Been away from AMD for a while...so....

RipperMac

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 20, 2002
Messages
352
Looking for a short term upgrade to something that's equivalent or better than a Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz. Looking for mb that uses DDR2 and of course a chip. Trying to minimize the cost...to help my kid out....his C2D E6400 just ain't cutting it for games...thanks
 
For CPU you would need a Phenom II X4, any of the C3 steppings will get you well above what you need....get it and OC it to ~3.5 min, 3.8 preferably

Motherboard pretty much any of the 790FX boards, probably need to go used, something like the M3A79-T would be perfect, or any of the M3A series, the M4A's are the same but Am3 and thus have DDR3

edit: those are Asus, not other brands
 
Thanks for the advice....sticker shock just kicked in:eek:
may as well find another Q6600 for his current setup...figured the lower end chips would be able to at least equalize a 3.0ghz Q6600 chip...
 
Check out the cheap Microcenter bundles. For $100 you can get the motherboard and cpu combo. http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/AMDbundlePROMO.html

I picked up one of the X2 555's BE MSI combo's a few weeks ago and it unlocked to a 4 core to the equivelent of a P2 965 at stock voltage. :cool: Can't beat that for $100 + the price of the memory.

Yup. Lots of people have done that free motherboard offer with the purchase of most AMD cpus. Since you stated that you want to reuse your old DDR2 memory, just make sure that it is an AM2+ motherboard :D
 
If I had a Microcenter less than 3 1/2 hours away this might have been a option...thanks anyway :)
 
well you wanted the equivlant, you can just get a 555 BE and try for an unlock (its a 955, but 2 cores are possibly "defective"), that would put youa t the ~200 mark
 
well you wanted the equivlant, you can just get a 555 BE and try for an unlock (its a 955, but 2 cores are possibly "defective"), that would put youa t the ~200 mark

Honestly, I haven't seen a X2 555 BE yet that wouldn't unlock with a motherboard that supports it - and most do.
 
The used market for the q6600 on ebay is cheap, I used to have this cpu and it was pretty good but decided to upgrade to i7.
 
I went from an e5200 to my unlocked Phenom II setup early this year, reusing my 6GB of DDR2, and going from an x1950xtx -> HD4670.

Cost me about $30-$40 after selling the old board/CPU/video card on ebay.

AMD is where the bang/buck is again right now.
 
I went from an e5200 to my unlocked Phenom II setup early this year, reusing my 6GB of DDR2, and going from an x1950xtx -> HD4670.

Cost me about $30-$40 after selling the old board/CPU/video card on ebay.

AMD is where the bang/buck is again right now.

Yup. AMD takes a lot of heat because K10 is worse than Nehalem, but K10 is an improvement over Conroe, and certainly a better choice than LGA 775.
 
Just get another Q6600.
I "upgraded" from Q6600@3,3 to X6 1055T and i consider it biggest mistake in my computer building life

The only AMD chip worth buying would be 555 BE or 560BE and even then only if it unlocks all 4 cores and goes into 3,6+ Ghz range.
 
Yup. AMD takes a lot of heat because K10 is worse than Nehalem, but K10 is an improvement over Conroe, and certainly a better choice than LGA 775.

What makes you say K10 takes a lot of heat? My 550BE idle at 24C and load around with a Phenom II X4 BE hsf and stock speed. H50 bought had it at 17C idle and 28C load.

My 1055T idle at 27C and loads at 45C with stock cooling and stock speeds. Haven't mount the h50 just yet but after exams are over I will be.

Just get another Q6600.
I "upgraded" from Q6600@3,3 to X6 1055T and i consider it biggest mistake in my computer building life

The only AMD chip worth buying would be 555 BE or 560BE and even then only if it unlocks all 4 cores and goes into 3,6+ Ghz range.

Why do you say it is the biggest mistake in your computer building life?

Also why do you think the 550BE and 560BE are the only chips to consider if only they unlock and OC? I would take an AMD Phenom II X4 945 95W TDP for around $130 over an Intel i3. Or check out the for sale forum and you can find Phenom II X4 955BE for less than $130.
 
Because i spent over 200 euros for chip and mobo which overclocks like shit and even at 3,7-3,8 Ghz is barely faster than Q6600 with only adventage being 2 more cores.

