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e6750 upgrade

F

foolish

n00b
Joined
Jul 6, 2004
Messages
62
I'm contemplating my xmas presents to myself this year and need some guidance.

currently i have a e6750 on an asus p5q pro with 8gb of ddr2 800, and a 8800gts 320

no oc, and no real intention to.

im considering something along the lines of an e8400.

questions:

will i notice a difference in gaming?
is my e6750 limiting my gpu?
should i get a new gpu instead (gtx260)?
 
1) It depends: what resolution are you gaming at? And what games?
2) That GPU? No.
3) Depends on the resolution you're playing at and what games. Oh and the GTX 260 is not a good choice for the money. The HD 4870, HD 5770, and HD 4890 are far better choices for the money. However if you can find a GTX 260 for $150 without rebates, that's a good deal.

EDIT: Oh and also what PSU do you have?
 
Danny Bui said:
1) It depends: what resolution are you gaming at? And what games?
2) That GPU? No.
3) Depends on the resolution you're playing at and what games. Oh and the GTX 260 is not a good choice for the money. The HD 4870, HD 5770, and HD 4890 are far better choices for the money. However if you can find a GTX 260 for $150 without rebates, that's a good deal.

EDIT: Oh and also what PSU do you have?
Click to expand...

1) 1920x1200, l4d2 and dragonage are probably the most demanding right now.
2) would the 6750 limit a newer card such as one you suggested?
3) i try not to brand jump too often when i find something that works well. hence the nvidia based choice. im open to suggestion tho

uhm, without doublechecking i want to say its a 550w antec truepower

edit: i had my rig plugged into a kill-a-watt and i believe i was pulling around 200w under load (playing l4d or something), not sure how direct a correllation to the psu wattage rating that is.
 
If you're keeping it for any length of time, I'd look at getting a Q9550 or something like that instead of a E8400.

I'd get a new GPU also. I had an older 8800GTS 320, and it just wasn't getting the job done. I find that a 4870 does ok for 1920x1080 in my case. But a GTX 260 would be just as big of an improvement and might be had for under $150 if you look around.
 
I wouldn't bother with an e8400 and just OC it though you don't want to. You really won't notice much of a difference as the e6750 is 2.66ghz and the e8400 is 3ghz. A 4870 or gtx 260 is a nice upgrade if you can find one for like $130 new.


EDIT: Wow, just looked at newegg and the gtx 260's are like $180-$200. Crazy stupid when a month or two back they were like $140 new. What the f'k happened?
 
Smashed Ixnay said:
Wow, just looked at newegg and the gtx 260's are like $180-$200. Crazy stupid when a month or two back they were like $140 new. What the f'k happened?
Click to expand...

'Blah' Friday and Cyber 'Meh'day and the Holidays... that's what happened :)

O/C that puppy! Should be able to hit 3-3.5 easily, though you'll want a good HSF (are you using the stock one?). If successful, you could spend the money on a newer GPU.


** wanted to add there were a few great combo deals for a i5 750 and gigabyte P55 m/b for around $150-190 - so the holiday sales werent all 'blah' and 'meh'. Maybe theyll pop up again as xmas approaches **
 
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ive had a Zalman 9700 on it since i originally put it in.

core temp is telling me im at about 15c on the cores with no load.
 
Unless you have your room temperature at 10C (or 50F) I do not see this being accurate.
 
id say room temp never gets much higher than 60-65f down here in the basement this time of year, and most of the time is probably below 60f. i dont have a thermometer to tell me, but my thermostat upstairs is set at max 65 when im home.
 
The on chip temperature sensors weren't designed for 100% accuracy at idle. Also, TJMax is not a fixed number. There is some variation from one CPU to the next but Intel has never said how much variation.

I believe RealTemp uses a default TJMax = 100C for that CPU. In Core Temp you can adjust that if it is not set to 100 or you could also try using RealTemp.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/qnof3s
 
Right, only the load temps will be fairly accurate. Idle temps make absolutely no difference, unless they're like 45C or higher.

If your room is really that chilly, though, I'd say just overclock the hell out of your e6750. 3.4-3.6ghz would be a good goal.

