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Time to upgrade from a Q6600?

T

TalonSlayer

Junior Member
I built a system with the following in 2007:

Thermaltake Armor case (to give an idea of the space I'm working with): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133154

Intel quad-core Q6600 OC'd to 3.2 GHz: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115017

Asus motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131219

This RAM, now with 8 gigs, slightly OC'd: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227248

Currently using this 470GTX video card, OC'd: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127513

and a Tuniq 120 for cooling: http://www.tuniq.com.tw/Cooler Info/Tower-120.htm

Is it time to replace the CPU, motherboard, and RAM? I'm looking at the following:

CPU: i7-2600K http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115070

Motherboard: ASRock Z68 GEN3 etc. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157263

RAM: 4x4GB Corsair Vengeance: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820233143

And likely a new cooler since the old one may not fit, and I've likely lost the brackets by this point anyway.

I'm unsure what the improvements would be for this swap. I game extensively, but haven't noticed any framerate issues. Would it make enough of a difference to be worth the time and trouble? Do you think prices will drop soon and I should hold off? Would I be better off just getting a new video card? As far as I know, the motherboard can not handle any newer RAM. I'm able to spend roughly $800 total.

Any advice is appreciated, thank you in advance. If I missed any obvious information, please let me know.
 
Thanks, I wondered about that myself. Also, sorry if this should be in General Hardware, but this seemed like a CPU-specific situation since that's what it hinges on.
 
TalonSlayer said:
Thanks, I wondered about that myself. Also, sorry if this should be in General Hardware, but this seemed like a CPU-specific situation since that's what it hinges on.
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look at my name, do you really think i mind shitting up this forum?

i don't



I mind you shitting this forum up.

This is your one warning

And no more profanity in the tech subforums

esquared
Anandtech Forum Director
 
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OP, I just upgraded from Q6600 to a 2600K. It was a nice upgrade, you won't regret it.

One thing to consider factoring in there somewhere is an SSD.

I upgraded my Q6600 to have an SDD about a year or two ago, that was a really nice upgrade.

So I'd make the argument that if you were willing to entertain the idea of delaying the platform/cpu upgrade until IB came out then you could upgrade to an SSD now (keeping the Q6600) and you'd probably enjoy the overall computing experience improvement (games won't be faster though, obviously) that comes with it.

I wouldn't recommend it if I hadn't done it myself, and I have, and I do.
 
I was planning on slapping an SSD in there as well, but I didn't want to muddy the waters with too many variations or "what if" items to confuse the budget (SSD funds are separate from these funds). Adding a hard drive is easy, but pulling a motherboard, replacing the CPU, plugging everything back in, is a little daunting when I've only done it twice. I can wait until Ivy comes out if it's going to be a big leap in performance, there isn't a huge rush to get this project underway.
 
I think IvyB will be a nice performance increase but not by leaps and bounds over SB... Also IvyB will or should carry a price tag that will keep most happy with SB or possibly even BD...? But like Idontcare said an SSD will make just about any system feel like a new hotrod... Just recently upgraded the wife's dual core Celeron laptop with an older Samsung SSD (I mean older too) but its a 128gig and made it fly as compared to the 7200rpm drive that was in it...

If you just get the upgrade itch then a 2500K with either a P67 or Z board will keep you happy for some time and Sandy Bridge is here and now while IvyB and BD are uh...? where...? Everything else is really a waste of time compared to what you have now...

My opinion and .75-$1.00 will get you a coke and thats about it...😀
 
In my opinion, if you are a gamer, this is a FANTASTIC time to upgrade. First off, I wouldn't worry too much about prices lowering in the future - intels history has shown that they're not likely to lower CPU prices any time soon.

You can get a 2500k, motherboard, and new video card for less than your 800$ budget. You could probably even throw a SSD drive in there too. You don't have to get anything fancy with the SSD, 120GB is plenty. You could opt for the 2600-k as well, but in my opinion if you're primarily using the rig for games, the 2500k is a better value - pretty much the same performance in games , but 100$ less in cost which you could put towards a SSD. If it was me, i'd go for a slightly cheaper motherboard (150-170 price range)(unless you need SLI), 2500k (200ish), 8gb ram (roughly 50$) and that will leave you plenty for a new GPU and SSD. I think a great card to consider would be the 6950, its pretty cheap and you can flash the bios to make it equivalent to 6970. This is just my preference though, your choices are solid as well.

I went from an 870 (overclocked) to a 2500k, and my performance went way up. Go for it!
 
