Q6600 to Q9550 Upgrade?

M

Monolith2013

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 29, 2008
Messages
130
The situation...

My Biostar TP45 MB recently crapped out and while I'm having to RMA it, I went ahead and bought a used Asus Maximus II MB along with the Corsair H70 liquid cooler. Any ways, I'm debating on upgrading my current Q6600 to a Q9550. I don't have the cash or the desire to upgrade to an i7 system but would like a slight increase in performance/OC'ing ability. Any ways, any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated... IE, do any of you think it'd be worth getting the Q9550?
 
Figure out your FSB/memory limit first. The 9550 is a higher 333mhz FSB and has a lower 8.5 multiplier.
 
9550 was the lowest model in that family that came with 12mb of cache, which made it one of the best cpu's out there to get.

you can easily oc it to 3.8ghz if your mobo can hit 1800fsb
 
Monolith2013 said:
do any of you think it'd be worth getting the Q9550?
Click to expand...

I think this would depend entirely on the price you are able to get a Q9550 for.

Also, what are you running your Q6600 at?

If you have your Q6600 at 3.6 then I think you are already doing pretty good as far as Socket 775 goes. Save your money for an overall upgrade. And chances are (unless you have a bad chip) that if you can't do 3.6 on your current board you aren't going to see any amazing overclocks with a Q9550 either.

If you know for sure that your Motherboard won't hold you back in terms of FSB and you can pick up a Q9550 for <$150 and sell or otherwise make use of your Q6600, then I would do it.
 
Are you running into performance limitations in anything you do?
 
Well, I can run the Q6600 on the Biostar TP45 MB at around 3.4 stable, although it's a bit hot. That's one reason I'm getting the H70 liquid cooler, I know it'll reduce the temps enough for me to probably get it up to 3.6 (possibly higher) stable. But, like I said, I'm getting the Asus Maximus II as a backup/new board to try out until I can get the TP45 RMA'ed (although depending on how I like the Maximus II, I might just keep using it). So, I have no idea as to how the Q6600 will run/OC on that board. But I know that board is more in-tune with running the 45nm chips versus the Q6600, which is why I'm considering going ahead and getting the Q9550.
 
No performance limitations that I'm aware of... Even though it's in my signature, here are my complete system specs...

MB - Biostar TP I45 --------------- RMA, just got the Maximus II
CPU - Q6600 @ 3.4GHz ---------- Considering bumping to the Q9550
RAM - 8GB OCZ Platinum DDR2 1066
GPU - Powercolor HD 4870x2
PSU - Eermax Rev +85 1000W PSU -------------- (bought recently)
HDD - 2 WD 640GB / RAID0
Cooler - Asus Silent Knight II
Case - Thermaltake Kandalf
Monitor - Samsung, SyncMaster T240 1920x1200
 
If you're not having performance issues, then I don't see a need to upgrade. Compared to the state of the art stuff that's available now, going from a Q6600 to a Q9550 is a pretty minor upgrade anyway. I just don't see much of a point in spending money on that.
 
Well, LGA 775 is a dead platform. In my view, there is no point in investing in a Q9550 unless you can get it for less than $50 net of selling the Q6600.
 
jbz7890 said:
Well, LGA 775 is a dead platform. In my view, there is no point in investing in a Q9550 unless you can get it for less than $50 net of selling the Q6600.
Click to expand...

+1

save your money for something more worth while.
 
at this point just upgrade to a sandy bridge when they come back in stock

i upgraded from a Q9550 oc to 3.4ghz to a sandybridge 2600k oc turbo to 4.6ghz

and its like night and day in performance. the 2600k pushes my 6970 alot harder than the Q9550 and i saw an improvement right away in most of my games
 
No point in upgrading 775 at this point, at best you would be upgrading from a SOHC to DOHC 4 cylinder while spending half the cash it would take to get a new v8 ;)
 
don't buy a new mobo, cooler or cpu. wait for the rma and use that board.

either don't upgrade or go balls out with a new i5 or i7 build.

In your shoes id just hold off if you are getting the performance you want. Then do the shotgun approach by purchasing an entire new rig. CPU/GPU/ETC.
 
