q6600 - still viable for gaming? or is it time to upgrade?

[blckgrffn]

You started the fight.

Yes, the fight. You got that right. Gauntlets down, boys. It's time for duel.

Jeeze :colbert:

 

[Matt1970]

If it helps your decision making, the Q6600 is still fetching $75 on ebay.

 

[Obsoleet]

Q6600 still has plenty of life.. you'd be a fool to upgrade it IMO.

All you need to do is put a modest overclock on it, since the stock speed (2.4ghz) is a little lower than some might feel comfortable with.

Upgrade to a comfier PC chair.. the last thing every single person considers

+1

Stupid to upgrade a Q6600 now. Anyone on Q-series should stick with it until Haswell unless it breaks.

 

[Maximilian]

Ib e will cost more than twice of ivy or haswell and perform slower than haswell for games. Ivy and haswell will be nearly the same price, maybe 10-20% diff hopefully, Ib e will be at least 2-3 times as much

This is likely true... except nobody mentioned IB-E at all

 

[Arkanius]

I registered to ask the same question but thankfully there is a thread similar to what I would create:

I'm in a very very similar situation except my system stands at this:


Q6600 @ stock (It was at 3.0 Ghz Previously)
Evga GTX 275,
nVidia 680i,
G.SKILL 4GB DDR2 (Stock speeds),
Noctua cooler
Antec 900
OCZ Vertex 3 (Currently bottlenecked as hell)
And I can't even remember the PSU anymore, but it was 600w and a respectable brand.

My computer lately has been getting instability spikes and an occasional freeze or another but it was always passable. Until one day Windows would refuse to boot with my OC. Alas, any OC will make the boot fail. I could only boot into windows/Linux/whatever if I had stock speeds.
It was a huge blow into my sweet Q6600

Now since I'm feeling that my SSD is very capped because it's running in SATAII and without ACHI I felt SOME need to upgrade to a more recent Mobo+CPU, then I got this ordeal of my machine showing me the middlefinger when I try to push it a little harder.

I don't know what to do really, I didn't want to waste a small fortune in upgrading the computer, but I don't want to upgrade to something that really won't give me the lifespan my Q6600 has given me. (I'm using it since 2008. Best CPU I ever had)

In my case, what do you guys recommend?

P.S I also wanted to switch my case for a CM690II Advanced (White Edition) because the Antec 900 is a dust magnet and the cabble management is getting atrocious. I have 3 HDD's + 1 SSD + Optical drive and the pristine machine I once had is now a spaghetti inside. With dust. And I de-dust it often.

 

[pelov]

I'd say a 2500K is the next q6600 as far as longevity goes, or even the 2600K. You're stuck in a rut because your upgrade would have to be a complete overhaul (platform+GPU) so you can't exactly pick out a single new shiny part. I'd say go with the 2600K or the 2500K depending on your workloads and either choice will last you years.

 

[Arkanius]

I'd say a 2500K is the next q6600 as far as longevity goes, or even the 2600K. You're stuck in a rut because your upgrade would have to be a complete overhaul (platform+GPU) so you can't exactly pick out a single new shiny part. I'd say go with the 2600K or the 2500K depending on your workloads and either choice will last you years.

I still think the GTX275 has lot's of line in it. Nowadays most games are developed in tandem to work on the PS3, X360 and PC and due that they mostly come very well optimized. GPU is not a priority in this moment.
Will Ivy Bridge make SB prices come down a little bit? I might hold on a few months to get the 2600k or the 2500k for the best bang for buck

 

[blckgrffn]

I still think the GTX275 has lot's of line in it. Nowadays most games are developed in tandem to work on the PS3, X360 and PC and due that they mostly come very well optimized. GPU is not a priority in this moment.
Will Ivy Bridge make SB prices come down a little bit? I might hold on a few months to get the 2600k or the 2500k for the best bang for buck

If you want that type of longevity again, I'd say the 2600k is the minimum to pick. Either do that now or get the IVB equivalent right away in June. It is likely that SB is going to disappear very quickly after IVB ships in volume and I would expect that only modest sales will clear SB stock.

Personally, I'd be tempted to go Z77/IVB 4c/8t/k right at launch so that you have the nice, new and shiny for as long as possible.

