Upgrade wife's computer from Q6600 to Haswell i3?

[Yuriman]

There has been a lot of talk lately about Core2, power draw, i3 vs FX6300, and I became curious about the cost of "upgrading" her PC.

I did the math and I can sell her 6GB DDR2 + Q6600 + board for approximately $205 on eBay (maybe more on the classifieds here), and get a new i3 + 4GB DDR3 + B85 board for ~$220. 2 years ago I cross-compared a Q6600 3GHz with an Ivy Bridge i3 and found it wouldn't be worth the time and effort (about dead even in most things), but Haswell improves HT quite a bit in addition to small improvements in single-threaded IPC, and I've recently set her chip back to stock because some of the power saving features needed to be disabled to hit 3GHz + it occasionally wouldn't wake from sleep properly. She's a light gamer, browses the web, and watches Netflix, mostly. I'd be moving her PSU + SSD + HD7850 over.

What do you guys think? I don't have a kill-a-watt and have no idea what her draw is at the wall. We're not unhappy with the performance, but when will my break even point probably be, assuming it sleeps about half the time and near-idles the other half? I expect 4GB of RAM to be sufficient for her needs, and I can always add more down the road.

 

[BSim500]

Don't know for sure, but you'll be dropping down from a 105w CPU to a 55w CPU. You'll also be going from a 2.4Ghz -> 3.4-3.6GHz CPU + 30-40% IPC improvement + Hyper-Threading + PCI-E 3.0 + AES-NI + USB 3.0 + SATA 3, etc. From what I've read, using Cinebench R15 as a benchmark:-

Q6600 = 62 1T / 231 4T
i3-4330 = 139 1T / 356 4T

You're talking literally double the single-threaded + up to 50% higher multi-threading performance. Worth it for $15 alone, even without the overall power savings, lower heat & noise. As for power savings figures, it depends on your load, PSU efficiency, etc, but probably 20-30w less idle + 50-55w less under load. It'll probably pay for itself in a year overall.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

I say yes.

 

[OCGuy]

Yep

 

[SlowSpyder]

Practically free and you live in a warm climate. I say go for it.

 

[daveybrat]

Go for it. Not only much better IPC and performance, but also pretty decent HD 4400 graphics built in that should be more than enough for her use (unless she actually games).

 

[Arkaign]

Everything about that is better. The only thing I'd recommend honestly is throwing a few more bucks at it and going ahead with the i5 4570. Considering she's a light gamer, and you're apparently someone to keep something good for MANY years, the real quad should pay off. I think the difference is 80 bucks or so, but definitely worth a consideration.

Or if you're patient with the FS/FT, you could probably pick up a solid 2500K combo for your target price.

 

[Yuriman]

Thanks for the suggestion Ark, but I'm pretty set on the i3. I may swap it later but the i3 is probably a good fit. $15 vs $95 for an upgrade is a pretty big increase for poor college students, what puts this on my radar is the price parity. A 2500K would also work I suppose, and I'll keep an eye out for deals, but the new platform + power savings are more attractive than raw performance.

Wrong section (I'd rather not start a new thread), but you guys should help me pick a motherboard.

I like ASRock, they tend to have great value.

I have had mixed experiences with Gigabyte, all of my boards from them have had an annoying quirk or two, but they're highly regarded.

Asus tends to be a little more expensive but is also high regarded, haven't used an Asus board since around '03 though.

MSI often has the lowest power-draw-from-the-wall figures, generally followed by Gigabyte. I have never owned an MSI board but a friend of mine had to RMA two (out of two). I'd chalk it up to bad luck and it's not really going to influence my decision.

I'm open to other brands, of course. I'm leaning toward B85 chipset with slight preference toward two full size PCIe slots and 4 RAM slots, though neither is necessary if the price is right. H87 gives more USB3 and SATA3 + RAID, which isn't a big deal. I have a full ATX case but would prefer mATX for future flexibility.

ASRock B85M Pro4 - 4 RAM slots, two full length PCIe slots, $70 w/free shipping, there is an "ASM" model with extended warranty (presumably better caps/build quality) for $89 shipped, both advertised as having all solid state caps

Biostar B85 - $60, lacks solid state caps, advertised as having better audio

MSI B85 - Solid caps, good chokes, $68 shipped

Gigabyte B85 - $76 shipped

 

[JeffMD]

My big question is.. why would you want to do this? Going from a q6600 to an i3 is alot of superficial changes. The time and suffering of building the new box, wiping and selling the old box and still being left with a low powered pc, and all for what? It does not seem like she plans to game, so what could she be doing that the q6600 cant do?

btw searching sold listings and typing in q6600 netted alot of comps that edged out $100. A lot of name brand dells (prolly leased refurbs) for $100.

