E8400 4.0 To Q9550 4.0

S

shizdan

[H]ard|Gawd
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I am think about upgrading to a Q9550 4.0 and therefore having the best processor that LGA775 can handle. Would I notice faster performance?
 
Seriously? You'll see an improvement in applications that are truly multithreaded (take advantage of more than 2 cores). Other than that, things will be pretty much the same. Windows 7 would help speed things up a bit, you will notice a boost in multitasking or gaming with other processes running in the background. Encoding will be faster too.
 
I also am contemplating picking up a Q9550 from MC for $160 and try to OC it to 4.0. But, what's the odds of getting it with my current rig?
 
BETA. said:
I also am contemplating picking up a Q9550 from MC for $160 and try to OC it to 4.0. But, what's the odds of getting it with my current rig?
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Luck of the draw really. There's not guarantee the chip will hit 4.0 with any hardware.
 
I don't have a particularly low VID, and I'm only using air cooling with 1.3V and I can hit 4Ghz without too much trouble.
 
I have decided to do the same and am currently waiting for a q9550 to fall my way.

edit: it's a no brainer if you don't need HT and don't want to spend a considerable amount more for i5.
 
Haha, it seems I am not the only one. (-: My wife is going to kill me for spending so much money. (-;
 
HydroBudz said:
Luck of the draw really. There's not guarantee the chip will hit 4.0 with any hardware.
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kirbyrj said:
I don't have a particularly low VID, and I'm only using air cooling with 1.3V and I can hit 4Ghz without too much trouble.
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I might be selling my e8400 today and i'm really close to pushing the button of getting me a Q9550 :D. I called up the MC in Tustin, and had the guy tell me the stepping and he said it's the SLB8V, so it's an E0. I also got some batch numbers; L941B939 and L925B888. Is there anything in particular to know about the E0's and these 2 batches related to OCing?
 
Someone on the forum offered to purchase me one if I gave him the money to cover the cpu, shipping, paypal fees, etc. I should have it on Friday. I have an e8400 @ 4ghz now and look forward to receiving it! I'm trying to skip i5/i7, so I can't wait!!!!!!
 
My buddy had an E8400 @ 3.8 and my Q9550 beat his in most things at 3.4. I now have it at 4.1 and its awesome. He just upgraded to an i7 920 @ 4.0 which of course spanks me but hey thats how it goes :-D.

My Q9550 loaded windows faster, most apps faster, and definitely most games were faster.
We directly compared (we lan weekly) and I think you will be very happy with the choice. Even if you only get 3.7-3.8 by some chance, I think you will still appreciate the difference.

We had the same motherboard, same ram, and at many points the same video card.

People keep talking about how not everything uses all the cores, VERY true. But that doesn't mean that the other cores can't be doing background tasks (windows, aim, vent, whatever) while your other 2 are playing a game that only uses 2 cores.(for example). It is still a win.

I lapped my Q9550 and with the Noctua NH-14 (stock fans, no lap) I am getting load temps of ~62c (1.41 vcore) after 3 hours of Prime95. and it idles at ~40c. Most games my CPU rarely see's 55c.
 
BETA. said:
I also am contemplating picking up a Q9550 from MC for $160 and try to OC it to 4.0. But, what's the odds of getting it with my current rig?
Click to expand...
No more cheap Q9550s @ MC - up to $230 now.
 
I'm in the same boat...and i wouldn't worry too much. Probably back to 169 in feb.
Just checked the website and it still says 169'er.
 
it kinda depends on what resolution you are running and what video card you got.
 
Yeah, just saw the deal is back on.

So tempting to grab another one....

I have the wife's machine, and an HTPC to fill....
 
I sold my e8400, it was hard to depart with :(

But, now on to bigger and better things :D I bought a Q9550 and just installed it. I am messing with some settings and right now I can POST and load into windows with :

471 x 8.5
cpu vcore 1.33 (1.29 in windows)
cpu termination 1.200
cpu pll 1.500
MCH Core 1.100
DRAM voltage 2.00

Haven't tried Prime95 yet, but I went ahead and tried L4D2, it crashes after about a couple minutes of playing.
 
master noran said:
I have decided to do the same and am currently waiting for a q9550 to fall my way.

edit: it's a no brainer if you don't need HT and don't want to spend a considerable amount more for i5.
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Well, one did fall my way. I just bought a used E0 stepping q9550. Looks like I'm done upgrading for a while.
 
You may notice a slight improvement in some games and a big improvement in rendering type applications. Otherwise, no.
 
Here's an interesting update

My original bios settings were not worth much

471 x 8.5
cpu vcore 1.33 (1.29 in windows)
cpu termination 1.200
cpu pll 1.500
MCH Core 1.100
DRAM voltage 2.00

with those settings I hammered down the vcore all the way up to 1.4v in windows! I got the same crashes after 1-2 minutes upon loading a game up in l4d2. So with further tinkering around I did this


471 x 8.5
cpu vcore 1.33 (1.29 in windows)
cpu termination 1.300
cpu pll 1.500
MCH Core 1.200
DRAM voltage 2.00

I changed the termination from 1.2 to 1.3 and the mch core from 1.1 to 1.2 and I just played L4D2 for about 45 minutes straight, a whole campaign. No crash, no issues. I know, it's not prime-proof... but I have a feeling i'll go 10+ hrs of prime stable with these settings, as L4D2 being a very CPU biased game that utilizes all four cores on the CPU. I stress again, it's not as intensive as Prime, but IMO this is starting to look pretty good.
 