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TalonSlayer said:
I game extensively, but haven't noticed any framerate issues. Would it make enough of a difference to be worth the time and trouble? Do you think prices will drop soon and I should hold off? Would I be better off just getting a new video card? As far as I know, the motherboard can not handle any newer RAM. I'm able to spend roughly $800 total.

Any advice is appreciated, thank you in advance. If I missed any obvious information, please let me know.
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If you are satisfied with your performance, why bother wasting $? If you can sell your old parts, and just want to mess around with a new system, sure. Otherwise, wait until your system is too slow for your needs and just upgrade then. For games, certainly a 2nd GTX470 would be a bigger boost. Alternatively, you can wait for 28nm GPUs in the next 6 months. Better bang for the buck than spending $800 for a new cpu+mobo+ram.

Sure, you are probably not getting maximum performance in Starcraft 2, Civ5, WOW since those games are very CPU intensive. But for a large majority of games, I would still say your GTX470 is the biggest bottleneck than your Q6600 @ 3.2ghz. If you are happy with your current performance, I think you can survive until Ivy Bridge or maybe even Haswell.

I upgraded from Q6600 @ 3.4ghz to i7 860 @ 3.9 and then from HD4890 to GTX470 to HD6970 in the same time. Sure the Q6600 was far slower than the i7 but I still got a bigger performance boost just upgrading the videocards. So if you are only doing it for games, I don't think it's worth it yet since your Q6600 @ 3.2ghz can prob survive another 6-8 months (i.e., sell your GTX470 and get a 28nm GPU instead - that's what I would do.)
 
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On Blackened's point-- Would a 2500K + mobo + RAM + video card be better than a 2600K + mobo + RAM + current video card? I have no idea what weights to assign to various components, I haven't messed with full builds in years.
 
Russian-- it's just "upgrade itch", and not knowing if the CPU/RAM/mobo are holding me back from some performance vista of which I'm unaware. A video card is certainly an easier swap if that is a bigger bottleneck. I can certainly apply some of those funds elsewhere and hold off on the new items if my system has aged better than I'd thought. Yes, it's only for games, I do nothing at home of any worth.
 
TalonSlayer said:
On Blackened's point-- Would a 2500K + mobo + RAM + video card be better than a 2600K + mobo + RAM + current video card? I have no idea what weights to assign to various components, I haven't messed with full builds in years.
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Given that you can sell your other parts the 2500K, mobo, memory and either a 5XX series Nvidia or 6XXX or here soon 7XXX series Radeon would be better than lagging behind with the old video combined with a fast processor (like a 2600K)... Around $100 to be saved here (to be applied to the video card)...
 
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Russian does bring a valid point. My question is, what kind of games do you play? Personally on my old 870 I did notice some games being sluggish but only because I run everything at full detail at high resolutions. As soon as I upgraded I was able to enjoy all of the extra eyecandy with no framerate loss. If you just play stuff like WoW and what not, maybe its not worth it. In that case, a SSD drive alone would be the best upgrade....but for the most recent games such as Witcher 2, and upcoming games such as MW3 / battlefield 3, I think the new system would be a worthwhile investment.

My personal take -- and this is just personal preference...when i'm upgrading I tend to eliminate all bottlenecks, and not shift them around. I've always upgraded CPU and GPU simultaneously, but thats just me. If you upgrade both you should get another 2 years of usefulness out of your system without worrying about an upgrade.
 
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Recent games: Deus Ex, Witcher 2, Fallout NV, ME3 when it comes out, SWTOR, those sorts-- not much into the FPS/war genre specifically.

As much as I'd like to eliminate all bottlenecks at once, I can't drop that much money simultaenously. CPU + mobo + RAM + GPU + SSD = effectively an entirely new computer, and that's a bit harder to justify.
 
TalonSlayer said:
I'm unsure what the improvements would be for this swap. I game extensively, but haven't noticed any framerate issues. Would it make enough of a difference to be worth the time and trouble? Do you think prices will drop soon and I should hold off? Would I be better off just getting a new video card?
Click to expand...

going from a q6600 to a 2500K is about doubling the performance in processing power. How that translates to your uses will vary.

As to prices, no. I expect no drops any time soon on the cpu/motherboards. With the new IvyBridge replacements due about April next year, I suspect intel will just release the new cpus at a small premium, but basically at the same price points.

Personally, I also have a q6600 and bought a ssd a few years back and a new video card at the start of the year. Going well here still. No games are noticably being limited by it (I know some are, but the cpu is not effecting my enjoyment of them).

IvyBridge is what I am waiting for.
 