 

[Yuriman]

It's hard to sell an entire machine but 775 boards (especially nice ones) command a premium now. DDR2 commands a premium. Q6600's sell quickly on eBay for $50. Parting it out maximizes what I'll make.

As for wiping the drive, there was a point in my life when I was reformatting every 3 weeks. I'm the kind of guy who completely disassembles his car every few months just because I like to tinker.

I'm part interested in having something new to play with, part interested in power savings, and part thinking about how we're going to be baking in the Florida summer. One of the games we play together, Guild Wars 2, runs a bit more poorly than I'd like on her machine, but it's not a deal breaker. She gets mid 30's where I get 60+ with the same GPU.

I'm tempted by Ark's suggestion but a quick search of my usual sources reveals no screaming deals on 1155 quads.

 

[escrow4]

I'd recommend Gigabyte's G1 Sniper B5 for B85 - Intel NIC, high quality Realtek codec (898) and solid build quality. Asrock is meh, too cheap for my tastes.

 

[escrow4]

My big question is.. why would you want to do this? Going from a q6600 to an i3 is alot of superficial changes. The time and suffering of building the new box, wiping and selling the old box and still being left with a low powered pc, and all for what? It does not seem like she plans to game, so what could she be doing that the q6600 cant do?

btw searching sold listings and typing in q6600 netted alot of comps that edged out $100. A lot of name brand dells (prolly leased refurbs) for $100.

Massive difference. A Haswell i3 (never mind an i5) spanks it severely in any task from single threaded to multi threaded, plus it sucks way less power and dumps less heat, plus you gain all the 2014 benefits - USB 3 and SATA 3 and UEFI/GPT.

 

[Yuriman]

I'd like to add that I considered an FX6300 briefly, but I probably wouldn't overclock it. At stock it's a tossup, so I'll take the newer platform.

2500K loses points for this.

 

[coolpurplefan]

If you're poor, you can ignore what I'm about to say. But I read a couple of times here that the i3 was slower even in ordinary tasks compared to an i5. So maybe getting an i5-4440 can improve the experience. (Where you'd get the money I don't know.)

 

[ehume]

Everything about that is better. The only thing I'd recommend honestly is throwing a few more bucks at it and going ahead with the i5 4570. Considering she's a light gamer, and you're apparently someone to keep something good for MANY years, the real quad should pay off. I think the difference is 80 bucks or so, but definitely worth a consideration.

Or if you're patient with the FS/FT, you could probably pick up a solid 2500K combo for your target price.

My work machine is an i3. No matter what the benchmarks, I would give exactly zero for the thing. Yes, I know some of the issue is the spinning-disk HD, but I watch the molasses run . . . slowly. No throughput.

You want to fix up your wife's machine? Do what I did. I swapped out her HD and replaced it with a Samsung SSD. OK, so it's a SATA III on a SATA II machine. But now you'd never know how slow it used to go (a little rhyming action there?). And the best thing is that if we end up getting her a better machine down the road, the SSD can go into that.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

My work machine is an i3. No matter what the benchmarks, I would give exactly zero for the thing. Yes, I know some of the issue is the spinning-disk HD, but I watch the molasses run . . . slowly. No throughput.

You want to fix up your wife's machine? Do what I did. I swapped out her HD and replaced it with a Samsung SSD. OK, so it's a SATA III on a SATA II machine. But now you'd never know how slow it used to go (a little rhyming action there?). And the best thing is that if we end up getting her a better machine down the road, the SSD can go into that.

He already has an SSD.

For OP, microcenter is selling i5 4670k+mobo for $229. With some undervolting you could get some amazing power efficiency.

 

[Arkaign]

He already has an SSD.

For OP, microcenter is selling i5 4670k+mobo for $229. With some undervolting you could get some amazing power efficiency.

Yep, MC is GODLIKE for those with access.

 

[Ken g6]

I don't have a kill-a-watt and have no idea what her draw is at the wall. We're not unhappy with the performance, but when will my break even point probably be, assuming it sleeps about half the time and near-idles the other half?

So, you're looking to save power use? You might want to consider a new PSU with higher efficiency and a lower maximum wattage. This moves the rated efficiency level lower, so it's more likely to match the machine's usage.