Yeah, but my current system is using DDR2.... It's not a matter of cash saved to purchase a system in the future or not... I'm looking at a small amount of money thrown out after selling the Q6600 if that's my decision. I typically use the same system for 4+ years at a time depending on the current level of software/game support for the hardware (IE, are there any amazing games out that I can't play at least on medium w/what I currently have?). I'm not looking for a completely new system build... Any increase would be appreciated when compared to what I'm currently spawning.

I understand where a lot of you are coming from, but at the same time a lot of you are probably already running an i7 system, which is not within my budget and saving here and there isn't an issue... So I have some $ now to do x, y and z...

So, given x, y and z... Should I cough up a small amount of cash to purchase a Q9550 to replace my Q6600?

I'm looking for an apples to apple comparison.... Not a grapefruit to banana comparison. haha, don't get me wrong though, I still appreciate the input... It's just not what I'm looking for.
 
BurntToast said:
don't buy a new mobo, cooler or cpu. wait for the rma and use that board.

either don't upgrade or go balls out with a new i5 or i7 build.

In your shoes id just hold off if you are getting the performance you want. Then do the shotgun approach by purchasing an entire new rig. CPU/GPU/ETC.
Click to expand...

+1, at this point wait or go all out. The Q9550 just isn't worth it at this point since Sandy Bridge is like 2 generations ahead now.
 
Dear OP,
Per everything you already mentioned in 1st post and replies.

1. Everybody knows Q9550 is better than Q6600
2. The most important thing is whether you can get Q9550 cheap.
3. Whether you can sell Q6600 to someone else to offset your Q9550 cost.

Observation

1. If you are able to sell Q6600, there is a high chance you are a good seller with good networking, you might as well sell the entire unit (MB/CPU/RAM/PSU/Misc complete unit). In this way, you do not need to worry about Q6600->Q9550.

2. If you insist on only selling Q6600, based on current situation, sell your Q6600 before worrying about Q9550. If you cannot find good price for your Q6600 to your satisfaction, then you cannot use Q6600 to offset Q9550 cost, then you do not need to worry about Q9550.

(unless someone is selling Q9550 really cheap to you, I cannot say no because I frequently see people here somehow got a lot of free ES processors or processors their Boss/companies gave it to them free of charge) Based on generic current situation, it is very difficult to find cheap Q9550/Q9650 under normal business transaction.

Your best case is obviously someone buying the entire existing setup from you, so you can use the money to build new system.

Cheers
 
lightp2 said:
Dear OP,
Per everything you already mentioned in 1st post and replies.

1. Everybody knows Q9550 is better than Q6600
2. The most important thing is whether you can get Q9550 cheap.
3. Whether you can sell Q6600 to someone else to offset your Q9550 cost.

Observation

1. If you are able to sell Q6600, there is a high chance you are a good seller with good networking, you might as well sell the entire unit (MB/CPU/RAM/PSU/Misc complete unit). In this way, you do not need to worry about Q6600->Q9550.

2. If you insist on only selling Q6600, based on current situation, sell your Q6600 before worrying about Q9550. If you cannot find good price for your Q6600 to your satisfaction, then you cannot use Q6600 to offset Q9550 cost, then you do not need to worry about Q9550.

(unless someone is selling Q9550 really cheap to you, I cannot say no because I frequently see people here somehow got a lot of free ES processors or processors their Boss/companies gave it to them free of charge) Based on generic current situation, it is very difficult to find cheap Q9550/Q9650 under normal business transaction.

Your best case is obviously someone buying the entire existing setup from you, so you can use the money to build new system.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Hahah, yeah... I "ain't" one of those lucky few. I do all my buying/trading on EBAY and yes, the Q6600 is selling around a hundred or perhaps less "short" of what I'd buy a Q9550 for. So... Lemme rephrase... Is the Q9550 worth a hundred bucks or, best case, lets say $80?

Far as selling the entire system... No... I'd loose money big time. I've got a Biostar TP45 (needs to be RMAed), a Q6600, an Enermax Rev +85 1000W PSU, 8GB of solid OCZ DDR2 RAM, 2 HDs =RAID 0 --- 1+ TB HDs, Thermaltake Kandalf case, etc... I doubt it'd all sell for more than $500 on EBAY. No, this is my personal system and I'm just looking for small upgrades here and there until I take the plunge and build a completely new system. Hell... I've had this case since around '06 or so. I bought most of the current components around 2 yrs ago towards the end of the Q and QX era for Intel... Right around when the 4870x2 came out. In fact, that's the very video card I still run and the reason for my changing out my MBs. The TP45 stopped running the 4870x2 one day and I've kinda been procrastinating on RMA'ing it. So as a backup I bought the Asus Maximus II MB. Eventually... Yes, I'll splice together everything and sell a complete system once I move on to a newer generation, but until then, I'd like to get the most I can out of what I currently have.

