Q9550/P5Q Pro vs Q6600/P5Q-E

[theaquatic]

Hey all, first post. I'm piecing together a system to replace my old AMD 3800x2/DFI SLI-DR setup. I use my computer for gaming, DAW recording, and photo editing. After a TON of research (I've been out of the game for a while, so much new info to learn!) I don't feel like going Core i7 would be the smartest financial move for me right now when there's a lot of value out there on C2Q stuff, so I've narrowed down my CPU/MB choices to these two.

Here's what I've learned, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong:

-From what I gather, the Q9550 runs cooler, and is theoretically capable of a better overclock, although it's multi is slightly lower. It has more L2, which I've read makes the processor about 10% faster or so.

-The Q6600 is a proven overclocker, better multi, but runs a little hotter.

-The P5Q-E has more bios settings for OC, better cooling on the power mosfets, eSATA and Optical ports, and better onboard audio and LAN chips. I've read that this board can consistently achieve higher FSBs than the Pro.

-The P5Q Pro has a somewhat better layout, aside from the floppy disk connector.

The dilemma comes in the fact that Newegg has a Q9550/P5Q Pro combo for $384.98 ($399.98 combo minus $15 rebate), or a Q6600/P5Q-E combo for $319.98. The price difference is doable for me if I could have better performance with the better processor but slightly slower(?) board.

So there's the question: which setup would get me a more stable overclock?

The rest of my planned system, if it makes any difference:

Already have accumulated:

-Memory : G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK
Newegg
(will add another identical kit when I upgrade to Vista 64 in a few months)

-Graphics : 2x SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3
Newegg
(Have 1 already, adding another for Crossfire)

-Monitor : ASUS VW222U Black 22" 2ms(GTG) Widescreen LCD Monitor with HDCP support
Newegg
($180 after rebate and some decent reviews on the net sold me on it)

-Case : COOLER MASTER COSMOS 1000 RC-1000-KSN1-GP Black/ Silver Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
Newegg
(scored a killer deal on it)

Still need to purchase:

-Hard Drives : 2x Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Newegg
(One drive partitioned in two for dual boot OS purposes, and one for media)
I'll also be reusing a 250GB Seagate 7200.9 drive for my audio recording drive.

-Power supply : Torn between these models:
---ZALMAN ZM850-HP 850W Newegg <---(good reviews/ for $150, leaning this way)
---CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W Newegg <---(mixed reviews on the net)
---SILVERSTONE DA700 700W Newegg <---(good reviews, quiet which is nice)

-CPU Cooler : XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail Newegg

Optical Drive : SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223F Newegg

 

[JPB]

Why not go with this board? It runs Crossfire and its just as good if not better than the ASUS boards you mentioned.

It is an overclocking monster as well. And in between the prices of the other two boards at $129.

Gigabyte UD3P

 

[ashishmishra]

If I was buying new I would definitely go for the Q9550 instead of Q6600, it is the second fasted Quad on socket 775 and probably will remain so. You would be kill the upgrade bug for a while, as any further upgrade will necessitate a completely new (much more expensive) platform change. As far as overclocking goes the Q9550 should end up clocking better than the current batches of Q6600, I bought mine in Dec 07, it has a VID of 1.325 and is not too stable above 3.2 Ghz (356FSB) and I know the board can at least do above 400.

BTW Look into the MS live cashback (around 25% on ebay). The seller techtreasure is I believe the same as mwave, you should be able to get the Q9550 pretty cheap through there.

 

[theaquatic]

Originally posted by: JPB
Why not go with this board? It runs Crossfire and its just as good if not better than the ASUS boards you mentioned.

It is an overclocking monster as well. And in between the prices of the other two boards at $129.

Gigabyte UD3P

Hmm, for some reason this board fell through the net for me. It looks good, I really like the layout. About the only thing it doesn't have that I really need is three USB headers, as my case has 4 ports and I want to use a card reader in one of the bays. I could probably live without it though.

How difficult is the BIOS learning curve on the Gigabyte? Is it any more difficult than the Asus? I'm coming from a DFI board which had options up the wazoo and I had to do a lot of research to get the thing stable even with a mild overclock.

Now, Newegg has a combo with this mobo too, with a Q6600 OEM, for $290. $20 mail in rebate on the board, and that brings it down to $269.98 for the combo... That seems like a killer deal to me. With this kind of value, is it still worth looking at the Q9550? This mobo with the Q9550 would run me in the neighborhood of $430 after rebate. $160 difference, which is a pretty good chunk of change.

 

[theaquatic]

Originally posted by: ashishmishra
If I was buying new I would definitely go for the Q9550 instead of Q6600, it is the second fasted Quad on socket 775 and probably will remain so. You would be kill the upgrade bug for a while, as any further upgrade will necessitate a completely new (much more expensive) platform change. As far as overclocking goes the Q9550 should end up clocking better than the current batches of Q6600, I bought mine in Dec 07, it has a VID of 1.325 and is not too stable above 3.2 Ghz (356FSB) and I know the board can at least do above 400.

BTW Look into the MS live cashback (around 25% on ebay). The seller techtreasure is I believe the same as mwave, you should be able to get the Q9550 pretty cheap through there.

