Q9550 to 1090t- time to switch?

Q

Quak3R

Gawd
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
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525
Im seriously thinking about going back to amd. I've pushed the Q9550 as far as it can go (in sig) looking at cinebench and other tests; Would it be worth the upgrade?

1090T
Asus Crosshair IV
4 or 6gb mushkin redline
5870x2 (when it comes out)

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ill give it a shot, im just scared of these temps on just air. I ordered the COOLIT eco should be here by wed that should be reading 1.31 not 1.288
 
honestly no, it would not be worth the upgrade....you would get a slight performance increase(from the 2 extra cores, considering that the Phenom II performs on par with the Core 2).....however, if your upgrading other peices, I say go for it, the X6 should last you a while, and with the Crosshair IV you should hit 4.0 GHz easily(in which case you would destroy your current setup)
 
money really isnt an issue. However I dont want to spend that much on something with little benefits over the current rig im gonna try and push the 9550 a little more this week
 
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W.Feather said:
honestly no, it would not be worth the upgrade....you would get a slight performance increase(from the 2 extra cores, considering that the Phenom II performs on par with the Core 2).....however, if your upgrading other peices, I say go for it, the X6 should last you a while, and with the Crosshair IV you should hit 4.0 GHz easily(in which case you would destroy your current setup)
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thats the answer I was looking for in general, Hopefully I can get a little serious with the 1090 when the CoolIT Eco gets here and screw around on the q9550. really didnt want to see just a 10% increase if im gonna drop over a G on a overhaul.
 
with an H50 you should be able to clock both the Q9550, and the 1090T to high levels(though th e1090T should go quite a bit higher clock speed).....its all up to you and what you will be doing....if your doing alot of games, and dont intend on upgrading within 3 years, i would say go with the 1090T, since by that time games should become more multi-threaded(i know BF puts about 60% load on all my cores when I play it, and I would imagine Merc's 2 will load em all up to full[crappy console port])

all in all, it comes down to if you feel its worth it for a slight upgrade

edit: you should either do 4GB or 8 GB of ram, not 6 GB....the 6GB kits are all triple channel, you will overpay for the ram(since this is an AMD build that only uses dual channel), and can probably get 8 GB for just a tad bit more than a 6GB kit anyway :)......
 
huge gamer, and im well aware that most games dont utilize even 3 cores, but BIG bad company 2 player
 
more cores should pay off, with a 4 core jump on my 9800GTX i gained ~30 FPS....yours wont be as dramatic, but should still have some upgrade...........ontop of added FPS i also have smoother gameplay( took me a few rounds to get used to it :p )
 
Quak3R said:
ill give it a shot, im just scared of these temps on just air. I ordered the COOLIT eco should be here by wed that should be reading 1.31 not 1.288
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What sort of idle/load temps are you getting? I would push it some more before you retire this setup. But if you do decide to go with that AMD setup you sell your current hardware to help pay for the "upgrade"
 
get a core i7 its totally not worth it... my q9550 clocked at 3.5ghz @ 1.17vcore... dont be afraid to OC that thing! drop the vcore if necessary these chips dont need to be fed huge amounts of voltage to get a high OC... you could probably hit 4ghz with + or - 1.3 vcore if you know what your doing
 
should see 4ghz really. I dont think you will see a large gaming improvement going to a amd 6 core, with all other things (gpu) being equal.
 
master noran said:
What sort of idle/load temps are you getting? I would push it some more before you retire this setup. But if you do decide to go with that AMD setup you sell your current hardware to help pay for the "upgrade"
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this is with the lionhead hsf
 
maybe im old fashioned when the x2500 over 50c was dangerous due to lack of heatspreader.

ill take a look, and ill hold off till i play around with it

thanks for the inputs.
 
those Core2 chips can take a crap load of heat.....a Phenom on the other hand you dont want above 60(it can do 64 max by AMD spec)
 
I wouldn't upgrade personally. I had a Q9550 @ 3.8Ghz, and only sold it because my father wanted it. It's really a lateral move to a X6 IMO. I've used both.
 