PS, I thank everyone for their input.... Seriously, it's given me some things to think about, etc.... [H] and the people who follow it are an awesome bunch! Thanks! Keep the thoughts coming! haha
 
Alright, Dear Monolith2013

I did some price searching. my understanding

1. New Q9550 between USD 260-280
2. Ebay Bidding used Q9550 between USD 185-210 (I guess)
3. Ebay Bidding used Q6600 between USD 81-100 (I guess)

4. Thus your best delta is around USD 85, sell Q6600 at 100 and buy Q9550 at 185
5. Your much worse delta is around USD 129, sell Q6600 at 81 and buy Q9550 at 210
Point 4 and 5 assume you can sell your Q6600.
If no buyer for your Q6600, you delta is USD 185 and above for used Q9550.

6. Based on this analysis, and replies, and you said you are getting H70 cooler, which incur more cost just to cool the q6600 to your satisfaction (USD 110 newegg), the total cost could be anything from 85+110 to 129+110, or 185+110. These are on top of the Asus Maximus II already on hand. The total investment plus your effort/shipping/handling at face value do not appear to logically argue for this highten involvement, unless present a very clear use case for further analysis.

7. Generally under any common scenario, if you must spend to look for generic improvement, since 8GB-DDR2 is sufficient for current use, the next best thing is get a low capacity cheap Solid State Disk. This does not apply if you are extremely focus gamer with very exact needs because they tune for maximum CPU/GPU combination. In that case we are back to your initial question. CRC :)

Edit : one plausible outcome is able to get Q9550 at delta 85+ good Air-Heat-Sink USD 30-40. In this case, for USD 115-125, the system will be good until 2014 atleast, more if you are not demanding, thus you can ignore Core i until it really matters, which by then will be inexpensive anyway. (this part sorta opinion on your question whether it is worth to spend more money)

Do note that as you extend further and further, the value of your existing setup becomes lesser and lesser every day. Some users live at bleeding-edge so their strategy is sell before it becomes too late.
 
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lightp2 said:
Alright, Dear Monolith2013

I did some price searching. my understanding

1. New Q9550 between USD 260-280
2. Ebay Bidding used Q9550 between USD 185-210 (I guess)
3. Ebay Bidding used Q6600 between USD 81-100 (I guess)

4. Thus your best delta is around USD 85, sell Q6600 at 100 and buy Q9550 at 185
5. Your much worse delta is around USD 129, sell Q6600 at 81 and buy Q9550 at 210
Point 4 and 5 assume you can sell your Q6600.
If no buyer for your Q6600, you delta is USD 185 and above for used Q9550.

6. Based on this analysis, and replies, and you said you are getting H70 cooler, which incur more cost just to cool the q6600 to your satisfaction (USD 110 newegg), the total cost could be anything from 85+110 to 129+110, or 185+110. These are on top of the Asus Maximus II already on hand. The total investment plus your effort/shipping/handling at face value do not appear to logically argue for this highten involvement, unless present a very clear use case for further analysis.

7. Generally under any common scenario, if you must spend to look for generic improvement, since 8GB-DDR2 is sufficient for current use, the next best thing is get a low capacity cheap Solid State Disk. This does not apply if you are extremely focus gamer with very exact needs because they tune for maximum CPU/GPU combination. In that case we are back to your initial question. CRC :)

Edit : one plausible outcome is able to get Q9550 at delta 85+ good Air-Heat-Sink USD 30-40. In this case, for USD 115-125, the system will be good until 2014 atleast, more if you are not demanding, thus you can ignore Core i until it really matters, which by then will be inexpensive anyway. (this part sorta opinion on your question whether it is worth to spend more money)

Do note that as you extend further and further, the value of your existing setup becomes lesser and lesser every day. Some users live at bleeding-edge so their strategy is sell before it becomes too late.
Click to expand...

