Q6600 @ 3.6 / GTX460 1GB enough for Dark Souls PC? Streaming too?

[Termie]

...

He picked up the PC two days ago, and is ecstatic about it.

Ultimately, that's what matters. If he's satisfied with how the system performs given his needs, and feels he got what he wanted for a price he was willing to pay, none of our commentary is that important.

Selling anything, whether used or new, is all about matching the expectations of a buyer and seller.

 

[jacktesterson]

I would love to see you build something comparable for $300. Even using all used parts.

Edit: Heck, the Q6600 alone is worth $80 on ebay, the GTX460 1GB card Termie said was worth $80, the 2x2GB of DDR2-800 is worth $40, that's $200 right there. Add $100 for Windows 7, and that doesn't leave anything for:

case, psu, motherboard, heatsink, HD, DVD.

Personally, I think you're nuts. Kind of like the guy from CL that tried to buy some of my retail-boxed HDs, for the price he saw and quoted from pricewatch, which was for REFURB BARE DRIVES.

I'm not nuts. I don't see many agreeing with you.

To each there own. I still wouldn't pay anymore than $300 for it personally.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Asus DVDRW $19.99
APEX PC-389 ATX Mid Tower $19.99
Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD $69.99
ASRock FM1 A55 mATX motherboard $53.99
Sapphire Radeon 6670 1GB DDR3 $64.99
Antec Neo ECO 400w PSU $32.99
G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2x4GB) 1333mhz $33.99
AMD A6-3670k Unlocked Llano 2.7Ghz APU (w/6530d) $89.99
Windows 7 Home Premium OEM 64-bit $99.99
MASSCOOL 80mm case fan $2.99

Subtotal: $488.90
Shipped to Oregon: $499.90
Total After MIR: $484.90

Id rather have a new system as posted rather than an older, used, overclocked system. As much attachment you might have to it, it's hilarious to expect any kind of reliability at 3.6ghz on a Q6600. As an electronics technician I know what strain that really puts on the motherboard and the processor itself with electro-migration. A 50% jump in strain on the motherboard timing circuits and processor is too much to handle without circuit degradation. It's just not possible. It doesn't matter how much cooling you throw on the motherboard. Capacitors and timing IC's will fail at any time.

As quite a few others have posted, you've not realized that the value of old components drop. This is especially true when overclocked! However mature of cherry picked you think that CPU is, look on these forums and others about the same stepping Q6600 degrading at those kind of speeds. After several drops in clocks to get it stable, it'll keep dropping below what is the default speeds. Don't forget, you mentioned it was running an entire month at 100% load for F@H at those clocks. That was not very bright for re-sale value at all. I wouldn't pay $20 for that CPU after reading that. On the socket 775 spec, the memory controller and timing circuits are all on the motherboard, not the CPU. Any overclocking will degrade the motherboard heavily. Even if you do not realize it now. That too makes the motherboard's value much lower. At least with AMD and Core-i series its located on die, so if you overclocked the processor, you did just that and not the motherboard.

In short, selling overclocked parts should significantly lower the value and prices of said parts. Would you rather buy a sports car that is capable of driving fast but hasn't, or the same car that was thrashed for over a month straight, redlining the entire time? You'd pick the less abused car.

And at this point, dropping another $40-$60 could net a faster video card, and ALL NEW components to go with it.

 

[zebrax2]

If you were selling it to someone you don't know i would say go for it but considering that the one you're selling to is a friend i think he deserves a price a little bit better than what you could get from it selling it to others.

 

[Rvenger]

Asus DVDRW $19.99
APEX PC-389 ATX Mid Tower $19.99
Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD $69.99
ASRock FM1 A55 mATX motherboard $53.99
Sapphire Radeon 6670 1GB DDR3 $64.99
Antec Neo ECO 400w PSU $32.99
G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2x4GB) 1333mhz $33.99
AMD A6-3670k Unlocked Llano 2.7Ghz APU (w/6530d) $89.99
Windows 7 Home Premium OEM 64-bit $99.99
MASSCOOL 80mm case fan $2.99

Subtotal: $488.90
Shipped to Oregon: $499.90
Total After MIR: $484.90

Id rather have a new system as posted rather than an older, used, overclocked system. As much attachment you might have to it, it's hilarious to expect any kind of reliability at 3.6ghz on a Q6600. As an electronics technician I know what strain that really puts on the motherboard and the processor itself with electro-migration. A 50% jump in strain on the motherboard timing circuits and processor is too much to handle without circuit degradation. It's just not possible. It doesn't matter how much cooling you throw on the motherboard. Capacitors and timing IC's will fail at any time.

