entire thread before replying next time.

 

[AMDScooter]

Well I went ahead and took a chance. I loaded BIOS defaults, installed the new Quad and voila. Booted the first time and auto detected just fine. It makes a big difference with the multi-threaded apps and games that utilize more than 2 cores like l4d2, which I play also.

Thanks again everyone for your input. Now how much do you think my E6700 is worth on fleebay?

Glad it all went fine as well. I really like my Quad. I used to do a lot of Divx encoding compressing DVD's to fit onto CD's but gave it up some time back. Now with kids, my wife has me making DVD's of movies and photos of our kids/special events to send off to the relatives. Having 4 cores pumping 3.6 Ghz makes the encoding quite speedy. Takes longer to Lightscribe the labels than it does to encode and burn the darn things.

As for your old PCU... just search fleabay completed auctions to see what they are going for. It might be worth it just to keep it to put into a backup rig.

GL