Should I buy this?

[Lico]

I had a Conroe (don't remember which model) in an ASUS P5NE-SLI mobo. Last year I picked up a Q9550 and some more RAM, 6GB now. However, the mobo does not let me overclock at all without causing huge amounts of crashes. Is it worth buying a new s775 mobo that will let me overclock the crap out of this? Since it's a pretty old platform I am assuming that a new mobo won't be terribly expensive for the increased performance. What do you guys think?

 

[dma0991]

It depends if a new LGA775 board is cheaper but costs nearly as much as a LGA1155 P67 board. To OC the crap out of your old processor would require an aftermarket heatsink as well and might not be worth it if you add up all of the extra effort and money put in for that little bit more performance.

 

[BrianTho2010]

Sell the parts you got and get a 2500k setup, or if you do alot of video encoding / rendering get the 2600k.

You will see a massive performance jump, especially if you overclock it to 4.5Ghz which seems to be quite standard.

 

[IGemini]

Yeah, I was in a similar circumstance a couple years ago on the heels of Nehalem being released. Back then I would've said yes, but now you're probably better off building a Sandy Bridge setup and selling your current MB/RAM/CPU.

 

[bryanW1995]

You're already at 2.83 on that Q9550, even with a $50 aftermarket cooler and $100 mobo you're unlikely to get over 3.8. SB is about 30% faster clock/clock than conroe even without HT, putting that 3.8 approximately equivalent to about 2.9 on a 2500k. if you were to sell your q9550 + mobo + ram and upgrade to a 2500k rig then you'd probably spend a bit more than the $150 net, maybe you'd spend $250-300 instead, but you'd get at least 50% more performance than the top end you're likely to get with that Q9550 AND you could snag an IB 1155 cpu with HT sometime in the future for a potential upgrade path as well. And with any kind of decent OC on a 2500k you would more than double your current cpu performance.

 

[Arkaign]

SELL! The Q9550 will bring a sweet chunk of change, and the mobo a pretty decent amount as well. Don't forget to dump the DDR2 as well. You should end up with very little out of pocket expense, but have a dramatic upgrade not just in performance but in features (USB3, etc).

 

[Lico]

In that case, I guess this is the follow up question: Where do you guys sell your old stuff? I've always kept my setup long enough that it's not worth selling when I buy my next rig.

 

[soccerballtux]

I had a Conroe (don't remember which model) in an ASUS P5NE-SLI mobo. Last year I picked up a Q9550 and some more RAM, 6GB now. However, the mobo does not let me overclock at all without causing huge amounts of crashes. Is it worth buying a new s775 mobo that will let me overclock the crap out of this? Since it's a pretty old platform I am assuming that a new mobo won't be terribly expensive for the increased performance. What do you guys think?

I'd say so. Penryns are very fast...nothing to complain about. One at 3.8ghz would hold you over for years to come.

 

[soccerballtux]

SELL! The Q9550 will bring a sweet chunk of change, and the mobo a pretty decent amount as well. Don't forget to dump the DDR2 as well. You should end up with very little out of pocket expense, but have a dramatic upgrade not just in performance but in features (USB3, etc).

this works out too

 

[richierich1212]

Yeah Q9550s still go for a lot. Sell now while it's still high and upgrade to a 2500K on the cheap. DDR3 is at all time lows as well.

 

[Ken g6]

In that case, I guess this is the follow up question: Where do you guys sell your old stuff? I've always kept my setup long enough that it's not worth selling when I buy my next rig.

http://forums.anandtech.com/forumdisplay.php?f=19 is an option.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

For Sale/Trade Anandtech forum

 

[bryanW1995]

I sell more in the AT fs/ft forum, though ebay can work as well. Make sure that you set up a heat account and get feedback from transactions. If you're dealing with a reputable person (lots of good heat and/or longtime AT member) then expect to ship first.