Q6600 rig to i5 2500K rig - first impressions

[Kaekae]

Not to thread jack but I just made the same jump. Parts should be in tomorrow. I am going from the rig in my sig to:

2500k
Asus P8Z68 Pro
8gb Gskill 1600

Congrats, let me know your first impressions and tell me what stable OC you achieved.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

I'm at a Q9550 @ 3.4 with a 5870 and waiting for the BF3 beta to finally come out so I can play it and see if I need to upgrade.

My 9550 blows yours away, my 3.6 is a monster. :biggrin:

 

[Kaekae]

UPDATE: It's been a week since I've built the 2500K rig.
At this very moment I'm running at 4.5GHz @ 1.272v on air.

I started at 1.35v and have been working my way down until it's been stable thru Prime95 testing.

I can't really tell much of a difference from the 4.2GHz initial OC I had it at the first few nights. And I probably won't shoot for 4.5GHz+ until I go watercooling (perhaps the H100?)

Is 1.272v above average, below average or right on average for a 2500k - 4.5GHz OC?

 

[SolMiester]

Just last night - my new build came in from New Egg (shipping was fast as always). And I know this is very fast to write a review on the new build but I just can't help msyelf - I'm very happy with it and wanted to share my experience and joy with this community. Also, these Forums had a large part in it since I wanted to wait for Ivy Bridge but reading all of your experiences just made me say "screw it" and went Sandy Bridge!

My previous rig was
Q6600 @ 2.6GHz stable (that was the highest stable OC my mobo could handle, it would load into windows at 3.2GHz but it would always crash anywhere from a half hour to a hour in)
Asus P5N-E SLi
4GB DDR2-800 Buffalo
EGVA 9800GTX+
Crucial M4 64GB SSD

New Rig
Intel i5 2500K (4.2GHz OC - will push harder into the week)
Coolermaster Hyper 212+ with 1 fan
ASRock P67 Extreme4 Gen3
8GB DDR3-1600 Corsair Vengeance
MSI 560GTX-Ti
Crucial M4 64GB SSD (now at Sata-III & firmware 0009 update)
Coolermaster HAF-922

Install went quick and easy (enjoyed a beer and cigar break through the process - this is key to all builders). These upgrades didn't set me back to much at all in terms of $ and at the time of order Newegg had lot's of instant savings on my GPU, Mobo & Ram and when I had purchased the Crucial SSD it was on sale for $89.99

Anyways - upgrading from a Q6600 at 2.6GHZ to i5 2500K even at 3.3GHz stock speed was a noticeable, very noticeable difference (I mean obviously). But I think the most noticeable difference has been the Sata-II to Sata-III jump. Everything I do is just so snappy and instant. I ran a SSD benchmark and I'm getting seq 515mb/read & 113mb/write. Prior to Sata-III I was getting 235mb/read & 98mb/write. I want to purchase another Crucial M4 and run it in Raid. (I hope they go back down to $89.99 sale)

My Windows 7 loads in 10 seconds and installing applications just FLEW!
The only game I played prior to the new build was Rift and with the Q6600 & 9800GTX+ at Ultra settings I was getting anywhere from 20FPS to 34FPS. 1920x1080 resolution.
Last night I loaded into Rift with the new build and was V-synced capped at 60FPS - I took off V-sync and I was hitting 85FPS at Ultra settings. The game feels so fluid too, just so smooth and responsive, where as 20FPS your eyes were like "ok this is laggy bro". Not to mention all maps and the major cities load so much quicker. (again mr. obvious)

All in all I am super happy with this new build and I haven't even overclocked the GPU yet. I'm shooting for a stable 4.5GHz overclock which I'm 99.9% sure I will be able to get with the 212+ at a decent voltage.

The mobo I purchased was future proof for Ivybridge and PCI 3.0 next year - but I won't be upgrading anytime soon, atleast for another 2-3 years probably.

P.S. I currently am using a NZXT-PP600W PSU. I should be good to go on running SLi 560GTX-Ti right? If I choose to do so.

I had the same upgrade although my Kentfield was happy at 3Ghz....Got the SSD and the 212+ cooler, and the i5K doesnt even break a sweat at 4.5ghz...

Only problem now is keeping the damn wife and her Farmville off the darn thing so I can use it!

 

[Kaekae]

I had the same upgrade although my Kentfield was happy at 3Ghz....Got the SSD and the 212+ cooler, and the i5K doesnt even break a sweat at 4.5ghz...
!

What V-core are you running your 4.5GHz stable? Just for comparison sake.

 

[SolMiester]

What V-core are you running your 4.5GHz stable? Just for comparison sake.

1.32v i think....

 

[Smartazz]

Was it worth the cost in the end?

 

[Kaekae]

Was it worth the cost in the end?

Well I've sold my old socket 775 parts for some decent money on eBay, basically paying for the 2500K and 8GB Ram.

So all in all I didn't break the bank but at the moment this is way too much machine for me. I've only been playing Rift and web browsing. No real huge multi-tasking performed yet.

However, I'm going to enjoy playing Battlefield 3, Skyrim & Diablo 3 on it at HIGH settings as soon as they come out.

Ask me then!!! :biggrin: