Should I upgrade now or Wait ?

[gsethi]

Current setup is as follows:
Core 2 Duo E6400 with P35chipset (Gigabyte DS3L board)
4GB DDR2
nVidia 800gt video card
Everything running at stock

should I WAIT or

Upgrade options:
Upgrade CPU only to Q9550 for ~$170+tax = ~185

Upgrade to I7 combo:
I7 920 CPU = $200+tax = ~$220 (microcenter)
X58 mobo = ~$150 (with current bing cash back)
6GB DDR3 RAM = ~$100
Total upgrade cost: ~470

Desktop usage:
Game very occasionally (mostly COD or AA)
Will be doing some light video editing for personal use (AVCHD format). Got a Canon HF-11 on the way.

I am probably not looking to overclock, will most probably be running everything at stock as I dont have time to mess around with my system anymore (just want ease of use + stability)

 

[vj8usa]

What do you need more performance in? For light video editing and occasional gaming, your rig's fine as it is. You should also be able to take your E6400 close to 3GHz pretty easily, which would give you a free boost.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

What NLE will you be using? I also have a Canon HF but the S100 (if you can get the S100 totally go for it, its nothing short of amazing) and I am running PP 4.1 While at stock, the playback did stutter and rubber band.. Q9650, 8G, 4870, UD3R. 3.6Ghz smoothed things out. The playback btw was in high quality; there are 3 diff settings in total; high, a mix, and then rough draft quality... Premiere Pro can natively play AVCHD files without any intermediate format... if you don't have PP i'd suggest an i7 again if you are not an overclocker

If you don't overclock, then I'd recommend an i7 9xx or 8xx but if you are an experienced overclocker and your DS3 board is a good overclocking Quad board, then stick with a Q9550 and get that thing up to around 3.8... you can reach that speed without a doubt on a UD3R or P board, but that will add around 114$ - 150$ to your total.


OK, i just wrote all this and notice you said no overclocking - get an i7

 

[joutlaw]

You should consider overclocking what you have.

I have a e4300 with a gigabyte ga-965p-ds3. It's been hitting 3.0Ghz for over 2 years.

I don't believe the q9550 will be officially supported with our board either. You will also need the 3.3 revision to run that chip.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: gsethi
Current setup is as follows:
Core 2 Duo E6400 with P965chipset (Gigabyte DS3 board)

On this EXACT same motherboard with this EXACT same CPU i got a 3.4ghz overclock with an average cooler - Big Typhoon - at 1.45V

All it took was:

- Disable all power saving technologies
- Disable CPUID Max Limit to 3
- Disable EIST, C1, etc
- Relax ram timings to 5-5-5-15
-Raise Northbridge voltage +0.2
- Raise FSB voltage + 0.2
- Lock PCIe to 100
- Set CPU:Ram to 2.0

Raise FSB to 425 x 8 multi = 3.4 hooray!

Done

10 minutes of work.

 

[gsethi]

Thanks for all the update...It seems like general consensus is to wait. So i am going to just overclock my current system to ~3.2Ghz range and stick with it.

@ BTRY B 529th FA BN: I wish i could afford the HF S100 (well, i can afford it) but HF11 is ~450 while HF S100 will run ~900 (almost double) and I dont think that it is worth it for me since i will be using the camcorder occasionally only.

@ RussianSensation: Thanks for the exact settings...will try this tonight or over the weekend.

I cant believe that my C2D E6400 is going to last me for more than 3+ years.. (I am sure that my system is over 2.5+ years old...just upgraded ram from 2gb to 4gb few months ago). I was a guy who used to upgrade my system every 2-3 months during university days....sigh, those days are gone. Now, I just want to go home from work, relax (watch a bit tv, occasional game, some more paperwork or go out).

If i feel the need to upgrade after i start editing AVCHD files, then i will do it in couple of months.

 

[Arkaign]

If you want the best upgrade for your box (provided you decide that you need more performance after running that E6400 at higher speeds first), look for a deal on a Q6600, or even better : Q6700. With the i7s and now i5s heading out the door promising even higher performance, a lot of these are leftover from upgrades.

But yeah, try to get some more performance out of that first, maybe simultaneously bargain-hunting for a Q6x00.

 

[geokilla]

Just overclock.

If you do upgrade to a quad core, make sure that your motherboard supports the quad core.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: geokilla
Just overclock.

If you do upgrade to a quad core, make sure that your motherboard supports the quad core.

His mobo supports Kentsfield quads (Q6600/Q6700/QX6700/QX6800/QX6850). The Q8000 and Q9000 may post, but are not recommended for P965 at all.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Originally posted by: Arkaign

Originally posted by: geokilla
Just overclock.

If you do upgrade to a quad core, make sure that your motherboard supports the quad core.

His mobo supports Kentsfield quads (Q6600/Q6700/QX6700/QX6800/QX6850). The Q8000 and Q9000 may post, but are not recommended for P965 at all.

According to the last time I checked about a week ago, he can get an OEM Q6700 (G0) for about $185 -- varying between eWiz and TigerDirect.

The latest news coming from Anandtech about LynnField, the P55 chipset -- its simplification of dual-GPU PCI-E and reversion to dual-channel RAM . . . . . suggests that it has already been worth the wait, and it will be worth it to wait a bit longer.

[And . . . . I mentioned casually months earlier that if I7 had a TDP of 130W, they would eventually reduce that spec. It looks like Lynnfield will have TDP of 95W -- so there you are.]

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: BonzaiDuck

Originally posted by: Arkaign

Originally posted by: geokilla
Just overclock.

If you do upgrade to a quad core, make sure that your motherboard supports the quad core.

His mobo supports Kentsfield quads (Q6600/Q6700/QX6700/QX6800/QX6850). The Q8000 and Q9000 may post, but are not recommended for P965 at all.

According to the last time I checked about a week ago, he can get an OEM Q6700 (G0) for about $185 -- varying between eWiz and TigerDirect.

The latest news coming from Anandtech about LynnField, the P55 chipset -- its simplification of dual-GPU PCI-E and reversion to dual-channel RAM . . . . . suggests that it has already been worth the wait, and it will be worth it to wait a bit longer.

[And . . . . I mentioned casually months earlier that if I7 had a TDP of 130W, they would eventually reduce that spec. It looks like Lynnfield will have TDP of 95W -- so there you are.]

:thumbsup:

If he decides the 2MB cache E6400 is not enough, then that's a stellar good deal on the 6700. It's also true that the P55 + i5 should be a great deal in a few months. I would really expect a mid-3ghz Q6x00 to be competitive for quite some time yet.

 

[gsethi]

oops..made a mistake...Motherboard is P35 chipset (not 865P)...lol..sorry

Gigabyte P35-DS3L

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Originally posted by: Arkaign

:thumbsup:

If he decides the 2MB cache E6400 is not enough, then that's a stellar good deal on the 6700. It's also true that the P55 + i5 should be a great deal in a few months. I would really expect a mid-3ghz Q6x00 to be competitive for quite some time yet.

No doubt about it. If it weren't for being between tenants in my Virginia rental property, I wouldn't be so conflicted over grabbing one of those Q6700's -- just to tweak a 680i board higher with the scalability of the G0-stepping and the higher multiplier than my Q6600 B3.

Once I switched to VISTA-64, the performance with just the B3-stepping seemed much-improved, even if only for a 2.4-to-3.0Ghz over-clock.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: gsethi
oops..made a mistake...Motherboard is P35 chipset (not 865P)...lol..sorry

Gigabyte P35-DS3L

P35! Oh well you have pretty much any C2D/C2Q you want then, 45nm or whatever.

3Ghz should be pretty easy with your E6400 with a decent air cooler. A C2Q 9550 or so would be a massive upgrade in terms of multitasking, and might make a nice move when more games take advantage of multi-core. It also helps that the Q9000's have 12MB cache instead of 2MB like the E6300/6400.

