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Ready for a big upgrade: Q6600, Q9300, or Q9450?

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If you get a good one, the Abit IP35-E is fantastic for the price. On the other hand it's quite likely that you won't be able to obtain an extreme overclock on a $60 board (though quite a few punters have fared quite nicely). It's probably not an issue, however, as the board has been missing from Newegg for several days now. It may be sold out at last.

I did a brief Google search and found this user needing a BIOS update to run Q9450 on the Gigabyte board. The Gigabyte support page lists the Q9450 being supported as of BIOS F8b (beta released Jan 2008). That sounds quite unlikely to be what your board will come installed with.

If you plan to overclock, mind the low multiplier of the slower Yorkfield chips. Not sure they're worth the extra $ over a Q6600 in that case, especially if you can find the older chip for $200ish.
 
Originally posted by: runawayprisoner
CA also has to pay sales tax. 🙁 But hey... I got the chip to over 4GHz... can't complain... really.
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Originally posted by: runawayprisoner
The E8400 would work well. You can at least go to 3.6GHz.
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IMO an E8400 overclocks WAYYY higher than a Q9450
 
Both boards would probably be good, but yeah the Abit appears sold out at Newegg. One problem with the cheap Q9450 at Microcenter is it's OEM, so virtually no warranty at all. Why is it that an HDD manufacturer for example will honor the warranty on an OEM HDD, but the same doesn't hold true for CPUs. The warranty for my old OEM 120 GB Seagate showed as the normal length on Seagate's site, so I'm assuming they would've honored it despite it being OEM. I'm not sure if this is a show-stopper for buying it.
 
Yeah not sure if I'm going to do this. I would be charged sales tax in PA, so the total price would be about $323. Add in the cost of a cooler since it's OEM, and I'm right back at about $350. That's $120 more than a retail Q6600 at ZipZoomFly. Still undecided.

Also, what about these supposed April 20th price cuts? Might knock another $25 or so off the retail Q6600. Perhaps I should not purchase this week.

I don't remember my last CPU purchase being this confusing.
 
It's not confusing, there's just a bunch of really great options to choose from. This is a GREAT thing.

I have a recent copy of that DS3L board and can confirm that mine didn't come with a beta bios (even though it was available for a while). This is a bad thing, since lack of a supported socket 775 CPU means you won't be able to shove a 45 nm quad in.

The longer you can wait the better, as a rule. But I'm thinking prices won't drop on the 20th, etailers have already factored in the lower prices to move their current stock today. The less savvy ones still have full prices on theirs, but the smart ones already know they'll be able to re-fill their stock later and it's better to move lots of parts now while $200 for a quad is a hot deal as opposed to in a week when it might be everyday pricing.
 
Thank you. You're right, there are more options now than ever before and it really is a great thing. Just a bit overwhelming for someone like me who has left the scene somewhat recently. But now getting back into it I can clearly see I still have a passion for it. 🙂 Just got busy recently.

Anyway, I think I've made my decisions. I am trying to spend about in the same range I always have in the past, which I realize will net me 1.5-2 years of good gaming at most. If I want to own for 3 years, I realize that last year would be rough with new games, similar to my current situation now with having had these parts for almost 3 years. So, that's fine, and I'll make the upgrade decision then. I do want quad core since I feel I may really want it a year or so from now. But the OEM Q9450, with a cooler and tax, is just too much money, plus a flaky warranty and would have to buy another CPU to flash the motherboard's BIOS with. So, my CPU choice is Q6600, board P35-DS3L, not sure of which brand of memory, 4 GB DDR2-800, probably the PCP&C 610 W PSU, some new case, and some new video card. The video card I'm still not sure of, because I'm considering getting an Acer 22" widescreen LCD, so I'm not sure if I should step up to the power of the 9800 GTX for that display instead of the 8800 GT like I was planning on.

And v8envy, I'm assuming you're right about the big e-tailers already factoring in the coming price cuts, so it's probably safe to order all this on Friday.
 
That's one of the sweet spot builds at the moment. If I needed a quad that'd be exactly the parts I would pick. Very slight variations of that pop up all the time whenever someone is looking at a $800 gaming build.

I have a passively cooled 8800GT and can't say enough good things about it. However I still recommend a 8800GS or 9600GT instead and an upgrade sooner, but considering the low low delta on both price and performance you really can't go wrong either way. Also consider an 8800GTS -- it's a way to get slightly downclocked GTX-level hardware for far less $. There are hot deals on the 8800GTS (which also features upgraded cooling) for only a few 10s of $ more than a GT. When you consider the performance and cooling advantages and compare *total* system cost differences IMO it's pretty easy to justify getting an 8800GTS or even the GTX. GTS and GTX also have more shaders to throw at PhysX, and I know you love to future-proof. =)
 
yes they are, the Q6600 is only going down to 227 on apr 20. they can be had at many places for less than $200 already. I could have gotten one at fry's the other day with shipping AND tax for only $216.

btw, how much OC are you hoping for again?
 
I'm with v8envy: GeForce 9600 GT (or 8800 GT with a good deal) should be fine for now. GTX is far too much. The video card will be the easy component to swap after all, and we should be getting cards that go beyond G80-derivatives in the next year.

