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Q9550 to i7 940 worth it?

ZipSpeed

ZipSpeed

Golden Member
I've been humming and hah-ing these last few days trying to convince myself that I need the upgrade. Stupid upgrade itch. 😀 I can grab the CPU for cheap ($200). I will need a new mobo and RAM of course. I suppose my main concern is whether my Q9550 is feeding my 5870 adequately. I do some video encoding on the side but I usually leave it running overnight so encoding time isn't too huge of a concern. I was going to wait for Sandy Bridge but perhaps someone can convince me otherwise.
 
I doubt you would be happy with the money you would be spending. A 9550@3.4 is pretty good for games.
 
Yeah, I Q9550 is plenty fast, especially at 3.4ghz...now thats not to say that the 940 isnt faster, but I doubt it would be anything you'd notice, ya know?

I say stick with what you have, you arent missing out on much!
 
i7 940 is mostly a c0/c1 stepping.

if your an OCer, u want a D0.

i7 920 D0.
i7 930
i7 950
 
ZipSpeed said:
Sounds good guys. Thanks for the inputs. I think I will put the money towards a SSD instead.
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That is definitely a much more meaningful upgrade, and probably the best single-component upgrade possible in terms of its impact on performance.

I do want to warn that 25nm flash is in full production and shipping to partners, so the Q3 SSD refresh is forthcoming.
 
Sp12 said:
That is definitely a much more meaningful upgrade, and probably the best single-component upgrade possible in terms of its impact on performance.

I do want to warn that 25nm flash is in full production and shipping to partners, so the Q3 SSD refresh is forthcoming.
Click to expand...

Thanks for heads up. Will wait till then. 🙂
 
Throwing away 8GBs of DDR2 ram to replace it with 8GBs of DDR3 ram for $225+ seems like a huge waste. Also, upgrading from Q9550 already overclocked to 3.4ghz to Core i7 3.9ghz may not provide that much of a boost with a single 5870. Also, have you tried overclocking the Q9550 more? They can often do 3.8-4.0ghz with good aftermarket cooling.

I would recommend:

1) Get an aftermarket cooler if you already don't have one
2) If you have $ to burn, get an SSD instead.
3) I would upgrade only if you can sell your old parts and spend no more than $100 for the total platform upgrade.
 
Sp12 said:
That is definitely a much more meaningful upgrade, and probably the best single-component upgrade possible in terms of its impact on performance.

I do want to warn that 25nm flash is in full production and shipping to partners, so the Q3 SSD refresh is forthcoming.
Click to expand...

Are you saying that the prices will drop a lot ? speeds go up or ???
 
RussianSensation said:
Throwing away 8GBs of DDR2 ram to replace it with 8GBs of DDR3 ram for $225+ seems like a huge waste. Also, upgrading from Q9550 already overclocked to 3.4ghz to Core i7 3.9ghz may not provide that much of a boost with a single 5870. Also, have you tried overclocking the Q9550 more? They can often do 3.8-4.0ghz with good aftermarket cooling.

I would recommend:

1) Get an aftermarket cooler if you already don't have one
2) If you have $ to burn, get an SSD instead.
3) I would upgrade only if you can sell your old parts and spend no more than $100 for the total platform upgrade.
Click to expand...

I have a TRUE120 on the CPU and had the CPU up to 4 GHZ at one time. I took it back down to 3.4 GHz to find a better balance between temperature and voltage. It gets pretty hot in my condo too. I've been running the CPU at stock VID and it hasn't complained for the last couple years.

I have a wedding to save for so I suppose upgrading my platform at this point isn't necessarily a smart move. 😀 Intel Retail Edge had a wicked price on their SSDs for people at Rockstar status but I missed out. A SSD is eventually going to be in my rig, just a matter of time.
 
natty1 said:
For this Q3 SSD refresh, is it important to have a SATA 3.0 capable motherboard?
Click to expand...

it would be nice... but nothing you would notice in Real world applications.

Markfw900 said:
Are you saying that the prices will drop a lot ? speeds go up or ???
Click to expand...

I heard its not that much faster... there telling me i wont say wow, until i see the price.

So from my understanding, they will get cheaper, but not significantly faster.

And the ICH10 is the prefered onboard for SSD's.
Nothing will beat a dedicated controller tho, and you always hear ruby making fun of me on it.

ZipSpeed said:
A SSD is eventually going to be in my rig, just a matter of time.
Click to expand...

I added a third to play with on the OS on raid. LOL.

Im waiting for the G3 Intel SSD in a 320gb or 640GB size to replace my raptor array.
 
Last edited:
Unless if you use lots of multi threaded software, which will never give you twice the performance of your current CPU, the performance gains won't impress you. Spending more on a SSD like other posters said will give you much better gains. A Q9550 at such speed is no slouch, it can keep up with the likes of a i7 920 at stock speed.
 
evolucion8 said:
A Q9550 at such speed is no slouch, it can keep up with the likes of a i7 920 at stock speed.
Click to expand...

actually i am putting money on the 4ghz Q9550 being faster over the 2.66ghz 920 even with HT ON.
 
12mb l2 cache is very sexy at high clockspeeds. the 12mb c2q's were very nice chips. i regret letting my q9550 go kinda
 
OCGuy said:
For games? Not a chance.


SSD all the way.
Click to expand...


Hear me roar!

IMG_0006.jpg


😀
 
Spikesoldier said:
12mb l2 cache is very sexy at high clockspeeds. the 12mb c2q's were very nice chips. i regret letting my q9550 go kinda
Click to expand...

I haven't seen any other x86 processor which such large cache, and the best thing is its low latency, even lower than many newer processors currently.
 
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