Hey, thanks for the info! I looked at the MS Live Cashback, and no ebay listings were available, only retailers like Newegg with something like 2-3% back. Bummer. I'd definitely be inclined to grab a Q9550 if I can get the right pieces together without breaking the bank. I just don't know how I feel about the P5Q Pro board. I've read mixed reviews. I see you have one, what's your take on it?

Thanks for the help guys

 

[Absolution75]

The bios is pretty easy to learn, it has some interesting bios settings that are best kept at auto.

The hardest thing for me was the memory divider settings, though you can see the current speed anyway so I tend to just jump around until I find the one I'm looking for.


Coming from a dfi nforce 4 to evga 680i sli to current gigabyte board.

 

[cmv]

You can also pick up a Q6600 used for about $100 on eBay after the MS cashback (it isn't in the store listings -- you search for "wii", "ps3", "digital camera" etc. on live.com and then click on the link that says "up to 25% cash back with paypal on ebay" or similar in the ads area). Of course, maybe these are overclocker rejects but I brought two at that price and I'll find out .

I'm here for the motherboard recommendations though .

Update: This is a great thread -- you've pointed me to some good buys. I went with the Abit P5Q Pro and the same cpu cooler (brought the retention bracket too though as it sounds like a pain without it). Hopefully, 1 of the 2 used Q6600 CPUs I got off eBay will overclock okay. That cooler is a great deal though compared to some high roller coolers.

 

[JPB]

Originally posted by: theaquatic

Originally posted by: JPB
Why not go with this board? It runs Crossfire and its just as good if not better than the ASUS boards you mentioned.

It is an overclocking monster as well. And in between the prices of the other two boards at $129.

Gigabyte UD3P

Hmm, for some reason this board fell through the net for me. It looks good, I really like the layout. About the only thing it doesn't have that I really need is three USB headers, as my case has 4 ports and I want to use a card reader in one of the bays. I could probably live without it though.

How difficult is the BIOS learning curve on the Gigabyte? Is it any more difficult than the Asus? I'm coming from a DFI board which had options up the wazoo and I had to do a lot of research to get the thing stable even with a mild overclock.

Now, Newegg has a combo with this mobo too, with a Q6600 OEM, for $290. $20 mail in rebate on the board, and that brings it down to $269.98 for the combo... That seems like a killer deal to me. With this kind of value, is it still worth looking at the Q9550? This mobo with the Q9550 would run me in the neighborhood of $430 after rebate. $160 difference, which is a pretty good chunk of change.

If you are coming from a DFI board, you should absolutely know all the settings on the Gigabyte. Now dont get me wrong, it is loaded and loaded with options, but since you arnt knew to the bios scene, you will be ok.

I would get the UD3P with a Q6600 and overclock. If you had the board, I bet you would come back on here and thank the people that recommended it :thumbsup:

It is just absolutely fantastic.

The specs says it has 8 USB on the IO and 4 onboard USB.

 

[chinhng]

i've noticed that you mention that you want a board with decent overclocking. for that reason, i would go with the p5q pro board with the better Q9550 cpu. i have that same setup and overclocking is a breeze.

 

[theaquatic]

Originally posted by: JPB


I would get the UD3P with a Q6600 and overclock. If you had the board, I bet you would come back on here and thank the people that recommended it :thumbsup:

You sold me on the UD3P. Reviews of the board are great all around, and everybody seems pretty happy. With a promo code and mail in rebate through Newegg, that puts this board at $100. That seems like a killer value, so that decision's been made, and the board is being ordered tonight!

Processor wise, I snagged a new Q9550 E0 stepping off of ebay for $300 minus $75 Live cashback. For the approximately $65 difference between the Q9550/Q6600, I decided I could throw down and pick up the newer part.

Thanks everybody in this thread for your immense help! I'll report back when I get everything up and running and start the OC.

 

[ashishmishra]

That is a good board you finally settled on, I have heard good things about it. However the P5Q Pro is no slacker either right now my new Q9550 E0 is humming along at 8.5 x 450 (3.825 Ghz) the only setting I changed in bios is cpu vcore from the stock 1.25 to 1.3 and vdimm to 2.1 (my ram needs 2.1). When I had my Q6600 though the board was crappy wouldn't be perfectly stable at 3.4 which is just 378 FSB. Anyways enjoy your new processor and mobo, it is a winning combo.

 

[Concillian]

Q9550 and Q6600 are not really in the same ballpark. You get what you pay for in this case. Q9550 costs more but has more OC potential with less required voltage.

The Q9550 will require higher FSB, so you need to potentially be sure you have RAM that can handle something in the DDR2 - 900 range, because the processor "should" be good for that. Looks like you already accounted for that with DDR2-1066

 

[theaquatic]

Originally posted by: JPB


I would get the UD3P with a Q6600 and overclock. If you had the board, I bet you would come back on here and thank the people that recommended it :thumbsup:

I just had to follow up and say yes, thank you for the recommendation! I have the board, picked up the Q9550 on ebay, and the pair together ended up costing me $325.

Coming from my old computer to my new one, all I gotta say is: Damn, this thing's quick!

Currently, on day 2 of testing/OC, I have the processor running at 3.8 (450x8.5) at 1.17 reported Vcore (set to 1.2v in Bios), and it's been Prime stable for 8 hours. Temps are holding at 53-55 across the cores. Idling at around 30-34. I'd say this is a good combination!


Thanks to everyone for guiding me to this setup, I'm absolutely loving it so far!