Then upgrade to an HD5770/HD4870/HD4890. Keep in mind that your P5Q Pro can handle Crossfire (albeit at a slightly slower x8 x8 config compared to x16 x16 for X38/X48 chipsets), so getting an ATI card will allow you to upgrade further down the road without requiring a replacement.
 
foolish said:
1) 1920x1200, l4d2 and dragonage are probably the most demanding right now.
2) would the 6750 limit a newer card such as one you suggested?
3) i try not to brand jump too often when i find something that works well. hence the nvidia based choice. im open to suggestion tho

uhm, without doublechecking i want to say its a 550w antec truepower

edit: i had my rig plugged into a kill-a-watt and i believe i was pulling around 200w under load (playing l4d or something), not sure how direct a correllation to the psu wattage rating that is.
Click to expand...

The E6750 would barely limit newer cards. With that said, a simple OC of 3Ghz would be enough to remove most CPU limitations.

Which Truepower? I ask because of the following:
The Truepower I and II series as well as the Smartpower series were well known for their above average death rates due to a poor choice in caps and cooling design. In more specific terms, Antec/CWT specified/used caps (Fuhjyyu caps) that did not respond well to heat. Unfortunately, Antec made the decision to have the PSU fan only ramp at really high temps in an effort to keep the PSU quiet. However, just medium to high temps were enough to screw up the caps so really high temps were murderous. Over time, this degraded the quality and performance of those PSU series.

So I recommend replacing the PSU, especially if you hear a squeal, whine, or any odd noise coming from the PSU. However, do note that the Truepower I and II series as well as the Smartpower series had a three year warranty. So if you do hear a squeal, whine, or any odd noise, that's enough grounds to RMA the PSU.

KAW are pretty inaccurate for the following reasons:
Paul_Johnson said:
Yes and a quick search would turn up this topic a million times over. Here is the recap:

1) APFC can fool Kill-A-Watts into giving you abnormally low readings (some times giving better than 100% efficiency)

2) Power supplies derate with temperature anywhere from 2w/c above a nominal rated at value to 10w/c.

3) Kill-A-Watt's and most power meters sample too slowly to catch transient loads (the Transient load from our tests is 117w and is COMPLETELY missed by Kill-A-Watts).

4) Power supplies last longer if you stay in the 40% to 60% range of their output.

5) power supplies are quieter if you stay in the 40% to 60% range of their output.

6) Power supplies are cooler if you stay in the 40% to 60% range of their output.

The power meters in UPS software are just as bad. You have to spend some change before you get anywhere near an accurate power meter when your PSU has APFC.
Click to expand...
[Kill-A-Watt Inaccuracy]
 
I upgraded from the same cpu. If you don't like to overclock, but want your system fast, get the new 1156 socket Lynnfield. They are inexpensive, self overclocking with turbo boost, brand new. I got the lynnfield 860, the ud3 motherboard.
 
OC that e6750 and save some money.

The e8400 would be an upgrade but you would hardly notice any real significant improvement especially if you OC your e6750.

If your going to upgrade from a dual core go quad core.
 
I think the important question is: Why don't you want to OC your e6750? It's a very overclockable chip, so you'll see some really nice performance gains at little to no extra cost. Plus, OCing is fun!
 
ok, so i messed around oc'ing the 6750 last night.

i tried a 8x mutlti, 400fsb, 1:1 mem ratio, ddr2 800, 1.35v cpu, 2.1v mem, most other seetting on the p5q i left on auto or whatever the default is.
ran prime95 and got a bsd

dropped to 7x multi and havent gotten a bsd yet.

i didnt see temps over 40c, but i didnt watch the whole time.
 
Give that CPU some voltage. It will work fine at 3200 MHz.

What does CPU-Z report your core voltage at when running Prime95? If the 1.35 volts is what you set in the bios then you will likely need to set it higher than that to compensate for voltage droop at full load.

Core Temp and RealTemp can both record your maximum temperature so there's no need to monitor your computer visually while testing. You can even turn on a log file in RealTemp so you can go back and see what temperature you were at just before it crashed. Your core temperature should not be a problem at your present overclocking level. It's better to start with too much voltage and then work your way down to what you need than to try to overclock without enough voltage. That's asking for trouble.
 