Q6600 v E8400 is the dilemma at the $200 sweet spot. The threads keep popping up, and the matter never seems to be resolved. I didn't go quadcore myself, and I'm fairly certain I made the wrong choice. I'm not a gamer, and this past weekend I was reminded of how tedious video transcoding can be. Of course, I knew all the benchmarks at the time of purchase, but I was swayed by Penryn's efficiency and avant-garde cachet. Ironically my co-worker has a near identical system to mine, but he went in for quadcore even though he's the gamer. Perhaps we should swap cpus.

My general approach is to buy retail and run at stock. As (or if) you start growing impatient, purchase an aftermarket cooling solution and begin overclocking. That way, if something goes wrong early, you're under retail warranty (the OEM nightmare is finding a bad chip after 30 days and dealing with an unhelpful retailer).

Bryan, have you got the Q9450 running on the IP35-E yet? I'm sure many prospective builders would be very interested in that combination.
 
Thanks for the confirmation of the parts. I agree with you both that GTX power is unnecessary right now, even at 1680x1050. I can get an 8800 GTS 512 MB for $230, or I could get the MSI 8800 GT OC 512 MB for $210. I've heard that MSI OC part is really good. So I wonder if the performance gap between an overclocked 8800 GT and an 8800 GTS is worth $20 more. The cooler on that MSI 8800 GT is supposedly very good as well, not sure about quietness though. A decent level of quietness is important to me, I plan to only have 2 120mm case fans, passively cooled motherboard chipset, hopefully a quiet PSU, and the stock CPU and video card coolers.

bryanW1995, do you know of any e-tailers currently offering the Q6600 retail for around $200? The best price I've seen so far is $230 at ZZF.

Winterpool, I don't really do any video encoding, but yeah quad is still the way I want to go. I just don't see myself being satisfied with a dual for the next 2-3 years.

I don't really have any OC goals. I agree with Winterpool in that I like to buy retail and use stock coolers, at least at first. I'd probably be fine running it at stock for the time being, but I would try any VERY easy OC I could get with that stock cooler and still decent temps and sound level. I wouldn't replace the cooler and try to push it harder until the future if I wanted to try to get more longevity out of it.
 
Ach, sorry, archcommus, all our debate perhaps detained you too long. Fry's is no longer offering the Q6600 for $190. Seems to be $230+ everywhere again. You may want to wait for 20 April after all, see if Fry's, Micro Centre, etc have another go at $200 quadcores.

If you're still interested in the Q9450 at all, you might want to peruse Mark's travails.

By the way, Newegg is offering a coupon on 4GB of Corsair's DHX memory (DDR2 800 though CL5): $114, free postage. If you can stomach a $40 rebate, your final price will come to $74. My friend is running his Q6600 with this memory (he was compelled to bundle it by Micro Centre when he bought his $200 Q6600). I've never used G.Skill, but quite a few people here are fans, and 4 GB of their DDR2 800 costs $80 without rebates on Newegg right now. Reviews average five 'eggs'.
 
Not any more. Looks like they're back to $259 + $8 shipping. Doh. At $267 the $299 Q9450 from Microcenter is a steal in comparison. If you have B&M Microcenter nearby I think they still have the Q6600 for $200 going on.
 
don't worry, Q6600 for under $200 is going to be here until they stop making them in Q3. just keep your eyes peeled for a deal. Don't get me wrong, my experiences with the X3350 have been very good, but if you're determined to get a Q6600 then don't overpay for it!
 
Well, the first day I'm able to build is Sunday the 27th. I definitely want to do it sometime in that week. So the earliest I would order is between now and Friday, the latest I would order is next Friday. I guess I could wait past this weekend to see if Q6600 prices drop, but like we've already said there will probably not be an instant drop on the 20th or immediately after. If it ends up being a few weeks before they're sub-$200 again, that's too long to wait around. $230 isn't bad.

Right now it's just deciding when to buy and figuring out if I want this 22" widescreen. Everyone in this thread has been extremely helpful.
 
Wow, terrific. I ordered it for $230 at ZZF at 2 PM, and I already can't cancel. Well there's $50 down the drain. 🙁

Thanks for trying anyway.
 
Originally posted by: archcommus
Originally posted by: bryanW1995
probably a g0, but I did hear of somebody the other day who did get stuck with a b3. 🙁
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That's unfortunate. Know where from?
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no. I don't think that you're likely at all to get stuck with one, that's the only peep I've heard of "new" b3's in months.
 
Well I called ZZF yesterday and asked if they could still cancel, she said they'd try but couldn't guarantee it and that if I didn't get a tracking number that night that meant it was probably cancelled, all night I didn't get a tracking number so that was a good sign, this morning I called to make sure it was cancelled and she confirmed it was! Then I ordered from Frys immediately. Very excited, saved $43! Thanks Winterpool very much for mentioning this.
 
Well I finished the system, Q6600, P35-DS3L, 4 GB Corsair DDR2-800, MSI 8800 GTS 512 OC, Samsung HD501LJ, PCP&C Silencer 610W, Thermaltake M9 case, and an Acer 22" widescreen to go along with my Samsung 930B. It's a great build, good temps, and I can run Crysis at 1680x1050 on high settings with decent framerate. Very satisfied, it's a great upgrade after sitting on an A64 build for 3 years! Thanks everyone for your huge help here, couldn't have done it without it.
 
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