Upgrading my cpu

[Adrenaline]

I have an ASUS P5N-D motherboard (just got it last week, was looking for a cheap upgrade that would do well as my other one, ASUS P5N32 SLI Deluxe, was surged) and am looking at a Q9550 chip to upgrade the processor to from a pentium D 950.

My case is a Stacker 830.

I was looking at cpu heatsinks and was wondering if I should just stick with the Zalman 9500 I have already or would a larger heatsink fit in the case with the board? Another recommendation?

I upgraded my psu and motherboard. I asked a question on the video card forums about upgrading my card but the cpu with the cards I have is maxed out, which I got from several replies. I plan on waiting for an XFX Radeon 5850 or go cheaper and get a gtx 260 for about $150 from Best Buy. Most likely wait for the Radeon.

This is to hold me over for about a year and a half and then this machine will go downstairs and I will buy a totally new machine from ibuypower or build one. One warranty is so much easier to deal with.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

The Zalman 9500 isn't that great, but it should be better than the retail cooler.

A larger heatsink should fit in the case. Look into Xigmatek, Scythe, and Cooler Master Hyper heatsinks.

 

[Lemon law]

To Adrenaline,

Correct me if I am wrong, but its my guess that your overclock options were severely limited by your presshot 95 watt cpu.
And if it is possible with your board, I would be looking for a cooler running 65 watt processor from the 45NM fab family.

And then you will have some real overclocking headroom and even more headroom with a better HSF.

 

[Adrenaline]

Thanks for the replies.

I am looking at the Q9550 and a heatsink to go with it. I had been looking at Xigmatech a little and will check out the other ones suggested. Thank you for the help.

 

[RussianSensation]

ZEROtherm ZEN FZ120 $32
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 $27
Scythe Mugen 2 $35

Any 3 of these are better than the Zalman 9500.

But, try out the Zalman and see if it can hold the Q9550 at 4.0ghz. If not, get one of the above.

 

[Denithor]

It's unfortunate you already bought the P5N-D, otherwise you could have just upgraded completely to an i5 system for just a bit more.

 

[Shmee]

But the i5's dont seem to OC as well. This makes s775 still relevant to the enthusiast.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: Shmee
But the i5's dont seem to OC as well. This makes s775 still relevant to the enthusiast.

Although D0s are for sure able to reach 4.0ghz at lower voltages (due to not having the PCIe controller), I wouldn't say Core i7s 1156 don't overclock well. We don't have enough data to make that conclusion yet.

Very few people on the forums have gotten Core i5/i7 on 1156 with high end air coolers. I have yet to see anyone overclocking i7 with the Megahalems or Noctua NH-U12P SE2 Ultra.

 

[bobsmith1492]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

Originally posted by: Shmee
But the i5's dont seem to OC as well. This makes s775 still relevant to the enthusiast.

Although D0s are for sure able to reach 4.0ghz at lower voltages (due to not having the PCIe controller), I wouldn't say Core i7s 1156 don't overclock well. We don't have enough data to make that conclusion yet.

Very few people on the forums have gotten Core i5/i7 on 1156 with high end air coolers. I have yet to see anyone overclocking i7 with the Megahalems or Noctua NH-U12P SE2 Ultra.

My i5 is on the way... keep ya posted.

 

[Shmee]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

Originally posted by: Shmee
But the i5's dont seem to OC as well. This makes s775 still relevant to the enthusiast.

Although D0s are for sure able to reach 4.0ghz at lower voltages (due to not having the PCIe controller), I wouldn't say Core i7s 1156 don't overclock well. We don't have enough data to make that conclusion yet.

Very few people on the forums have gotten Core i5/i7 on 1156 with high end air coolers. I have yet to see anyone overclocking i7 with the Megahalems or Noctua NH-U12P SE2 Ultra.

that is a good point about the lack of good coolers, but the fact that these CPU's often need higher volts to get up there around 4 is a hint a lower OC ability. Keep in mind that the Q9550 is also cheaper than an 860, and in some cases cheaper than the 750, and most E0's can reach 4.2 with pretty good cooling on a good board like the Gigabyte UD3P. I know my friend faxon has this setup but with a Q9650, and with low airflow on a megahalems.

Though the HT on an 860 should make it outperform yorkfields @ 4.2 if it can make it to 4 GHz or above, the 860 is still a pricey chip, and one can save a lot of money on a Q9550, UD3P, and a megahalems or lapped TRUE.