BETA. said:
Here's an interesting update

My original bios settings were not worth much

471 x 8.5
cpu vcore 1.33 (1.29 in windows)
cpu termination 1.200
cpu pll 1.500
MCH Core 1.100
DRAM voltage 2.00

with those settings I hammered down the vcore all the way up to 1.4v in windows! I got the same crashes after 1-2 minutes upon loading a game up in l4d2. So with further tinkering around I did this


471 x 8.5
cpu vcore 1.33 (1.29 in windows)
cpu termination 1.300
cpu pll 1.500
MCH Core 1.200
DRAM voltage 2.00

I changed the termination from 1.2 to 1.3 and the mch core from 1.1 to 1.2 and I just played L4D2 for about 45 minutes straight, a whole campaign. No crash, no issues. I know, it's not prime-proof... but I have a feeling i'll go 10+ hrs of prime stable with these settings, as L4D2 being a very CPU biased game that utilizes all four cores on the CPU. I stress again, it's not as intensive as Prime, but IMO this is starting to look pretty good.
Click to expand...

You'll probably need closer to 1.4v in FSB term and NB volt.

You might be able to do ~1.36 fsb/nb with closer to 1.4v on vcore.

At least those are where I started to become really stale at 4.0, I could game easily with lower but Prime95/OCCT even 3dmark you will probably need higher.
 
crawlgsx said:
You'll probably need closer to 1.4v in FSB term and NB volt.

You might be able to do ~1.36 fsb/nb with closer to 1.4v on vcore.

At least those are where I started to become really stale at 4.0, I could game easily with lower but Prime95/OCCT even 3dmark you will probably need higher.
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i'll keep that in mind, i'm gonna start priming as of right now since I have classes all day.

I was waaay in over my head with my settings, didn't even last 1 minute in prime 95. Left cpu term to 1.3 and bumped up nb volt to 1.3 and vcore to 1.36
 
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BETA. said:
i'll keep that in mind, i'm gonna start priming as of right now since I have classes all day.

I was waaay in over my head with my settings, didn't even last 1 minute in prime 95. Left cpu term to 1.3 and bumped up nb volt to 1.3 and vcore to 1.36
Click to expand...

Those are very low for 4.0 if you get it thats fantastic!

Let me know how you end up.
 
crawlgsx said:
Those are very low for 4.0 if you get it thats fantastic!

Let me know how you end up.
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I just stopped the test a few minutes ago, core 0 failed after 2 hours, core 1 after 8, and core 2 and 3 kept running. I'm gonna try working my way up with the cpu term and nb volt towards 1.4v
 
I found that about 3.8Ghz or so is pretty easy, but to get to 4.0Ghz can take a little more voltage than I was comfortable with. 1.4V seems like a lot to me. I decided 3.8Ghz was good enough.
 
Subscribed! Would be very feasible for me to do the same thing with my build.
 
Yeah getting to 4.0 can require being a little giving with the vcore but if you have a good cooler to keep the heat down 1.4vcore/vtt isn't going to kill it.

Keep us posted!
 
NoNRG said:
Subscribed! Would be very feasible for me to do the same thing with my build.
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Your P35 board will probably end up being a limiting factor like my Gigabyte P35 DS3L. It could overclock and be stable at 4Ghz on my E8400, but no matter what setting I have tried with this E0 Q9550, I can't get it stable above 3Ghz.. Going to drop a P45 board in for $85 and hope for 3.8Ghz and be happy if I do.
 
I don't think my mobo is a P35 but I was able to hit 4ghz on my e8400 (never tried more than that)with my dfi mobo. i really like dfi bc their mobos have been good to me. Sometimes they are expensive, but they are worth it to me.

If anything, i think my ram would be holdong me back cause i never buy the expensive kind. i just hope i can get 3.8, but 4ghz would be sweet.
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^^^ Well, at 450mhz FSB (3.8Ghz on the Q9550), my memory is running 900mhz on the lowest divider. You can probably get 900mhz or more out of 800mhz memory, just add a little extra voltage.
 
I think I will be making this move in the next couple weeks too. It is nice that the mc deal is back. I am running a p35 too so hopefully that doesn't restrict me too much. I look forward too seeing all of your results!
 
Update.

After running my Q9550 with various settings, I finally gave in and tried my OC from the top; cpu vcore 1.4, termination 1.35v, and NB volt 1.35v. It was getting bad trying to get this 4.0 ghz OC and still I couldn't run prime95 stable. So, I gave in with that chip. It was a batch # L941B939 with a stock VID of 1.26, which is not that bad, but i'm pretty picky, so I exchanged it in hopes maybe i'd score a better binned one. Nope, the 2nd one from the same batch had a stock VID of 1.3v! OUCH. I went back a third time and got a batch # L925B888 and so far it's looking better, stock VID of 1.23. Starting fresh never felt so good... i'm going to try:

471 x 8.5
CPU vcore 1.300
CPU Termination 1.2
MCH core 1.2

I hope I can get lucky! be back later
 
SnowBeast said:
Your P35 board will probably end up being a limiting factor like my Gigabyte P35 DS3L. It could overclock and be stable at 4Ghz on my E8400, but no matter what setting I have tried with this E0 Q9550, I can't get it stable above 3Ghz.. Going to drop a P45 board in for $85 and hope for 3.8Ghz and be happy if I do.
Click to expand...

Ahh, I wasnt aware that was an issue. Thanks for the heads up.
 
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