Make sure you don't overclock or overvolt your memory when testing for CPU stability. At 400fsb, your memory will obviously run at the stock 800mhz, so just leave memory voltage on AUTO.

What's your e6750's stock VID? If you don't know how to check, leave CPU vcore on AUTO and boot into Windows. What voltage does HWMonitor or CPU-Z report? Check this value for idle as well as Prime95 load. You might just need more CPU voltage for that overclock.
 
Update us. You should hit 3.3-3.4hz fine. You'll thank us later cause an e8400 is not worth it in your case. I used to have an e6300 @ 2.8ghz and upgraded to an e8400 bc it was a free upgrade for me. The e6300 @ 2.8ghz and the e8400 at atock speeds (3ghz) felt the same, but with my e8400 @ 3.8-3.9ghz I notice the difference. I want a q9550 now. I'm trying to skip i5/i7.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
i was playing around with it yesterday, but couldnt get a stable oc

i didnt spend a lot of time on it, as it was cutting into l4d2 time, but heres what i was trying

400fsb, 8x multi, auto voltage, which showed the vid as 1.35v. ddr2 800, auto ram voltage.
prime95 errored, and l4d would crash. i dont think it bsod'd

same results with a 7x multi.

was pulled into a l4d2 game, then it was too late to mess around with it anymore, so left it with default cpu settings and prime95 ran all night just fine, just to make sure there werent underlying issues.

was the cpu voltage too low, even when it was on auto?
 
I went from a E6850@3.4GHz to a Q9550@3.6GHz, worth it IMO, I got my Q9550 for $250CDN.
 
Avoid AUTO voltage, especially on Asus boards. If you are running 8GB of memory then you might need to tweak your memory to get stable. Set your core voltage manually and check it with CPU-Z while idle and while running Prime95. Most CPUs can run 3.2 GHz with about 1.35 volts actual but every combination is unique so you might have to play around with voltages and memory timings and memory voltages to get things 100% rock solid stable. Don't rely on the AUTO settings for anything.
 
unclewebb said:
Avoid AUTO voltage, especially on Asus boards. If you are running 8GB of memory then you might need to tweak your memory to get stable. Set your core voltage manually and check it with CPU-Z while idle and while running Prime95. Most CPUs can run 3.2 GHz with about 1.35 volts actual but every combination is unique so you might have to play around with voltages and memory timings and memory voltages to get things 100% rock solid stable. Don't rely on the AUTO settings for anything.
Click to expand...

I'm on auto for everything except FSB and voltage. I'm also a complete n00b though. So far stable however.
 
the first time around i manually set the cpu voltage to 1.35 and still got errors.

what settings on the memory need to be tweaked? on default settings (2.6ghz) everything is rock solid.

i will play around with it more tonight.
 
But is 1.35 volts what you set it to in the bios?

What you actually end up with while running Prime 95 Small FFTs might be far less than that. Use CPU-Z and only report what actual voltage you're getting.

What memory speed does CPU-Z show when running at 2.6GHz. Has that changed? You need to change the memory divider so that the memory MHz is constant. You might be trying to run your memory at a faster speed now if you don't since the two are linked.
 
** Cliff Notes version: Dont waste time guessing whether it is a memory settings or CPU related problem! Use a memory diagnostic utility to help narrow things down **


It sounds like you were very close. Before you change too many settings at least try to confirm if it's a memory setting problem or something else.

Download a good memory test utility (Memtest86+ has worked well for me). Put it on a floppy or bootable CD or USB and have your system boot from that. Set your FSB to 400 and to help eliminate the CPU as problem you could set your multi to 6 or 7 so while testing memory you're not overclocking the processor. See if you can get a couple passes (this is time consuming - plan on about an hour per run). If you get errors you can try manually setting the memory timing and voltage settings per your memory's specs (the 5-5-5-15 at 2.0v or whatever your particular memory is...). Since you're not o/cing the memory you should not need to adjust other memory settings. Once you get a few good runs of memtest you can be reasonably sure that your problem is not the memory.

Once your eliminate memory as the culprit then it'll likely be a matter of the CPU needing a little more volts... or a little more volts to the northbridge (especially if all your memory slots are occupied).
 
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unclewebb said:
But is 1.35 volts what you set it to in the bios?