Quak3R said:
maybe im old fashioned when the x2500 over 50c was dangerous due to lack of heatspreader.

ill take a look, and ill hold off till i play around with it

thanks for the inputs.
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In general it seems like intel chips can take alot of heat but are sensitive when it comes to voltage. Intel recommends 1.36 as a safe max for the q9550 and similar cpu's but people have gone above for 24/7 with no problems. Amd chips on the other hand can take A LOT of voltage.


W.Feather said:
those Core2 chips can take a crap load of heat.....a Phenom on the other hand you dont want above 60(it can do 64 max by AMD spec)
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Agreed.
 
I've worked my way up to where I am now it's taken the past 8 months to get there little by little. I think it will do 3.8 at the current voltages but I haven't tried it yet. Running the full spectrum of stress tests and games at these settings once I"m confident then I'll try and get 3.8 out of it. I'm staying put where I am CPU/Board wise. I am planning on a new case soon either a Silverstone RV01/RV02/Fortress FT-02 or Cosair 700D. Then I'm going to add a non referrence cooled GTX 470/480 when they come available. Good luck on the overclocking. Took 8 months to get it where I am but I am very tentative and not rushing forward with it.
 
I ran my Q9450 @ 4ghz 1.4v with ease. I probably over stepped the voltage a bit, it was probably attainable with a little less v-core. That being said your CPU is a newer stepping than what I had so I couldn't imagine that yours would be capable of any less. Every 45nm Core 2 chip I have had has been pretty much brain dead simple when it came to pushing those clocks.
 
I'd have to say stick with the Q9550 for now and like others said play with it somemore to see if there is anymore headroom. Even if you can't OC more the difference in performance might give you a really hard time justifying plopping down the hard earned. Everything I have seen tells me that the only gaming performance upgrade that could be noticable would be a Core I7 (Maybe I5-750 even).

Whatever you decide I hope it works really well for ya!
 
Mosher said:
I'd have to say stick with the Q9550 for now and like others said play with it somemore to see if there is anymore headroom. Even if you can't OC more the difference in performance might give you a really hard time justifying plopping down the hard earned. Everything I have seen tells me that the only gaming performance upgrade that could be noticable would be a Core I7 (Maybe I5-750 even).

Whatever you decide I hope it works really well for ya!
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Where did you see this? When it comes to gaming everything I've seen and been told is that there is almost no difference between something like a q9550 and an i7920.
 
master noran said:
Where did you see this? When it comes to gaming everything I've seen and been told is that there is almost no difference between something like a q9550 and an i7920.
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Depends on the game, the definition of "noticable" and what video card you're using.
 
master noran said:
Where did you see this? When it comes to gaming everything I've seen and been told is that there is almost no difference between something like a q9550 and an i7920.
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there isnt really one...between the Phenom II and the i7's there is very little difference at the higher resolution levels, sure at 800x600 the i7 will beat either of them.
 
just received my coolit eco in the mail today, hopefully the q9550 can get tweaked more. btw, with all the new cards coming out, lets say i picked up a 470 or a 5870 even if somehow this cpu gets to 4ghz, would the core2duo series be bottlenecking either one of them?
 
I went from the rig in my sig, to an PII [email protected] and the difference is insane. I use my rig for F@H, encoding DVDs, and some gaming. I don't know anyone, using both my [email protected], and the 1055T @ 4.3Ghz, who wouldn't say it was a worthwhile upgrade. I sold my Q6600+DDR2 4GB kit for $200, making the upgrade come out to ~$180ish. This is with a top of the line 890GFX MB with USB 3 and SATA 6Gb. I am not a Fanboy of either company, but since money isn't an issue, and the resell value of your current gear, I say it's win win. These X6's o/c like crazy!
 