 

[pelov]

The difference in performance between the IB 4c/8thread and the SB 4c/8thread part is a minimal increase in IPC. The only two factors between deciding which part to buy, ivy or sandy, should be price and availability purely because that jump in performance is negligible. So it all comes down to when you plan on building the rig. Ivy parts will likely become readily available in a month or two (?) but they almost certainly will not decrease the price on SB chips because Intel likes price cuts on dated hardware as much as they like herpes. If there's a price decrease it will likely be very small and you'll end up kicking yourself for not buying earlier. If you want the best deal on an SB chip you can buy them secondhand from the forsale/fortrade forums.

Games are slowly utilizing dx11 and that geforce card is getting dated. I guess it all depends on how much gaming you do and which games you play. The choice of CPU is very easy: 2500K or 2600K or IB equivalents. The choice of GPU (with longevity in mind) is far more difficult in the current climate, so it may actually benefit you to hold onto that GPU for just a tad longer and see how it plays out.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

I registered to ask the same question but thankfully there is a thread similar to what I would create:

I'm in a very very similar situation except my system stands at this:


Q6600 @ stock (It was at 3.0 Ghz Previously)
Evga GTX 275,
nVidia 680i,
G.SKILL 4GB DDR2 (Stock speeds),
Noctua cooler
Antec 900
OCZ Vertex 3 (Currently bottlenecked as hell)
And I can't even remember the PSU anymore, but it was 600w and a respectable brand.

My computer lately has been getting instability spikes and an occasional freeze or another but it was always passable. Until one day Windows would refuse to boot with my OC. Alas, any OC will make the boot fail. I could only boot into windows/Linux/whatever if I had stock speeds.
It was a huge blow into my sweet Q6600

Now since I'm feeling that my SSD is very capped because it's running in SATAII and without ACHI I felt SOME need to upgrade to a more recent Mobo+CPU, then I got this ordeal of my machine showing me the middlefinger when I try to push it a little harder.

I don't know what to do really, I didn't want to waste a small fortune in upgrading the computer, but I don't want to upgrade to something that really won't give me the lifespan my Q6600 has given me. (I'm using it since 2008. Best CPU I ever had)

In my case, what do you guys recommend?

P.S I also wanted to switch my case for a CM690II Advanced (White Edition) because the Antec 900 is a dust magnet and the cabble management is getting atrocious. I have 3 HDD's + 1 SSD + Optical drive and the pristine machine I once had is now a spaghetti inside. With dust. And I de-dust it often.

I had the same problem with OCing my CPU, thankfully this fixed it:
http://forums.anandtech.com/archive/index.php/t-2153138.html

Legacy was enabled, and was preventing me from overclocking, even the slightest bit.

If i could go back in time and pick up a 2500k at launch, then i probably would have, knowing that its performance was going to last for so long. Since i missed it though, and because ive been doing most of my gaming of late on my 360 (had to play Mass effect on it because i couldnt do keyboard and mouse) i am at least going to wait for IVB.

The deciding factor whether i bite on IVB or wait for haswell is how much more a haswell motherboard will end up costing me. I remember right when sandybridge came out, a good motherboard couldnt be had for less than 200, and that was with the understanding that much better boards would be coming out in the future. I can see the same thing happening with haswell, so to save myself the trouble, i think im going for IVB.

If in a year haswell is THAT much better, then ill go from there.

The difference in performance between the IB 4c/8thread and the SB 4c/8thread part is a minimal increase in IPC. The only two factors between deciding which part to buy, ivy or sandy, should be price and availability purely because that jump in performance is negligible. So it all comes down to when you plan on building the rig. Ivy parts will likely become readily available in a month or two (?) but they almost certainly will not decrease the price on SB chips because Intel likes price cuts on dated hardware as much as they like herpes. If there's a price decrease it will likely be very small and you'll end up kicking yourself for not buying earlier. If you want the best deal on an SB chip you can buy them secondhand from the forsale/fortrade forums.

Games are slowly utilizing dx11 and that geforce card is getting dated. I guess it all depends on how much gaming you do and which games you play. The choice of CPU is very easy: 2500K or 2600K or IB equivalents. The choice of GPU (with longevity in mind) is far more difficult in the current climate, so it may actually benefit you to hold onto that GPU for just a tad longer and see how it plays out.