And yes I'd rather take 90-100 euro i3 rather than 120+ euro plus Phenom II:

crysis.png


Crysis barely uses anything above 2 cores -> i3 is faster (they have i5 but only diffrence are turbo multis and integrated gpu)

fc2.png


Farcry 2 can use more than 2 cores easily but doesn't utilize more than 4 - even then dual core intel is faster

re5.png


RE5 game which get's good benefit from having 6 cores but what a suprise dual core intel is faster than X6.

dirt2.png


Dirt 2 - X6 is fastest but X4 again fails to impress.

Fortunatly we have a test where AMD pulls huge victory over intel:
power-2.png


Comes handy since we have -20 degrees today in Poland.
 
What makes you say K10 takes a lot of heat? My 550BE idle at 24C and load around with a Phenom II X4 BE hsf and stock speed. H50 bought had it at 17C idle and 28C load.

My 1055T idle at 27C and loads at 45C with stock cooling and stock speeds. Haven't mount the h50 just yet but after exams are over I will be.

I mean heat as in criticism, not heat as in temperatures.

The above graphs show that Nehalem is better than K10. Nobody was claiming otherwise. It's well documented that Nehalem has a higher IPC and that in games that don't use all of the cores, a high IPC dual core beats out a lower IPC quad or hex.

OP is asking how it compares to the Q6600. That's a 65nm chip generally known for being able to hit 3.2-3.5 ghz. A 45nm K10 has a minor clock-for-clock advantage, but should clock into the 3.8 ghz range easily. It's not a night and day difference like going to a Nehalem would be, but it's still an improvement over a Kentsfield.
 
I mean heat as in criticism, not heat as in temperatures.

The above graphs show that Nehalem is better than K10. Nobody was claiming otherwise. It's well documented that Nehalem has a higher IPC and that in games that don't use all of the cores, a high IPC dual core beats out a lower IPC quad or hex.

OP is asking how it compares to the Q6600. That's a 65nm chip generally known for being able to hit 3.2-3.5 ghz. A 45nm K10 has a minor clock-for-clock advantage, but should clock into the 3.8 ghz range easily. It's not a night and day difference like going to a Nehalem would be, but it's still an improvement over a Kentsfield.

not to mention plenty of games use 4 cores.....which is a step up from the dual core the OP wants to replace (which i guess is going to 4 cores regardless).....regardless a hex was never suggested to the OP, it was mentioned that going from a Q6600 to a 1055T wasnt a good upgrade.........in games that do not use the extra cores, that would be very true since clock for close a PHenom II is only slightly better than a C2(in most cases).
 
Thanks for the advice...I think i'm gonna keep looking for a q6600 ..price is a little steep to get back into the amd camp....albeit a possible temp one :)
 
not to mention plenty of games use 4 cores.....which is a step up from the dual core the OP wants to replace (which i guess is going to 4 cores regardless).....regardless a hex was never suggested to the OP, it was mentioned that going from a Q6600 to a 1055T wasnt a good upgrade.........in games that do not use the extra cores, that would be very true since clock for close a PHenom II is only slightly better than a C2(in most cases).

Yeah, I'd definitely go for a Deneb BE over a Thuban for gaming.

For "Q6600 performance or similar", P2X4 on an AM2+ board would give a decent upgrade (if only due to the higher factory clock of ~3ghz versus 2.4ghz, and more overclocking headroom) without being very expensive at all.
 
Because i spent over 200 euros for chip and mobo which overclocks like shit and even at 3,7-3,8 Ghz is barely faster than Q6600 with only adventage being 2 more cores.

I am not sure what you were expecting though. A good dual core @ 4.0GHz will pretty much be more than enough for videocards from being bottle neck. A quad core or hexacore at @ 4.0GHz won't make much difference in games as you have proven.

Quad cores and hexacores when it comes to things such as encoding videos is where you will see it shine.

I believe you just landed in the wrong cpu market.
 
I think the big reason for disappointment in that X6 purchase is that you bought a CPU with a slightly higher IPC than the your old CPU and that games are not optimized for 6 cores. So the only chance for cpu performance gain is in the ability to overclock further.
 
Why get a cpu on an older platform?

Resale value on older stuff would be minimal ..
Cost to upgrade to a 'temp' system to get the performance of Q6600 @ 3 Ghz is about $200 approx....I can get a decent 6600 for about half that or less....I already have the infrastructure to o/c to an expected 3ghz maybe even higher(no guarantees of course :) )
Just figured I would see what AMD had to offer...that the bang for the buck would be like old times....it is but not what I'm willin to pay right now :0
Thanks for all the advice
 
Back
Top