ccityinstaller said:
I went from the rig in my sig, to an PII [email protected] and the difference is insane. I use my rig for F@H, encoding DVDs, and some gaming. I don't know anyone, using both my [email protected], and the 1055T @ 4.3Ghz, who wouldn't say it was a worthwhile upgrade. I sold my Q6600+DDR2 4GB kit for $200, making the upgrade come out to ~$180ish. This is with a top of the line 890GFX MB with USB 3 and SATA 6Gb. I am not a Fanboy of either company, but since money isn't an issue, and the resell value of your current gear, I say it's win win. These X6's o/c like crazy!
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It really depends on what his usage is. Folding and encoding are two particular tasks where a 6 core will shine and your games probably saw a little bump because of the speed increase. I'm glad you're enjoying your AMD setup and nice clocks. Now start upping that cpu-nb and make it even faster. :D

I'd go for it and sell off your old gear unless you need a second pc or want a spare.
 
ccityinstaller said:
I went from the rig in my sig, to an PII [email protected] and the difference is insane. I use my rig for F@H, encoding DVDs, and some gaming. I don't know anyone, using both my [email protected], and the 1055T @ 4.3Ghz, who wouldn't say it was a worthwhile upgrade. I sold my Q6600+DDR2 4GB kit for $200, making the upgrade come out to ~$180ish. This is with a top of the line 890GFX MB with USB 3 and SATA 6Gb. I am not a Fanboy of either company, but since money isn't an issue, and the resell value of your current gear, I say it's win win. These X6's o/c like crazy!
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What kind of points per day averages are you getting with your new Thuban at 4.3ghz? That should yield some damn good numbers if you are running the Windows SMP client. You should come join us in the DC section of the hardforums as many of us folders hang out there.
 
master noran said:
Where did you see this? When it comes to gaming everything I've seen and been told is that there is almost no difference between something like a q9550 and an i7920.
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There isn't, and there isn't with a PII x6 1055t / 1090t either when it comes to gaming. That's my point.
 
ccityinstaller said:
I went from the rig in my sig, to an PII [email protected] and the difference is insane. I use my rig for F@H, encoding DVDs, and some gaming. I don't know anyone, using both my [email protected], and the 1055T @ 4.3Ghz, who wouldn't say it was a worthwhile upgrade. I sold my Q6600+DDR2 4GB kit for $200, making the upgrade come out to ~$180ish. This is with a top of the line 890GFX MB with USB 3 and SATA 6Gb. I am not a Fanboy of either company, but since money isn't an issue, and the resell value of your current gear, I say it's win win. These X6's o/c like crazy!
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Grats on your System!

You def have the right workload it appears to enjoy the extra two cores, and that's a really big OC.

My question would be, how would that compare to a I7-930 or even a I7-860 Oc'd to 4.2-4.4Ghz? I would bet that Gaming would go to the I7's, and likely F@H and Encoding would go to the PII x6.

There's an Idea for an review, At over 4Ghz what rocks more? XD
 
ccityinstaller said:
I went from the rig in my sig, to an PII [email protected] and the difference is insane. I use my rig for F@H, encoding DVDs, and some gaming. I don't know anyone, using both my [email protected], and the 1055T @ 4.3Ghz, who wouldn't say it was a worthwhile upgrade. I sold my Q6600+DDR2 4GB kit for $200, making the upgrade come out to ~$180ish. This is with a top of the line 890GFX MB with USB 3 and SATA 6Gb. I am not a Fanboy of either company, but since money isn't an issue, and the resell value of your current gear, I say it's win win. These X6's o/c like crazy!
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Mmm, glad to hear that because I am getting 1090T and crosshair 4 formula. I am hoping to kick some bad azz out of this. Yet my current rig is almost same with your haha. :D
 
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lol not sure if thats directed to me, but i just installed the eco so far this is what im getting.
compoc.png


havent test yet
anyone have any suggestions?
 
cinebench is weird, my 3.4ghz i7 gets less then a 2.8ghz i7 :) both have 4c/8t!

your 3.4ghz core 2 quad gets .1less then my 3.4ghz i7 =p
 
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