A decent CPU overclock or upgrade + overclock will be a lot easier / more cost effective than jumping to an entire new platform.

 

[gsethi]

Originally posted by: Arkaign

Originally posted by: gsethi
oops..made a mistake...Motherboard is P35 chipset (not 865P)...lol..sorry

Gigabyte P35-DS3L

P35! Oh well you have pretty much any C2D/C2Q you want then, 45nm or whatever.

3Ghz should be pretty easy with your E6400 with a decent air cooler. A C2Q 9550 or so would be a massive upgrade in terms of multitasking, and might make a nice move when more games take advantage of multi-core. It also helps that the Q9000's have 12MB cache instead of 2MB like the E6300/6400.

A decent CPU overclock or upgrade + overclock will be a lot easier / more cost effective than jumping to an entire new platform.

Thanks for the info. Just raised FSB to 400 (3.20 Ghz) and added 2x1GB DDR2 RAM more that was lying around for total of 6GB and changed settings to what RussianSensation suggested above.

Will stick with current setup for now. Might upgrade the CPU to Q9550 in the near future (maybe this weekend...lol)

I have the Scythe Ninja 1000+ HSF, which was pretty decent when S775 launched, so it should be good, right ?

Do you think i should upgrade my Video card (BFG 512MB 8800gt) to something like ATI 4850 ? Might be able to sell my 8800GT for ~50-60 and 4850 will cost ~$100 making upgrade cost of ~$40 (or just stay with 8800gt for now??). I just play COD4 and AA very occasionally like 1-2 hours per week at max but have a 24" LCD (1920x1200 resolution)

thanks

 

[Arkaign]

Wow 1920? I've seen 4870 for ~$120 or so. That would be the minimum upgrade I'd recommend from 8800GT, and would pay off at that res, especially for the latest titles. That cooler will be definitely fine.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Yeah, the Q9550 is a great overclocker. Best I've ever worked with! But, I do owe alot to my motherboard. You need a good NorthBridge for some solid Quad overclocking IMO.

 

[geokilla]

Run OCCT for like 5 hours to make sure your computer is stable. Also run Memtest86+.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

from personal experience, i've decided to use OCCT ONLY when necessary - no offense geo

I find it thrashes the hell out of the drive as well other components. I always find my computer acting as if it got hit by an NFL linebacker after using OCCT.

 

[zagood]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
from personal experience, i've decided to use OCCT ONLY when necessary - no offense geo

I find it thrashes the hell out of the drive as well other components. I always find my computer acting as if it got hit by an NFL linebacker after using OCCT.

Agreed - if I need a quick check to see if an overclock is might stick I'll run a 30-minute OCCT. If I'm going any longer than that Prime95.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: Arkaign
Wow 1920? I've seen 4870 for ~$120 or so. That would be the minimum upgrade I'd recommend from 8800GT, and would pay off at that res, especially for the latest titles. That cooler will be definitely fine.

I wouldn't spend $120 on a new vid card with 5xxx series launching on sept 24. Wait until that launches, video card prices should come down pretty aggressively with this while performance will definitley go up.

 

[gizbug]

I have an e6600 oc'ed to 3.0
I will be moving to i7 soon just due to the fact that overall performace/multi threading is a lot faster than my current e6600 (plus a lot more cache).

 

[taltamir]

waiting always results in faster better hardware for less money.
new technology is always coming out, so waiting means missing out on faster performance today...

Ultimately it is purely a matter of money. Do you have the money to spend right now for a performance increase, the longer you wait, the more money you save, but the less enjoyment out of current computer you get.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: geokilla
Run OCCT for like 5 hours to make sure your computer is stable. Also run Memtest86+.

:thumbsup:

Yes and also see if you can be stable at lower cpu voltages than what I briefly put up there. Finding the lowest cpu voltage will help you increase the lifespan of your cpu and reduce temperatures.

 

[ew915]

Just keep what you have, i would because at this point is not worth the upgrade because SB is comming in 12 months.