Upgrading From A Core 2 Quad Q6600 To The i7-4770K

I went the opposite way - I downgraded my work computer from i5 to celeron and didn't notice any difference.
 
Interesting article but I disagree with his conclusion. Using power savings of PC equipment as the primary reason to upgrade is laughable. The cost you save in power is not going to be anywhere near the cost to buy the upgrades.
 
I keep my Q6600 at 3.0 for daily work, I can crank it up to 3.6 if need be but my room starts to warm up from all the air circulation in my case (great for winter months not summer hence the 3.0 right now)
I'm sure I'd notice an increase in gaming but with a 840 pro and a 7850 (decent lil oc'er for the price) I'm having a hard time not hitting 60 fps on my 22" 2209wa's or my LG 27EA63V

Now with the advent of the cheap Korean 1440's and the hope of some cheap 4k monitors in 2014 I might have to upgrade my system to run 4k heck it'd be a great excuse, but right now I can
 
I still have my Abit IP35 Pro w/ q6600. It is now running as my WHS2011 box :). But there were issues with the board that were never fixed before abit went away. For me maxing the memory to a full 8GB of ram using 4x2GB chips gave memory problems even if there was no problems with the memory chips themselves. I tested each chip and each memory slot using mem86+ (it felt like it took forever) and everything checked fine so long as I only had 6GB installed, once I put in the 4th chip in any slot I got memory errors on the last bunch of tests.

The Virtualization Tech (VT-X) stuff in the bios wouldn't stay enabled unless you cold booted up the machine. From standby mode it wouldn't work, if you reset the machine, or even reset with the reset button it wouldn't come back even if you flip the settings in the bios. If I wanted to use Virtualbox I had to power down and sometimes turn off the power supply for it to be enabled.

But still none of those issues affected my W7 stability.

I never tried for a full 8GB, just 6GB @1066. It would freak out every once in a great while and require me to reseat the modules but once done it would be fine for another year or so. The push that made me retire it was losing ALL my settings. I replaced the battery thinking that might be it, but I could be playing a game, get a lockup, restart and be staring at that monster truck screen (I kept it disabled). It had got to the point that I was having to reload my settings every day, sometimes twice a day. Not quite sure what would cause that other than BIOS chip failure. Still loved that board and every Abit I owned prior to it back to the BE6-II and BP-6.

I'm starting to think the Abit + q6600 was one of the best combos ever for it's day. Hard to argue with the amount of people still kicking that combo around today.
 
I still have like nothing with more than two CPU cores. I guess I just don't really do enough gaming or anything to care when I'm at home so it's like netbooks and old laptops that I can get for free or not much monies for me. Spending more than about $250 on a complete computer or laptop is, I think, spending too much money. When a CPU alone costs more a lot more than that...well, I just think there's almost no point unless there's a business or work related need.
 
I upgraded from a Q6600 to a i7-2700k a couple years ago and it was a fine upgrade, but I can honestly say for day to day tasks upgrading the old OCZ Vertex SSD to a modern (at the time) Samsung 830 on Sata 3 was a bigger speed boost than the CPU/Memory/Mobo upgrade.
 
I have a Q6700 @ stock speeds, and would like to upgrade, but don't think it is worth it yet. I upgraded from a P4 2.4Ghz to an X2 4600+ and was amazed. Going from that X2 to a C2D 2.13Ghz and then the Q6700. Those upgrades did not impress me as much. As has been mentioned, power savings isn't really a reason to upgrade for the average person. Maybe a generation or two after Haswell, plus an upgrade for my GTX 560 and Sata2 SSD will convince me.
 
I've got a "lowly" quad running at a mere 3.6ghz. Sadly, I have two cores that do virtually nothing. I built this rig several years ago. CPU's are for old people. :p
 
why is this news again?

i imagine because a lot of people are still running the old q6600. Which was one ofthe first cheap quad cores. To me its also a better comparison then core2duos, 4 cores vs 4..

Considering 6 years, kinda impressive that the q6600 does as well as it does. Im using q8200 and for the most part it does well.
 
Im still mostly using my q9450, havent had a problem yet.

And to think I had buyers remorse when I paid $450 brand new :D
 
i imagine because a lot of people are still running the old q6600. Which was one ofthe first cheap quad cores. To me its also a better comparison then core2duos, 4 cores vs 4..

Considering 6 years, kinda impressive that the q6600 does as well as it does. Im using q8200 and for the most part it does well.

i know a lot of people that are still running Core 2 Duo and OLDER cpus and few still with P4 based systems both single can duel core
 
I used to upgrade my CPU every 6 months (when Ebay was great to sell you kit on and not everyone was an asshole) now I upgrade it every 6 years....maybe...if I can be bothered....

SSDs are more fun to play with than desktop CPUS. Though I am enjoying buying up mobile C2D chips to upgrade laptops with. Thats a nice touch for a customer when the part only costs £10 for a nice improvement.
 
My secondary rig is my old Q6600 2.8ghz, compared to my primary i7 930 3.2ghz there's not *really* a huge difference except at the top end of performance gaming. (My tertiary rig is a p4 prescott @ 3.4 ghz! That thing heats the room when it's on...)

So yeah, I disagree with the conclusion as well, as far as the Average Joe goes.
 
Computer upgrades pose the same dilemma for me as sex.

I mean, I really want to do them as often as I get the urge, but when you wait for it a bit longer, it is epic!
 
Computer upgrades pose the same dilemma for me as sex.

I mean, I really want to do them as often as I get the urge, but when you wait for it a bit longer, it is epic!

+10 internet point for you sir.