As quite a few others have posted, you've not realized that the value of old components drop. This is especially true when overclocked! However mature of cherry picked you think that CPU is, look on these forums and others about the same stepping Q6600 degrading at those kind of speeds. After several drops in clocks to get it stable, it'll keep dropping below what is the default speeds. Don't forget, you mentioned it was running an entire month at 100% load for F@H at those clocks. That was not very bright for re-sale value at all. I wouldn't pay $20 for that CPU after reading that. On the socket 775 spec, the memory controller and timing circuits are all on the motherboard, not the CPU. Any overclocking will degrade the motherboard heavily. Even if you do not realize it now. That too makes the motherboard's value much lower. At least with AMD and Core-i series its located on die, so if you overclocked the processor, you did just that and not the motherboard.

In short, selling overclocked parts should significantly lower the value and prices of said parts. Would you rather buy a sports car that is capable of driving fast but hasn't, or the same car that was thrashed for over a month straight, redlining the entire time? You'd pick the less abused car.

And at this point, dropping another $40-$60 could net a faster video card, and ALL NEW components to go with it.

Not to mention, new parts come with mostly 3 year warranties nowadays, not 6 months. Installing windows 7 on old hardware is the easiest thing in the world since you would only really need to install the VGA driver, I don't see charging a fee for sticking a disk in a computer, clicking a button and walking away IMHO.

 

[ocre]

Asus DVDRW $19.99
APEX PC-389 ATX Mid Tower $19.99
Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD $69.99
ASRock FM1 A55 mATX motherboard $53.99
Sapphire Radeon 6670 1GB DDR3 $64.99
Antec Neo ECO 400w PSU $32.99
G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2x4GB) 1333mhz $33.99
AMD A6-3670k Unlocked Llano 2.7Ghz APU (w/6530d) $89.99
Windows 7 Home Premium OEM 64-bit $99.99
MASSCOOL 80mm case fan $2.99

Subtotal: $488.90
Shipped to Oregon: $499.90
Total After MIR: $484.90
................

if someone was offering me for free the choice between this system and the one from the OP i would go with the OP system. But i wouldnt buy either for that price. If i only had 500 bucks and those options, i would save my cash and start some penny pinching. You know for not much more you could build a system that smashes these. I would save up a couple hundred more.

I am not knocking it, just giving my opinion. I have a socket 775 system that is still trucking on today. Was a q6600 that i dropped in the q9450, then the gigabyte motherboard went toast (long term overclocking?). got a new one and still running fine. I actually pulled out the q9450 recently and have been messing around with the q6600. Actually there isnt a lot of difference. The q6600 overclocks higher than my q9450 (3.4ish vs 3.7ish). Also my i use my intel system more than my AMD ph2 one. There isnt a lot of difference there either.

So what i am saying is that the q6600 isnt terrible, at those clocks its at least on par with the ph2s quads and the q9XXX @ 3.4ghz and below. Its nothing to brag about but should be faster than todays APUs. Really though..... They are all pretty close together. Performance wise anyway.

But like i said, if your gonna spend 500$ you would be much better off saving up a tid bit longer. A little bit more money can get you a way way better system. The difference would be night and day.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Not to mention, new parts come with mostly 3 year warranties nowadays, not 6 months. Installing windows 7 on old hardware is the easiest thing in the world since you would only really need to install the VGA driver, I don't see charging a fee for sticking a disk in a computer, clicking a button and walking away IMHO.

I'm not sure why you're bringing up this strawman argument. I didn't charge him for installing Windows 7. I charged him for Windows 7 itself. (Legit Windows OS isn't free, you know.)

 

[RussianSensation]

Let's look at this.

X48 mobos on ebay are selling for ~$145.
Q6600 G0 SLACR on ebay are selling for ~$99.
2x2GB Gskill DDR2-800 for ~$45. ebay
Tuniq Tower 120 for ~$30. ebay
Antec 300 for ~$65. ebay
EarthWatts 650W Green for ~$65. ebay
DVD burner for ~$20 at Newegg
500GB WD HD for ~$70 at Newegg.

That's $539 for just the worth of the parts alone.

That's not how it works. People pay those prices for old parts on individual basis. For example if their LGA775 C2D CPU failed they might get a cheap Q6600 or maybe they want a cheap $100 upgrade for their E6400 system instead of going out and buying a brand new $600 PC, or maybe they got a free Q6600 CPU and DDR2 but need an LGA775 motherboard since theirs failed!

No one who follows PCs would actually go out and buy all those parts 1 by 1 and pay $540 for them.

Also, you say your motherboard has 3x PCIe slots. Ok what for exactly? A Q6600 @ 3.6ghz bottlenecks single-GPU videocards 2 generations ago. Either way if your friend paid $500 for that system, your gain, his loss.

To each there own. I still wouldn't pay anymore than $300 for it personally.