Here's a Seasonic 360W for $55. It should power the 7850 if it only has a single power connector. It won't power a lot more, but that's the point: it'll get minimum 87% efficiency down to 36W. It should even work with the Q6600 if it's not overclocked.

Edit: Estimating 90W now, 12 hours/day, on an 80 plus PSU, at $0.20/KWh, doing the math in my head, gets a ROI of about...7 years. Electricity is cheap. :\

 

[sm625]

2 years ago I cross-compared a Q6600 3GHz with an Ivy Bridge i3 and found it wouldn't be worth the time and effort (about dead even in most things)

I dont know how you did your comparisons, but I can say with a good deal of certainty that a haswell i3 is noticably faster than a Q6600 @ 3GHz. I have both of those setups running in my house. They both have SSDs. The Q6600 is just a dog. Everything takes twice as long, or more. According to passmark, the i3-4130 is 75% faster than a QX6800 in single threaded performance, while only about 20% faster in multithreaded. But it is the single thread performance that you really notice in general usage.

The Q6600 is so slow in fact, that it would have to be overclocked to 5.5GHz just to match the single thread performance of an i3-4130.

 

[grimpr]

I dont know how you did your comparisons, but I can say with a good deal of certainty that a haswell i3 is noticably faster than a Q6600 @ 3GHz. I have both of those setups running in my house. They both have SSDs. The Q6600 is just a dog. Everything takes twice as long, or more. According to passmark, the i3-4130 is 75% faster than a QX6800 in single threaded performance, while only about 20% faster in multithreaded. But it is the single thread performance that you really notice in general usage.

The Q6600 is so slow in fact, that it would have to be overclocked to 5.5GHz just to match the single thread performance of an i3-4130.

True, any dualcore i3 with hyperthreading is a great upgrade to the Q6600 and especially the Haswell i3s where the Hyperthreading works so much better and is faster than previous generation.

 

[B-Riz]

I hate to rain on the parade of upgrade love, but a quick search on Newegg and Pricewatch shows a readily available supply of 775 boards.

The actual net cash received after tearing the Q6600 system apart and paying eBay or PayPal fees if sold online and shipping it; will not cover much of getting a new i3 build.

I don't see how anyone locally would pay $205 for that hardware either...

I would look for an i5 refurbished box from TigerDirect or NewEgg.

 

[MeldarthX]

I have a hard time recommending a dual core this day and age; that deal at MC is awesome......

Honestly if you're not oc; then go for 15 4440......it will be faster; you get quad core; and you get to tinker; or for the love of god.......goto MC if you have one around

 

[Yuriman]

@Ken_g6, it's been on an Antec Earthwatts 380w since I got my i5, so I'm already set there.

@B-Riz, thanks, I may have overestimated, but all of Newegg's 775 boards have older or lower end chipsets (865, G41). It might take some time to get a fair price on the X48 board it was running on, but I'm not in a huge hurry. I'll scavenge my parts bin and see what else I might be able to sell too, though.

 

[B-Riz]

@Ken_g6, it's been on an Antec Earthwatts 380w since I got my i5, so I'm already set there.

@B-Riz, thanks, I may have overestimated, but all of Newegg's 775 boards have older or lower end chipsets (865, G41). It might take some time to get a fair price on the X48 board it was running on, but I'm not in a huge hurry. I'll scavenge my parts bin and see what else I might be able to sell too, though.

Yeah, it stinks trying to upgrade something.

I would recommend selling a whole computer on Craigslist if possible; take that cash and buy a low end 2nd gen i5 box that someone else is selling.

For example, there is an i5 2400 system for sale near me @ $350.

And plenty of people tear their i5 2500k systems down and piece them out locally on Craigslist too.

If you have something like that available, $180-$250 for your box with a Windows OS (not XP) could entice someone; offer to add parts they provide to sweeten the deal.

The Q6600 is still a solid CPU for a lot of users out there.

If you are in school, put up a for sale flyer.

 

[Denithor]

Yeah, I just picked up a Dell i5-2400 system (4GB, 500GB, DVDRW, SFF case) on eBay for about $320 shipped. No OS installed but has a Win7P COA and I can get a reinstall disc at work so that's covered. I plan to drop in a 128GB SSD, install W7P onto that, set the HDD as secondary with My Documents/etc on it and will have a screaming little media center PC for a buddy for about $400.