Poll: Q6600 owners, what did you upgrade/plan to upgrade to?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

What did you upgrade to/plan to upgrade to from a Q6600?

  • Penryn

  • Bloomfield

  • Westmere

  • Gulftown

  • Sandy Bridge

  • Ivy Bridge

  • Haswell

  • Don't Know/Not Sure

  • AMD Phenom II

  • AMD Bulldozer


Results are only viewable after voting.

WT

Diamond Member
Sep 21, 2000
4,816
59
91
I built a 2500k rig well over a month ago to replace my Q6700@3.5, and here I am STILL using the old Kenstfield rig. After 3 years, its showing its age with OS bloat slowing it down, but I have a few games I need to finish on the old rig before I retire it.
 

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
11,144
32
91
I voted penryn, but I just remembered that I never actually ran a Q6600 myself. I went from e6750 to x3350 on my ip35 pro, I just bought the q6600 four years ago for mom b/c her old rig was too slow (I think it was an athlon 400). She'll probably get my i7 920 next year, however, and I'll just pass the q6600 down to somebody at work or my kid's school.
 

ctk1981

Golden Member
Aug 17, 2001
1,464
1
81
I had a Q9550 overclocked to 3.77ghz earlier this year. Sold it off and just now built a cheap AMD 965 BE overclocked to 4Ghz. If I had more money to play with I would have went with a 2500 but these days I dont need all that power.
 

happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
14,387
480
126
I had a Q9550 overclocked to 3.77ghz earlier this year. Sold it off and just now built a cheap AMD 965 BE overclocked to 4Ghz. If I had more money to play with I would have went with a 2500 but these days I dont need all that power.

A q9550 @ 3.77 is just as fast if not faster than a AMD 965 @ 4.0? why?
 

ctk1981

Golden Member
Aug 17, 2001
1,464
1
81
A q9550 @ 3.77 is just as fast if not faster than a AMD 965 @ 4.0? why?

I didnt sell it to "upgrade" to the amd, I just sold it because it was the start of summer and figured Id build a new pc when it got closer to winter. Now is that time and I simply came to the conclusion that the majority of the processors out there are overkill for what I do. Most of the games Im interested in playing are ones that came out over the summer, a few new titles also but even those dont really show any HUGE benefit to having the latest and greatest processor.

All in all, I sold a used Q9550 system on 8GB 1066 DDR II and built a brand new AMD 965 on 16GB 1600mhz DDR3 and had some change left over. Cant really complain much.
 

Chiropteran

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2003
9,811
110
106
I upgraded from my Q6600 to a 1090T... wasn't really much of an upgrade, but the Q6600 was a Dell, some awesome bargain system at the time, with a tiny case you could barely fit a video card in.

I wanted to build a real computer that I could more easily mod and upgrade, if it wasn't for that I'd probably have just stuck with the Q6600 as performance wasn't a big problem.
 

Smartazz

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2005
6,128
0
76
Still using my Q6600. The only thing I dont like about it is the 100 watts idle power at the wall socket. But I'm not spending $300 just to reduce it from 100 to around 50. lol. But as others have said, the actual cost minus the resale profit would only be $100. Perhaps even less if I waited outside a microcenter on black friday. I must admit it is tempting to upgrade to a 2500k and 8GB of RAM for only $100.

I wish you didn't tell me about that deal at MC. Im gonna be near one for the weekend and that sounds like a steal.
 

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
765
126
Q6600 --> i7 860 (Lynnfield) (mysteriously not in your chart) --> i5 2500k.

Q6600 G0 @ 3.4ghz is my favourite CPU of all time. Personally, I don't think you timed your upgrades that well. It would have probably been better to grab 2500k and skip IVB until Haswell. I feel like Haswell is going to be a huge upgrade over SB/IVB since it's a new generation from Intel, while IVB is just a refresh of SB.

If you waited this long and your chip clocks pretty high, I honestly feel like you can wait until Haswell. The current 1155 socket is almost half way through its life. Just my 2 cents. This weekend MicroCenter is going to have 2500k for $149.99. Might be a good deal esp. since Q6600 can probably be sold on EBay easily.
 
Last edited:

ImDonly1

Platinum Member
Dec 17, 2004
2,357
0
76
I bought an i5 2500k when microcenter did their cpu and motherboard special. Was tempted since I could sell my older parts and the upgrade would net cost me ~$160.
 