Me neither. If any 1 part breaks in that system over the next 3 years, you would have to pay $50-60 at least to replace anything there other than the RAM. I'd rather spend $600-650 on a brand new system with a 60GB SSD for the OS and a modern power efficient 2500K+ OC and 3 years warranty for most new parts. The system presented by the OP has no warranty after 6 months, no SSD, none of the modern USB3.0/SATA3.0/USB smartphone/tablet charging features, and uses extremely power inefficient components that will add up in electricity costs over time. The electricity costs alone over the next 3 years are going to wipe out nearly $100 in savings today. Not to mention, a person who is a "power user" will not be able to survive with 4GB of DDR ram. Actually for a power user a system with only 4GB of DDR and a mechanical drive for an OS is already a non-starter. 99% of people who have an SSD for their OS / apps would not be able to go back to the "chugging" mechanical drive.

Even Anand discusses this in great detail in his First Podcast. He even goes on to imply that even a tablet is snappier than a $600 PC without an SSD.

What VL doesn't realize is that in games that are not multi-threaded (most games don't use up all 4 cores yet), the Q6600 @ 3.6ghz is only about as fast as an E8600 Core 2 Duo, while in multi-threaded apps, an X6 1045T @ 3.8ghz CPU has ~50% more performance since the 2 CPUs have similar IPC. The Q6600 is worse than an i3 for games and worse than an X6 for multi-threaded apps.

Finally, the person buying the system is sinking $500 into a hole. What do I mean by that? In 2-3 years, you can still resell that $650 system with Core i5 2500k + 60 GB SSD, Z77 motherboard, HD7770 GPU for at least some $. The actual cost of ownership cannot be minimized in this case since you cannot recoup much in the resale value of system on a Q6600 processor should you want to upgrade in 2-3 years from now. That's another aspect that was totally ignored!

 

[jacktesterson]

That's not how it works. People pay those prices for old parts on individual basis. For example if their LGA775 C2D CPU failed they might get a cheap Q6600 or maybe they want a cheap $100 upgrade for their E6400 system instead of going out and buying a brand new $600 PC, or maybe they got a free Q6600 CPU and DDR2 but need an LGA775 motherboard since theirs failed!

No one who follows PCs would actually go out and buy all those parts 1 by 1 and pay $540 for them.

Also, you say your motherboard has 3x PCIe slots. Ok what for exactly? A Q6600 @ 3.6ghz bottlenecks single-GPU videocards 2 generations ago. Either way if your friend paid $500 for that system, your gain, his loss.



Me neither. If any 1 part breaks in that system over the next 3 years, you would have to pay $50-60 at least to replace anything there other than the RAM. I'd rather spend $600-650 on a brand new system with a 60GB SSD for the OS and a modern power efficient 2500K+ OC and 3 years warranty for most new parts. The system presented by the OP has no warranty after 6 months, no SSD, none of the modern USB3.0/SATA3.0/USB smartphone/tablet charging features, and uses extremely power inefficient components that will add up in electricity costs over time. The electricity costs alone over the next 3 years are going to wipe out nearly $100 in savings today. Not to mention, a person who is a "power user" will not be able to survive with 4GB of DDR ram. Actually for a power user a system with only 4GB of DDR and a mechanical drive for an OS is already a non-starter. 99% of people who have an SSD for their OS / apps would not be able to go back to the "chugging" mechanical drive.

Even Anand discusses this in great detail in his First Podcast. He even goes on to imply that even a tablet is snappier than a $600 PC without an SSD.

What VL doesn't realize is that in games that are not multi-threaded (most games don't use up all 4 cores yet), the Q6600 @ 3.6ghz is only about as fast as an E8600 Core 2 Duo, while in multi-threaded apps, an X6 1045T @ 3.8ghz CPU has ~50% more performance since the 2 CPUs have similar IPC. The Q6600 is worse than an i3 for games and worse than an X6 for multi-threaded apps.

Finally, the person buying the system is sinking $500 into a hole. What do I mean by that? In 2-3 years, you can still resell that $650 system with Core i5 2500k + 60 GB SSD, Z77 motherboard, HD7770 GPU for at least some $. The actual cost of ownership cannot be minimized in this case since you cannot recoup much in the resale value of system on a Q6600 processor should you want to upgrade in 2-3 years from now. That's another aspect that was totally ignored!

Exactly

 

[SPBHM]

I did some streaming on twitch with a core i3... it was fine for single thread games (old games), and acceptable for dual thread games (dayz and TF2), HT was working well...
but I would still recommend going for an i7 or X6 as minimum (but an overclocked i5 will be enough to)....

I had an older lga 775 setup many months ago, with a dual core CPU, bought a C2Q on ebay for $60 or something, but in the end I was not so happy with it... at 3GHz it was already using a lot of power and near the limit for OC, and it was slower than my old CPU in some games (but much faster in GTA4), so I basically sold and got the i3 for the same money, and I'm satisfied with it... although for twitch the C2Q could probably be better in some cases, for pure gaming in general, the i3 is faster.