What you actually end up with while running Prime 95 Small FFTs might be far less than that. Use CPU-Z and only report what actual voltage you're getting.

What memory speed does CPU-Z show when running at 2.6GHz. Has that changed? You need to change the memory divider so that the memory MHz is constant. You might be trying to run your memory at a faster speed now if you don't since the two are linked.
Click to expand...

I always make sure the memory is at dd2-800. sometimes i think it says ddr2-801, does that matter?

maro said:
** Cliff Notes version: Dont waste time guessing whether it is a memory settings or CPU related problem! Use a memory diagnostic utility to help narrow things down **


It sounds like you were very close. Before you change too many settings at least try to confirm if it's a memory setting problem or something else.

Download a good memory test utility (Memtest86+ has worked well for me). Put it on a floppy or bootable CD or USB and have your system boot from that. Set your FSB to 400 and to help eliminate the CPU as problem you could set your multi to 6 or 7 so while testing memory you're not overclocking the processor. See if you can get a couple passes (this is time consuming - plan on about an hour per run). If you get errors you can try manually setting the memory timing and voltage settings per your memory's specs (the 5-5-5-15 at 2.0v or whatever your particular memory is...). Since you're not o/cing the memory you should not need to adjust other memory settings. Once you get a few good runs of memtest you can be reasonably sure that your problem is not the memory.

Once your eliminate memory as the culprit then it'll likely be a matter of the CPU needing a little more volts... or a little more volts to the northbridge (especially if all your memory slots are occupied).
Click to expand...

i ran memtest a while back when i was having MB troubles with my old gigabyte ds3r, and had no problems back then. if i have some downtime ill run it again.

this is with most settings on auto, except i think i have ddr2-800 manually selected.
cpuzssdefault-2.jpg
 
You're going to have to raise your core voltage in the bios so you actually end up with 1.35 volts while running Prime 95. If it was my CPU, I might go as high as 1.40 volts as reported by CPU-Z and then work the core voltage down as long as I was still stable. You're not going to hurt one of these early 65nm CPUs.

Your memory speed is fine.
 
I'll be on the secondary rig later tonight (my old system). It's a 6750 also, running at 3.6 or 3.7 (been awhile since it's been messed with). I will check cpu-z and let you know what it is reporting for core voltage.
 
I too have an e6750 and I thought that I had maxed out my CPU or motherboard at 400 FSB and 8x multi (3.2 GHz), but I realized that I was running SPD (Auto settings) on the RAM, so I manually set the Ram timings, gave the CPU about 1.5V (to start..you might try starting here and lowering later) and easily now have my CPU at 3.6 GHZ (450 x 8).

Now my PC is blazing fast and I can play Crysis at 1920 x 1080 everything high quality in 64 bit mode on an 8800 GT superclocked.

I use a Tuniq tower lapped and also lapped my CPU, but anyways it is really cool (never gets above 55C at load).
 
I used to run my E6400 at 450 x 8 = 3600 MHz and it needed approximately 1.53 volts actual. That old CPU is still in the [H]ardOCP database at a respectable level for an air cooled CPU and it still runs just fine today. The newer G0 stepping like you have tended to need slightly less voltage compared to the original B2 stepping.

Once you get 3200 MHz stable, I wouldn't think twice about giving it some more voltage and going for 425 x 8 = 3400 MHz. You've got a good board and these CPUs have lots of head room so don't be afraid to use it. These early 65nm CPUs are also fairly bullet proof.

By the way, as a gamer, you'll get far more bang for your buck when you upgrade your GPU compared to upgrading your CPU.
 
mine's a B step, G0 revision (like yours). Idle core voltage 1.152v - showing 1.344v under load at 3.63 ghz.
Always considered this a better than average chip but get your core around 1.35-1.4 and you should be fine @ 3.2
 
I'm also in the process of overclocking my 6750. 400x8 was my summer OC but now its officially super cold outside so I can get it up again. However, I dont remeber what my max OC setting were, so I gotta start over.

Testing 425x8 @ 1.41v
 
i havent had much luck so far.
400x8, 1.5v, nb 1.4 and still not stable. temps are normal, but prime95 generally doesnt make it more than a few hours, and l4d2 crashes out within a few minutes.
 
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