Just noticed you had a 470...from what I can remember those things are still priced near 450$ and are still plenty fast. Maybe that would be the strongest old component to hold on to if you decide to go through with the upgrade. If you're happy enough with things as is, it could be worth it to see how BD pans out since its getting a paper release soon.
 
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It sounds like other than the SSD, my system has not aged as poorly as I'd feared. I'll hold off for a while, thank you all for your advice.
 
I was just about to make a similar thread today!

I have a Q6600 but it's at stock. I'd need to get an aftermarket cooler and then OC it but that would require me taking out the mobo to mount the bracket. My GPU is a lot weaker though. GTX260 (216)

My needs are purely for gaming and my resolution is 2560x1600. A GPU upgrade and a SSD is certainly in the plans. Since I only use it for gaming, I'll likely put the game install files on the SSD also along with save data.

Would I be better off trying to OC my Q6600 and just buying a new video card + SSD or take the plunge on a i2500k build?

If I stick with the Q6600 and wait for Ivy Bridge, I'd be looking at another 9-10months if the new of IB delays is accurate. I'd hate to do all the work removing my mobo to fit the after marketcooler, OC'ing and then having BF3, Diablo 3 and others so CPU dependent that I'm missing out on a ton of performance. I noticed the new CPU's tend to help with minimum framerate performance which is critical.

Any opinions are welcomed.
 
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RobertR1 said:
I was just about to make a similar thread today!

I have a Q6600 but it's at stock. I'd need to get an aftermarket cooler and then OC it but that would require me taking out the mobo to mount the bracket. My GPU is a lot weaker though.

My needs are purely for gaming and my resolution is 2560x1600.

Would I be better off trying to OC my Q6600 and just buying a new video card + SSD or take the plunge on a i2500k build?

If I stick with the Q6600 and wait for Ivy Bridge, I'd be looking at another 9-10months if the new of IB delays is accurate. I'd hate to do all the work removing my mobo to fit the after marketcooler, OC'ing and then having BF3, Diablo 3 and others so CPU dependent that I'm missing out on a ton of performance. I noticed the new CPU's tend to help with minimum framerate performance which is critical.

Any opinions are welcomed.
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At that resolution, 2500k would be an absolutely huge upgrade. This is just my opinion, but for games i'd be concerned mostly with CPU and GPU -- SSDs are great, but mostly just for having windows boot up instantly and not having load times on any OS/productivity related tasks. Since most new games are around 10gigs a pop I don't think its really feasible to install games to SSD drives -- I haven't run into any games that have been hampered by HD performance, I load only OS related stuff onto my SSD though, no games.

I think the best values for gaming right now are the 2500k and radeon 6950 -- the 6950 is actually fairly cheap and you can flash it with a 6970 bios to get the same performance as a 6970.

Just my .02, for what its worth
 
Thanks blackened. Perhaps, I'll keep the game data on Samsung F4 or something like that. I have been gaming on the 360 the past few years so I wasn't aware game size have spiked that much.
 
I've been in the same debate but my build is actually slightly beefier minus the video card. But thinking on it more, I'd still wait out the 28nm video cards and the 8 months for new CPU. In 8 months I'll just want to upgrade 🙂. These 2nd revisions or 2nd gen "upgrades" don't bother me so much.
 
happy medium said:
TalonSlayer said:
I built a system with the following in 2007:

Thermaltake Armor case (to give an idea of the space I'm working with): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133154

Intel quad-core Q6600 OC'd to 3.2 GHz: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115017

Asus motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131219

This RAM, now with 8 gigs, slightly OC'd: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227248

Currently using this 470GTX video card, OC'd: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127513

and a Tuniq 120 for cooling: http://www.tuniq.com.tw/Cooler Info/Tower-120.htm

Is it time to replace the CPU, motherboard, and RAM? I'm looking at the following:

CPU: i7-2600K http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115070

Motherboard: ASRock Z68 GEN3 etc. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157263

RAM: 4x4GB Corsair Vengeance: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820233143

And likely a new cooler since the old one may not fit, and I've likely lost the brackets by this point anyway.

I'm unsure what the improvements would be for this swap. I game extensively, but haven't noticed any framerate issues. Would it make enough of a difference to be worth the time and trouble? Do you think prices will drop soon and I should hold off? Would I be better off just getting a new video card? As far as I know, the motherboard can not handle any newer RAM. I'm able to spend roughly $800 total.

Any advice is appreciated, thank you in advance. If I missed any obvious information, please let me know.
Click to expand...
I would wait till framerate issues start.
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+1
 
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