Hahaha, why do I feel as though I am having a conversation with "The Architect" of The Matrix?

All great points and more to the point of what I was trying to get at.

Asus Maximus II = $169
H70 = $109
-------------------------------
(this is what I've bought so far)
$278

Now, the question is... Do I keep or sell my RMA'ed/Replacement MB (TP45)? If so, then I would expect to get between $80 and $100 or perhaps slightly more for it as it would be brand new and unused after the RMA "IF" I decide to keep the Maximus II.

So... say I get $90 for the MB...

That's an investment of $188 minus the processor. I want the liquid cooling regardless of wtver processor I have... So honestly, I'm not looking at that as an expense.

So, with that in mind... I've only spent $79 on needed hardware.

Now, lets talk about the processor...

Say I can sell my Q6600 for $100 and I purchase a Q9550 for top Ebay market at $180 (used Q9550s are under $190 currently)...

So, my entire expense will be $159... I guess I don't see it as being that bad for mid-life upgrade? Even if you were to add the cooling in there, it'd still only be $269... Not that much when considering what I'd pay for a completely new (i7) system.

That would consist of a new MB, a new processor and while not in the equation, a new heat sink which would deliver higher OC values.

When I do upgrade, I go all out... But I pick and choose the times as do more than a few of us at [H]. I don't have the $ to upgrade all at once except on rare occasions, so while I'm waiting for that time, I tend to do smaller upgrades here and there, just to keep my system viable and future proofed far as certain functions/software apps/games go.

I don't "save" for a complete overhaul... I simply purchase it when the time is right. And by the looks of it... That won't be for another 4+ years at the least. Quite frankly, there hasn't been much offered up as of late that really takes advantage of the quads or of the new video cards, save for eyefinity (for my purposes & desires). And at the moment, I can't afford the 3 non-bezel monitor setup, so it's a moot point. Besides, that would require me to cough up even more for a new GPU on top of the new monitor config.
 
Get an SSD. Skip the cpu upgrade as it's not much and you'll get much more bang out of an ssd for os/apps, & keep your raid 0 for files.
 
Yeah I've heard this a few times... But an SSD still ?won't? deliver the speed of a RAID0 config will it (by it's self... Non RAID SSD)? My two RAID 0 HDs = 1.16 TB...


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$149.98
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You're talking about a huge price difference for the amount of storage. And my RAID 0 is quite speedy. I just can't see the benefit for ditching what I've been talking about for a small SSD which would cost so much and not give me as much capacity.... ehhh.
 
Your raid 0 may keep up with an SSD while doing sequential transfers.
However from my research, an SSD has a massive advantage in IO's per sec and random access latency. Those things are what you notice when you are using your computer regularly. Trust me when I say that an SSD will make your computer feel like new. Don't underrate their effectiveness. And price wise, they are getting close to reasonable.
An 80gb is plenty in most situations. It leaves room for the OS/misc software. A couple of games, and an image/video editor if you want.

Your Q6600 isn't exactly a slow cpu when clocked at 3.4. Once you get the H70 you may be able to clock it higher.
To sum it up, I wouldn't bother with upgrading on the 775 platform. I know its tempting, however in the long run it will be a faster money sink vs X58 or SB platform.
 
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For what it is worth I have a 9550 EO and recently upgraded to an SSD, huge impactful upgrade I think much more than going from a 9660 to a 9550. Plus its good to have the OS on a dedicated drive, make things much easier than if a drive in raid 0 goes bad.
 
DualOwn said:
9550 was the lowest model in that family that came with 12mb of cache, which made it one of the best cpu's out there to get.

you can easily oc it to 3.8ghz if your mobo can hit 1800fsb
Click to expand...

Just a quick note, the Q9450 was availible as well with 12MB of cache.

I agree with most people in here. I would save for a new platform.
 
I think you've already invested way too much money in a dead platform personally.
 
Well, the only things I've bought so far are the Maximus II and the H70... I think I'll hold off on the CPU upgrade. The H70 wasn't a bad purchase as it will still fit the newer platforms, so once I do build a new system, I can still use the H70, so that's not money wasted. Far as the MB goes... It was a necessity, I'm having to RMA the TP45 and I have to have a running/working machine. Besides, if I like the Maximus II, I can always sell the new replacement/RMA'ed TP45 to cover some of the cost. Any ways, I think the SSD might be a good idea... I've been meaning to get a 3rd drive to serve as a primary/backup in case of the RAID0 failure. So, I'll do some more searching and thinking. Thanks guys.

