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

[2is]

not sure if i should ask on a old thread like this or make a new one

but i got a question and id like to see what everyone thinks?

heres what I got

Dell XPS 410
E6400 Core 2 duo, 2.13ghz
ATI 5670 Saphire 1GB GDRR5
6GB DDR 2 Ram

im able to play games pretty much not a prob but im noticing this last year or so games are not able to run on a lower cpu like this, would it be a good idea to get the q6700 (the max that ive found possible on the OEM Machine) or wait and build one?

im kinda stuck between both right now, Ive built one before (a 2011LGA for a bud) but now im thinkin its time for me to upgrade and not sure what to do

also, my powersupply is stock, and currently my core 2 runs at 60c sometimes (didnt start till i put the 5670 in, im thinkin of getting 2 80mm fans for it but im not sure if my powersupply will be able to take a quad and the 5670? any suggestions and should i just go with the q6700 for now? (i do game but not on max)

If you can get the Q6700 for cheap it would be a decent stop-gap until you can get buy/build a new system. I was on a OCed Q6600 before I upgraded to my current 3770k and BF3 was really the only game where I wasn't satisfied with the performance, everything else ran great. Still, that was a pretty big deal since BF3 is my favroite game atm.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

If it were me, i would upgrade. Im guessing that dell isnt even overclockable right? If you could OC that chip, or even the Q6600/6700 someone mentioned, youd be ok for a while more, but i dont think you can.

I just upgraded from a Q6600, and to be honest, if it were my only system, i would have been better off waiting another cycle, as my performance was ok before.

My biggest reason for upgrading was to cycle out my X2 4200+ that was in my second pc. If it werent for that i would be fine with my old cpu for at least another year.

 

[felang]

I guess it all depends on how much you are paying for the Q6700. I´m thinking even an entry level i3 would be quite a bit faster.

 

[Don Karnage]

people were taking the e8400/e8500 to 4.8ghz+?

My E8500 hit 4.9Ghz on Water. Ran it at 4.6Ghz Daily

 

[gramboh]

I posted earlier in this thread, and actually upgraded last week to the system in my sig. It has been a massive improvement in performance. Games wise, BF3 and The Witcher 2 it is night and day (some of that is the video card, 560Ti to 670) but even running BF3 with the 560Ti on the 3770K was much faster.

FYI to the recent poster, Q6600 G0's and Q6700's sell for 80-90 on eBay these days. I ended up selling my entire system (Q6700, P5B-D mobo, 4GB DDR2, 560Ti Twin Frozr, Antec P182, Corsair 520HX, 2x Seagate 500GB 7200rpm) for $475 via Craigslist. Brought the new system cost to about $1300 after taxes, pretty happy .

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

I guess it all depends on how much you are paying for the Q6700. I´m thinking even an entry level i3 would be quite a bit faster.

i3 would mean a whole new motherboard and ram though, right? I agree though, if i had that system, id be looking at an entire overhaul if i could afford it. Especially since you cant overclock it. (im assuming)

 

[d3fu5i0n]

I actually went from a Q6700 to a 2500K.
Even at stock, the 2500K annihilated my Q6700 @ 3.6GHz
If it's a GPU-focused game, such as The Witcher 2, you'll notice near-to-no performance increase ~ literally.
However, in CPU-heavy games, especially console ports [one big enhancement was the Assassin's Creed games], you'll notice a phenomenal increase, sometimes more than 80% [a rough guess] as a stock-to-stock performance comparison.

If you want me to take my time and talk more about this, I'm perfectly happy to.

 

[Cobra11]

sadly, i have the old btx case design, so my options are limited with this dell.., my next build wont be prob till next year, due to getting into college and what not

im not able to overclock (even though ive found I do got one of the lucky FSB chips that are able) it just locks up and really not the point to overclock the e6400

anyways it could be possible i guess to over clock the q6600 or so? with that?, not sure

but then id just have a heat problem lol

 

[n0x1ous]

went from q6600 @ 3.15 to current 3770k and noticed huge performance increase with my sli setup, particularly in bf3 and crysis2