Q6600 verse Q9450

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GarfieldtheCat

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2005
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Originally posted by: OLpal
Nice links Garfield, makes me lean towards the Q6700 for $289 save $100 bucks probably outperform stock & may OC better !!
Thanks !!
Just another direction to confuse my sorry butt !!
But this just confirms what iv'e been recomending to friends who are looking & waiting !

I agree with runwaway prisoner about this.

Personally, I think the difference between Q6600 and Q6700 isn't worth it. Since both are 65nm CPU's, once you get to about 3.6GHz, that will be about the highest you can get, since the temperature becomes the limiting factor (I'm assuming using high end air).

If you have water or other exotic cooling, then either chip could probably go higher, and the Q6700 might edge out the Q6600 since it should be binned higher (but maybe not, you never know)

The Q9450, being 45nm, will present a different problem. Since it has a low x8 multi, you will be limited by how high you mobo can raise the FSB speed. For most boards (without running really high voltages), it seems that 3.2-3.6 is the limit. The CPU can do more, but the motherboard can't.

So to sum it up (IMHO):

No overclock = Q9450 -> cooler and faster then Q6600 stock

"easy" 3.2-3.4GHz OC = Q9450 -> either CPU can hit 3.2-ish, but the Q9450 will be cooler, have SSE4 if you ever need it, and will be slightly faster then a Q6600 at same OC speed.

(as a subset) "easy budget" OC = Q6600 => $200 for 3GHz+ quad if you want to save money. Probably won't notice the difference between it and a Q9450 anyway.

"extreme" max-out OC (using water, etc...) = Q6600 -> Better cooling will let you run it higher, *maybe* close to 4Gig. Lower FSB speeds needed will let you max out the CPU before the mobo. But you need water or better to keep the CPU cool enough to go to the higher clocks. I don't see the Q9450 in this category unless/until we get some motherboards that can hit 475+MHZ FSB speed.
 

runawayprisoner

Platinum Member
Apr 2, 2008
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Originally posted by: GarfieldtheCat
I don't see the Q9450 in this category unless/until we get some motherboards that can hit 475+MHZ FSB speed.

Actually, we do. The ASUS P5E-VM HDMI board is guaranteed to get that much with a Q9450 or even more. I can confirm this as I've had two boards, and two Q9450 chips. Some other members on XS have also tried out the P5E-VM HDMI and they got the same result.
 

GarfieldtheCat

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2005
3,708
1
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Originally posted by: runawayprisoner
Originally posted by: GarfieldtheCat
I don't see the Q9450 in this category unless/until we get some motherboards that can hit 475+MHZ FSB speed.

Actually, we do. The ASUS P5E-VM HDMI board is guaranteed to get that much with a Q9450 or even more. I can confirm this as I've had two boards, and two Q9450 chips. Some other members on XS have also tried out the P5E-VM HDMI and they got the same result.

I've seen your threads over on XS...very nice :)

But aren't you using pretty high voltages (not CPU, but NB, Vtt, PLL)? I would prefer to wait until we get a mobo that can hit high FSB with only a little voltage boost. But that is just me. I like to keep my OC'd computer for a while, so I like to be conservative on my voltage increases.
 

runawayprisoner

Platinum Member
Apr 2, 2008
2,496
0
76
Originally posted by: GarfieldtheCat
Originally posted by: runawayprisoner
Originally posted by: GarfieldtheCat
I don't see the Q9450 in this category unless/until we get some motherboards that can hit 475+MHZ FSB speed.

Actually, we do. The ASUS P5E-VM HDMI board is guaranteed to get that much with a Q9450 or even more. I can confirm this as I've had two boards, and two Q9450 chips. Some other members on XS have also tried out the P5E-VM HDMI and they got the same result.

I've seen your threads over on XS...very nice :)

But aren't you using pretty high voltages (not CPU, but NB, Vtt, PLL)? I would prefer to wait until we get a mobo that can hit high FSB with only a little voltage boost. But that is just me. I like to keep my OC'd computer for a while, so I like to be conservative on my voltage increases.

I only need to bump up vCore and vNB now. And my values are still quite low compared to others with X38/X48 boards.