PS, Anyone have a good recommendation for a 60-80GB SSD? What about getting 2 and putting them into a RAID0? I know they're more stable but I haven't done much reading on the subject/speed increase, etc.
 
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RamonGTP said:
I think you've already invested way too much money in a dead platform personally.
Click to expand...

It's a great platform for a backup system.
You NEVER know when your main is going down....and I think you would MUCH rather have a Q9550 @ 4 ghz as a backup system, than a P4 Northwood or AXP, don't you think?
 
I have a Q9550 and I love the thing. I have no desire to upgrade my CPU at this point and it handles everything just fine at this point. However I upgraded from an e5200, if I had a Q6600 I would have kept it and saved for a new platform. An upgrade to a Q9550 isn't enough to hassle with in your situation.
 
For the price of a new board and a Q9550, I would have gone with either a 2500k or 1055t personally...Otherwise, keep the Q6600...it's a great chip if you can get it to 3.6Ghz.
 
you won't see much difference going from q6600 to q9550. just keep your current setup. it's still good for a while. wait till intel fix their sb problem then upgrade to a whole new setup;)
 
Falkentyne said:
It's a great platform for a backup system.
You NEVER know when your main is going down....and I think you would MUCH rather have a Q9550 @ 4 ghz as a backup system, than a P4 Northwood or AXP, don't you think?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what thread you think you're participating in, but he already has a Q6600. Not a P4 or AXP and I see no mention of a "backup system" either and should this be a "backup system" a Q6600 is more than sufficient. So again, to invest even more into it is IMO not a good idea. And if this was your intended thread, try to stick to the topic instead of making up your own scenario and plugging in your own random pieces of hardware.
 
Excuse me? I have no clue what you're talking about. And my comment is still valid, and still stands. Sorry if it went over your head. Move along, nothing else to see here....
 
My scenario was/is a tad different. My second rig had an E8400 that I wanted to upgrade to a quad for my wife to use. I was luckily able to pick up a QX9650 for $180 on these forums and just last week saw 3 sales for E8400's go for $90. With that being said i think upgrading for $90 was a steal. Once I get her CPU up to 4ghz and buy her a new 6950 for her birthday there is no reason to get rid of that system.

It all breaks down to the requirements of the games/programs you run and ultimately how much you're willing to spend.
 
So going back to what my PS consisted of... Does anyone have any thoughts on SSD?

IE, what is a good deal... What about a RAID0? Would it be worth buying two smaller drives and running them in a RAID0 since it's more stable, or should I just run 1 larger one as my main OS drive?

What should I look out for when purchasing a SSD? Any links to a good deal or anything of that sort?
 
I don't recommend going raid 0 with an SSD becuae you won't get features such as TRIM which help maintain the perofrmance of the drive as it's being written and re-written to. And you don't really need it anyway, a single sandforce or Intel based SSD are screamers on their own.
 
Yeah, I keep hearing about this term TRIM and the word Sandforce... I know jack and #@$% about them... Anyone care to elaborate a very tiny bit so I can start my exploration?

And are you sure that RAID0 wouldn't be the way to go... Sure they're fast, but wouldn't a RAID0 config be faster??? What is the trade off without having this "TRIM" feature for which I know nothing about?
 
This will get you up to speed, the drive recommendations in that article are a bit stale though.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2829

WAY too many reports of dead sandforce drives for me to buy one, I'm sticking with either Intel or Crucial.
 
They no longer make the Q9550 so you'll probably end up paying more than it's worth. IMO anyway.
 
Monolith2013 said:
Yeah, I keep hearing about this term TRIM and the word Sandforce... I know jack and #@$% about them... Anyone care to elaborate a very tiny bit so I can start my exploration?

And are you sure that RAID0 wouldn't be the way to go... Sure they're fast, but wouldn't a RAID0 config be faster??? What is the trade off without having this "TRIM" feature for which I know nothing about?
Click to expand...

In a nutshell, not having TRIM will cause the drives performance to degrade over time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM
 
Garbage collection helps a lot. Plus every few months you can just image & wipe the the drives. Then copy the image back over.
 
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