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
11,144
32
91
The real issue with Q6600 is that it's still "fast enough" for just about anything other than a high end gaming rig. I think that 5 years from now it will still be ok for most users in fact, it's just ridiculous how good that cpu is. We enthusiasts will all be upgraded by the time haswell rolls around most likely, however.
 

Smartazz

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2005
6,128
0
76
Q6600 --> i7 860 (Lynnfield) (mysteriously not in your chart) --> i5 2500k.

Q6600 G0 @ 3.4ghz is my favourite CPU of all time. Personally, I don't think you timed your upgrades that well. It would have probably been better to grab 2500k and skip IVB until Haswell. I feel like Haswell is going to be a huge upgrade over SB/IVB since it's a new generation from Intel, while IVB is just a refresh of SB.

If you waited this long and your chip clocks pretty high, I honestly feel like you can wait until Haswell. The current 1155 socket is almost half way through its life. Just my 2 cents. This weekend MicroCenter is going to have 2500k for $149.99. Might be a good deal esp. since Q6600 can probably be sold on EBay easily.

I should have put separate choices for 1156 and 1366 but aren't they both Bloomfield? My brother just offered to trade my q6600 for his Phenom II X4 since he doesn't game anymore. Is it worth the hassle of switching with IB so close?
 

FordGT

Member
Jul 11, 2008
37
0
0
I upgraded to a 2600K only because I was able to buy one for a good price. Otherwise I would have waited for Haswell.
 

LoneNinja

Senior member
Jan 5, 2009
825
0
0
I should have put separate choices for 1156 and 1366 but aren't they both Bloomfield? My brother just offered to trade my q6600 for his Phenom II X4 since he doesn't game anymore. Is it worth the hassle of switching with IB so close?

An overclocked Q6600 will match Phenom II X4 in performance, so it probably isn't worth it.
 

deanx0r

Senior member
Oct 1, 2002
890
20
76
My overclocked Q6600 never felt slow, but I would like to get a new gaming rig in a smaller form factor like mini ITX instead of the huge tower I have now. I'll probably wait for Ivy Bridge and the next gen of graphic card as my current card cannot drive an Apple display (6970).
 

HeXploiT

Diamond Member
Jun 11, 2004
4,359
1
76
E8400 which is right in line with the Q6600. Bought BF3 & Skyrim and maxxed EVRYTHING with my 5870 and nice framerates. Decided HEY....don't need to upgrade yet!!
 

Duvie

Elite Member
Feb 5, 2001
16,215
0
71
I am a Qx6700 but thought that was close enough....

I skipped the Yorkfields and first generation i7 cores and I am going towards a 2500K Sandy bridge
 

yhelothar

Lifer
Dec 11, 2002
18,407
39
91
I recently downgraded my Q9550 to a Q6600 after I saw that they still go for OVER $200 on ebay! Mine ended up scoring $245 in September!
I got a Q6600 for $80. It runs at pretty much the same speed. The slightly less cache is not noticeable.
 

eltocliousus

Member
Oct 29, 2011
59
0
0
I went from my Q6600 to a 1090T just the other week, probably because I'm full retard 50% of the time, enjoying having something different than 90% of my friends though (most if not all on 2500k's), I take the piss most of the time by asking them why they only have four cores and not six, always sparks conversation.
 
Last edited:

volcane

Member
Nov 1, 2011
43
0
0
I went from my Q6600 to a 1090T just the other week, probably because I'm full retard 50% of the time, enjoying having something different than 90% of my friends though (most if not all on 2500k's), I take the piss most of the time by asking them why they only have four cores and not six, always sparks conversation.

Funny! I sometimes feel the same. Everybody and his dog is on a 2500k today. Makes me want to be different for difference's sake.
 

StinkyPinky

Diamond Member
Jul 6, 2002
6,883
1,096
126
Went with the 2500K which I see as the successor to the Q6600. Cheap, high performance quad core.
 

dbk

Lifer
Apr 23, 2004
17,685
10
81
i have a q6600 right now at 3.2ghz with a ssd.. it pretty much does everything i need.. BUT i picked up BF3 and it's getting pwnd with my 4850.. Even still, I'm only going to upgrade the GPU and it should be solid for a while. I dont game too much (SC2, MW3.. CS, now BF3). Should be good