Wont IVB be a better overclocker though? which is ont of the main reasons for waiting. My computer gets pretty hot during the summer, to the point where i cant leave it on without it heating my room as well, so jumping for 65nm from 22nm will help out a lot im assuming.

OP, have you thought about OCing that Q6600?

YES! lol i really need to update my sig.

You started the fight.

Yes, i started the fight for pointing out that your post has 0 to do with the thread, or what any poster has talked about in it.

You are one hell of an idiot, let us see you cry when you are unable to buy your Ib e and when you are penny sucked for lower performance.

I thought you wanted Ib e instead of Ib and hence tried to help you, but you don't deserve it, lol

Im sure everyone is anxiously awaiting for me to start crying when i cant afford a processor that i never wanted......

If you have no idea what your talking about, and just join a thread to state some point that is irrelevant, maybe next time just dont even post. Clearly I dont deserve your "help."

 

[Arkanius]

I'm feeling very undecided on whether I should get SB or IB then. On SB side I have the current availability and prices on the other side I have lower power consumption and a better set of motherboards.
Also how does one see which IB processor will be the "equivalent" of the 2500k and the 2600k? The higher end IB i7 that were benchmarked all see very similar to each other in performance. (Forgive me if I'm being dumb, I used to follow every tech jump on the desktops but the laid back attitude with my current machine left me very rusty and out of the loop)

 

[pelov]

Wont IVB be a better overclocker though? which is ont of the main reasons for waiting. My computer gets pretty hot during the summer, to the point where i cant leave it on without it heating my room as well, so jumping for 65nm from 22nm will help out a lot im assuming.

Early reports suggest a no answer to both statements. The OC's we've seen thus far from ivy have been in line with what we've seen from SB and we know for certain the chips produce quite a bit of heat when OC'd, more than SB, in part likely due to its decrease in die size allowing less area to dissipate heat. They are lower TDP and just because they run hotter doesn't mean they'll produce more heat in a room than SB will (remember they are smaller) so that's what I said the difference between SB and IB chips are, at least for the moment, quite negligible outside of the mobile space, attention to TDP and graphical performance.

You can't go wrong with IB nor SB. The biggest factor in waiting for IB would be PCIE 3.0 and that would be for longevity purposes -- we'll all need it sooner or later ;P

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

You are one hell of an idiot, let us see you cry when you are unable to buy your Ib e and when you are penny sucked for lower performance.

I thought you wanted Ib e instead of Ib and hence tried to help you, but you don't deserve it, lol

Early reports suggest a no answer to both statements. The OC's we've seen thus far from ivy have been in line with what we've seen from SB and we know for certain the chips produce quite a bit of heat when OC'd, more than SB, in part likely due to its decrease in die size allowing less area to dissipate heat. They are lower TDP and just because they run hotter doesn't mean they'll produce more heat in a room than SB will (remember they are smaller) so that's what I said the difference between SB and IB chips are, at least for the moment, quite negligible outside of the mobile space, attention to TDP and graphical performance.

You can't go wrong with IB nor SB. The biggest factor in waiting for IB would be PCIE 3.0 and that would be for longevity purposes -- we'll all need it sooner or later ;P

Good to know. If both were available today, which would you choose (assuming IVB was a little more expensive). I might just try to pick up a used SB, or maybe even new 2500k. Any advantage to getting the 2600? I thoguht the OCing abilities of a 2500k makes it the best choice (according to tom's hardware)

anand quoted a 5-15% performance increase at the same price basically. so if this is true, am i better off at least waiting for ivb to come out (even if i do buy SB?)

About pcie 3.0: If i plan on using this for up to 5 years, is it going to affect me? I usually dont SLI, and i just buy a mainstream graphics card at the ~200-250 price point every few years.

 

[pelov]

I would wait for IVB for 2 reasons:

1 - The price will be roughly the same between comparable SB-IB models.

2 - PCIE 3.0 will likely come in handy if you plan on using the rig for 5 years.

Also, I would suggest buying the 3770K because of its 8 threads as opposed to the 4-core-4-thread 2500K and whatever the IB equivalent is. Granted, either one of those will be good enough but the extra 4 threads will certainly help as we push into DX11 gaming and multi-threaded software.