And since the i5 doesnt have HT, this still makes the yorkies a more desireable chip for OCers; and even when the good coolers do come for the 1156, those chips generally require more Vcore, so you will actually need even better coolers for the same high clocks.

My point is that the s775 setup is far from dead for some people even now.

 

[RussianSensation]

Shmee, take a look at current pricing:

- at Microcenter Q9550 E0 is $170 vs. Core i5 750 is $160
- Gigabyte P45 UD3R is $105 (after $15 MIR) vs. Gigabyte P55-UD3R is $140
- DDR2 800 is $50-60 vs. DDR3 1600 is $75-80
- Megahalems 1156 bracket is $7
- note outside of Microcenter, Q9550 is $220 vs. $200 for Core i750

So, S775 = $325-335 vs. 1156 = $375-$380

The price premium is only 13% over Q9550 system. The performance difference easily justifies the 13% price premium imo. Plus you are getting DDR3 ram you can reuse in the future.

Also, what's the problem with taking a Core i5 750 to 1.40V? It's maxium rating is 1.4V. So you are not running it out of specification. Bit-Tech had no problems pushing their Core i5 750 to 4.0ghz on any of the current boards at 1.4V.

S775 only makes sense if you are upgrading from a dual core on S775. Even AM3 is a better option because of 6 core drop in next year.

I can tell you my Core i7 860 stock is already faster than my Q6600 @ 3.4ghz was everything from WinRAR compression, DivX encode, to games (Resident Evil is 50%-60% faster), to SETI@home crunching, etc. But perhaps HT has a lot to do with it, as well as new SSE instructions.

 

[Shmee]

Well, thats pretty cool that the i7 860 is faster than your Q6600 @ 3.4, but it is also priceyer than either the 750, 920, or Q9550. Now, what if we were to compare a yorkfield at 4 GHz, with an i5 @ 3.8 GHz, or even 4? Or MB with the yorkfield at 4.2.

Anyways, I suppose it would be the holy grail if we can get a price drop on the 1156 chips along with a new stepping that OC's better. Now that would really be cool!

Also, DDR2 1100 can be had for about 90 bucks, DDR2 1066 for about $50-60. These help with OCing the yorkfields, and will improve memory bandwith.

Still, with all that said, I will probably not be buying/upgrading s775 systems in the future, b/c I have an x58 system and a s775 EVGA 780i FTW system with a Q6600 @ 3.6. Only reason I would upgrade the second system would be for folding, which would mean possibly better heat sink so I could max the Q6600's performance, more video cards/SLI, and a beefier PSU to support them.

Honestly though, my next system will probably be waiting until the 32 nm or smaller process i7/i9's come out. And it would have a hydra chip.

 

[Adrenaline]

I got my pc back together yesterday and no boot. I tried and tried and got nothing. I took it back apart and found out where the cpu goes in at was messed up. It looked like someone put tweasers in it and pulled two small piece out of it. I sent a request for a refund for it.

I got my motherboard tray from CM for my 830 and yet again UPS bashed the heck out of my box bending my part. I am just tired of it with them. My original case took 3 times to get it right due to mistreatment by them.

I have requested an RMA for a refund from both companies, waiting to see if I get it.

On another note I threw my second raptor drive into my computer and did a raid array for the first time. Idecoi.dll error ftl on a blue screen, I found a way around it though and its up and running now.

I am back at square one though and looking at what my options are. I am going to look at something other than ASUS as the PCI-e slots were so close together on this board it was pathetic. I have read really good things about Gigabyte.

 

[RussianSensation]

P45 Gigabyte UD3P is one of the best boards for OC'ing a Q9550.

 

[Shmee]

agreed. Great board, faxon has 2 of them

 

[Adrenaline]

I looked at the board, nice board. I want to get away from SLI as I have had bad luck with this one nonstop, basically a waste of money from my end.

I had a surge (the only thing I can think that caused my issue) hit my computer and its why I am having to replace parts. I have been basically pc less for some time now. My computer symptoms:

Sometimes it randomly will not boot up. Shuts off 2-3 seconds after the power button is hit.
Sometimes while in windows it will just log off and shutdown. No reason given.
Sometimes it will restart itself after I shut it down.

I put a new psu in and still the same thing. I was hoping this board would do the trick but it just did not work properly. I have tried unplugging everything and running the bare essentials and still the same thing. This is why I am looking for a mother board and cpu, it just will NOT work right.

Gigabyte board
Q9550
Maybe new RAM also (was looking at a 4GB kit from Corsair or OCZ)

Thanks for the suggestions I am debating this or just filing it uner homeowners insurance.