I'm still running a core 2 duo E8500(or something like that). It's been a fantastic processor for the past 6 years. Wow, 6 years and all I've upgraded was my ram. I don't game nearly as much as I use to but I've had no issues with anything I've bought in the past 2 years with the exception of BF3. The days of upgrades every 2-3 years due to performance issues are over. Now its all about power consumption and heat.
 
I"m still running a Phenom II unlocked to a quad at home. I don't do a lot of FPS or MMO gaming so that's been enough for me. Civ 5 could use a little speedboost, I just started playing that this month.

Probably getting a laptop for my light gaming in the near future rather than upgrade :( due to space constraints in the new place and a commuting schedule.
 
My Q6600 probably will be in service until mid 2014. It does everything I need to do just fine at the moment.
 
i imagine because a lot of people are still running the old q6600. Which was one ofthe first cheap quad cores. To me its also a better comparison then core2duos, 4 cores vs 4..

Considering 6 years, kinda impressive that the q6600 does as well as it does. Im using q8200 and for the most part it does well.
I guess, ok it's the latest and the greatest, so a comparison between old and new is certainly nice.

I mean yeah I'm still rocking an Q9550 that I picked up at Microcenter some years back for like $80 or something because it was the fastest processor to fit in my Gigabyte DS3 mobo. And for the most part... it works fine, I've upgraded my video card (460) I have an SSD drive as the boot. I'm not really feeling like I'm that many generations behind as far as speed goes. Upgrading would be quite a bit more expensive than the CPU price difference though, since it would require a new motherboard, as well as new ram.
 
I'm upgrading from an AMD X2 5000+ to an i7-4670K just today! Also going from and X1900XT to a 7970Ghz Lightning card. My mind is about to be blown.
And a new motherboard and memory, people often discount in particular how much the motherboard can matter on speeding up cold boots.
 
My Q6600 probably will be in service until mid 2014. It does everything I need to do just fine at the moment.

Right on.

If by an off chance someone has a Q6600 with dual 680GTXs or 7970s and they are playing newer games, then yes, they will see a difference, maybe not a "mind blowing difference", but a real difference. If you encode a lot of video, then you will see a difference, a big difference.

If you have a $50 video card, and your most stressful games are internet flash games, then you may not see a difference.

It is all relative.

My question is (not to the quoted personally), "What are you going to upgrade to next year?" Besides the "Haswell E", what else is coming out that would justify waiting until next year to upgrade a system? I just don't think there are any happy surprises in the pipeline at this point. If history is any guide, Intel CPUs won't suddenly get a lot cheaper. We aren't going to see any big performance increases.
 
My question is (not to the quoted personally), "What are you going to upgrade to next year?" Besides the "Haswell E", what else is coming out that would justify waiting until next year to upgrade a system? I just don't think there are any happy surprises in the pipeline at this point. If history is any guide, Intel CPUs won't suddenly get a lot cheaper. We aren't going to see any big performance increases.

USB 3.1
 
Q6600 was a solid chip. I love my 2600k as well. I don't foresee a CPU upgrade for another 5+ years.
 
In the last 6 months I've gone from a Core 2 Quad q6700 to a i7-930, i7-3770k and finally to an i7-4770k, and I have to say its been an eye opening trip. I've but together several Core 2 Quads and i5/i7 in between, but actually living with them and seeing how the installation process and tweaking has been fine tuned has been such a pleasure. And in case anyone asks why I would jump so much in the last few months, the first upgrade was given to me while I was unemployed, the second I got myself as a treat for being employed and the final upgrade was because I wasn't satisfied with the way my small system build worked out, I was able to sell the parts I didn't need to directly get the parts for the Haswell with no loss.
 
Right on.

If by an off chance someone has a Q6600 with dual 680GTXs or 7970s and they are playing newer games, then yes, they will see a difference, maybe not a "mind blowing difference", but a real difference. If you encode a lot of video, then you will see a difference, a big difference.

If you have a $50 video card, and your most stressful games are internet flash games, then you may not see a difference.

It is all relative.

My question is (not to the quoted personally), "What are you going to upgrade to next year?" Besides the "Haswell E", what else is coming out that would justify waiting until next year to upgrade a system? I just don't think there are any happy surprises in the pipeline at this point. If history is any guide, Intel CPUs won't suddenly get a lot cheaper. We aren't going to see any big performance increases.

For me it comes down to spending money on something I really don't need right now. The games I play run fine at 1080P and for general computing/web browsing it works just fine. I thought I was going to be upgrading this year but the costs and return aren't compelling yet.
 
Like that people are still repping the Q6600, me included. Fact is, pc games took a halt. Yes I won't be playing on ultra mode but no it won't be unplayable. Consoles have really held back pc games. Most companies just tune to consoles now and every game since is always playable. This wasn't like back during the early 2000s where everyone had to keep updating to stay above.

Most impacting upgrade in the past five years for me: An SSD
 
Like that people are still repping the Q6600, me included. Fact is, pc games took a halt. Yes I won't be playing on ultra mode but no it won't be unplayable. Consoles have really held back pc games. Most companies just tune to consoles now and every game since is always playable. This wasn't like back during the early 2000s where everyone had to keep updating to stay above.

Most impacting upgrade in the past five years for me: An SSD

Adding a SSD made the biggest impact for me as well.
 
And a new motherboard and memory, people often discount in particular how much the motherboard can matter on speeding up cold boots.

My results were pretty mind blowing.

HDD => SSD
2GB DDR2-800 => 8GB DDR3-2400
X1900XT => 7970Ghz @ 1150
AMD X2 5000+ => i5-4670K @ 4Ghz
SATA 150 => SATA 6Gbps
WinXP => Win7
High end air cooling => High end AIO water cooling

All in one update!!!
 
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