Just be wary of buying it at an inflated price. Intel has reported yield issues but I'm not sure if they're back up to par. Availability might be an issue but considering you're on a relatively rock solid platform you can afford to wait a month.

Waiting for IVB also means more time for the waters to settle within the GPU segment. Right now it's very muddy and hard to make sense of much with Kepler's release eminent.

 

[Arkanius]

That settles it, I'm waiting for IB, even without OC my Q6600 will keep me strong until then.
Thank you so much

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

That settles it, I'm waiting for IB, even without OC my Q6600 will keep me strong until then.

have u tried turning off legacy usb? Same thing happened to me. My OC wouldnt stay, even at 2.5ghz. At first i said i just didnt care, and dealt with it knowing id eventually upgrade. Going from 2.4 to even 3.0 makes a big difference. Everything seemed a bit smoother - not even considering games.

I would wait for IVB for 2 reasons:

1 - The price will be roughly the same between comparable SB-IB models.

2 - PCIE 3.0 will likely come in handy if you plan on using the rig for 5 years.

Also, I would suggest buying the 3770K because of its 8 threads as opposed to the 4-core-4-thread 2500K and whatever the IB equivalent is. Granted, either one of those will be good enough but the extra 4 threads will certainly help as we push into DX11 gaming and multi-threaded software.

Just be wary of buying it at an inflated price. Intel has reported yield issues but I'm not sure if they're back up to par. Availability might be an issue but considering you're on a relatively rock solid platform you can afford to wait a month.

Waiting for IVB also means more time for the waters to settle within the GPU segment. Right now it's very muddy and hard to make sense of much with Kepler's release eminent.

any idea on the price of the 3770k? I really dont want to spend more than 200-250 if i can help it.

 

[pelov]

http://www.cpu-world.com/news_2011/2011121902_Prices_of_Ivy_Bridge_desktop_CPUs.html

If you can find the money I'd fork out the $332 for a 3770K. If you intend on keeping it for 4-5 years it's certainly worth the extra cash.

 

[blckgrffn]

have u tried turning off legacy usb? Same thing happened to me. My OC wouldnt stay, even at 2.5ghz. At first i said i just didnt care, and dealt with it knowing id eventually upgrade. Going from 2.4 to even 3.0 makes a big difference. Everything seemed a bit smoother - not even considering games.




any idea on the price of the 3770k? I really dont want to spend more than 200-250 if i can help it.

They are likely to be inline with SB, I believe. So probably about $300-$350, pretty inline with your Q6600 back in the day On your budget, if you stick to it vigorously, you'll be "stuck" with an i5. Ha, Pelov totally beat me to the punch. As for me, as soon as there is a good bundle on the 3570+mobo @ Microcenter I'll be picking one up as a cruncher.

The motherboards should be pretty darn cheap, though. Worst case you drop ~$100-130 on a Z68 motherboard.

Smaller chip + Same channel price == more Intel profit. Plus, we get a little more goodness for our $$$. Win-Win situation, right? My guess is that Intel is winning "more" though

 

[Arkanius]

Being "stuck" in the 3570k i5 doesn't seem that bad actually

 

[blckgrffn]

Being "stuck" in the 3570k i5 doesn't seem that bad actually

Life could be worse

 

[Rvenger]

3770k will be the same price or more than the 2700k.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

Will the 3770k really be with it though? Assuming i can get a used 2500k for half the price of that, and then cut my upgrade cycle time to about half, is the 2500k a better deal for me?

My performance would be a little worse now (but still way better than a q6600) and then in 2 or 3 years, a cheaper cpu that is more powerful than a 3770k will be out.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Get a 3570k, that will cost $225! For gaming you will get the same amount of fps as with 3770k given same clock at least for games released till date

 

[Arkanius]

I see it this way:

Mainstream components while cheaper won't keep their value for long compared to the higher tiered components.
The thing is, processors these days are so overpowered and software still hasn't catch up with threaded processing. The i5 might be the better deal
Or I could be wrong

 

[blckgrffn]

Well, when you guys bought your Q6600's there was not much point in having them - you paid a premium. Presumably, you'd be willing to pay a premium again to see the same type of longevity.

The 4c/4t part in many scenarios will give you the same performance as the 4c/8t part, yes. But you didn't that stop you in 2008/9 when it was 2c/2t vs 4c/4t