q9550 vs q9650

[Xarick]

$200 vs $250 (shipped price) Is the extra $50 worth it? I will be pushing only has high as 400 on the fsb with an artic cooling pro on a p45 mobo.

 

[alyarb]

why only 400?

 

[Xarick]

I am trying to eek life out of my 775 set and my ram is only 800.
If I was going to buy new ram I would just go all out and go i5

 

[alyarb]

what motherboard are you using? it'll probably let you overclock the FSB beyond 400 if you use a lower memory divider (and besides, your memory can probably OC to 820-830 even if it's crap. there will be flexibility in the bios).

 

[Xarick]

asus p5q se

 

[digitaldurandal]

The answer is no, the only difference is the multiplier on the chip. Your motherboard should allow you to change the ram ratio and increase the clockspeed. These two chips are both on the same process and i doubt you can get much more speed out of the q9650.

What applications are you using that you need more life from your machine? I have a q9550 @ 1600 1:1 3.4ghz and for gaming I am almost always gpu limited with all settings on. This is with 285 gtx sli.

 

[Xarick]

using an e6400 @ 3.2 and I wanted to move to a quad core. Not a huge need more of a desire and not enough money to move on to I5 setup right now. Mainly game.

 

[alyarb]

well a Q9550 at 400 would be 3.4 ghz. but i've done 430 FSB with generic memory (1.2 vcore) so keep your head up. your ASUS board will have the proper dividers you need, just experiment.


you wouldn't really need the Q9650 unless you really wanted to run above 4 ghz 24/7. I would just get the Q9550 and go for 3.70, you can do that on stock volts or less.

 

[Xarick]

Well I will hit 3.4 and then maybe go for something higher. I am gonna enjoy the cooler running proc. The e6400 runs pretty warm at 3.2 with a full load.

 

[spinejam]

q9550 ftw -- save the dough and put the money into a better videocard down the road.

 

[Kenmitch]

I'd say q9550 also as your not looking for much of a overclock anyways.

 

[RussianSensation]

Q9550.

You know you can always overclock the ram too. Most ram will do DDR2-900/950 if it's rated at DDR2-800 using 2.1-2.2V. Did you try overclocking the ram (what kid do you have?)

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Q9650 - don't look back

Between the two. I liked my first Q9650 better than my first Q9550, that's why I bought another Q9650 and am currently using it in this system.

 

[alyarb]

why on earth would you pay extra for a Q9650 simply to run it at 3 GHz?

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

why on earth would you pay extra for a Q9650 simply to run it at 3 GHz?

Me?

 

[alyarb]

it's just that you say that anyone should absolutely get a Q9650 and "never look back" at the Q9550? the difference in performance between two identical chips is hardly worth the money for a measly 170 Mhz. It's only worth it if you want an extra 500 MHz in your OC, otherwise you can get Q9450s for like ~$120 and do 3 ghz at 1.1v all day.

 

[Xarick]

I haven't found a q9450 for that kind of money.
Okay I ordered q9550.
I do need a new vid card, but I will do that when I see what nvidia is offering.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

it's just that you say that anyone should absolutely get a Q9650 and "never look back" at the Q9550? the difference in performance between two identical chips is hardly worth the money for a measly 170 Mhz. It's only worth it if you want an extra 500 MHz in your OC, otherwise you can get Q9450s for like ~$120 and do 3 ghz at 1.1v all day.

That's exactly right. Even though my Q9550 did 500fsb*8 on my Gigabyte UD3R board. It always was unstable from low 400's to ~479fsb. To me, i'd like to use all my fsb options. There was trouble between 400's to 479. So, it is just a personal experience that I'm speaking of. And a unique situation that might not only be limited to just me. Now on the other hand, my Q9650 had no trouble at any fsb from what IR.

Just my experience. Just tryin to help!

 

[alyarb]

sounds like a bum chip to me. you can understand my confusion though.

 

[aclim]

good choice on the q9550. Saves your money for the new nvidia cards