Is buying a q6600 really going to be worth the cost right now? I currently have an amd 6000+ and its working fine but it would be nice to see my programs run even faster...but i would hate to have to buy and entire other motherboard. Also I have a 24" monitor which I play games like cysis, 2042, oblivion, fear...at 1920x1200. I heard at this resolution the cpu really dosnt matter. Im not sure what to buy...Maybe i could just buy the new 9800 vidcard when it comes out. What do you guys think?

No. Unless you do video editing, you won't see any substantial increase in performance. Save the money and get a new graphic card.

In general I agree with the above poster. But the question you need to consider is what do you need your computer to do for you now that it is not doing? To invest in a Q6600 at this point in time means that you will also need another motherboard also. With that comes the choice of DDR2 or DDR3. With DDR2 you are looking at an investment of $500 or so with DDR3 that jumps in terms of the higher cost of good DDR3 motherboards and then the high cost of DDR3 ram itself. The other issue is that the next generation of processors that are to hit this year will probably use a different socket configuration if Intel or AMD. That would mean that the upgrade path of your investment is shortened. Whether Nvidia or AMD/ATI, seems like both companies are looking into a dual GPU video cards that is what I would wait to spend my money on.

no, stick with what u have. ur pc seems pretty good. n u can change in future, after some new quads come out.

He's already got DDR2 ram, so there would be no expense there if he switched to an Intel board that used DDR2 ram.

To the OP- In January, Intel will be coming out with the X48 series motherboards, a 1600 FSB and some new chips. That would be a better direction for a new build than a Q6600, in my opinion, though if you did get a Q6600, they should be a bit cheaper at that time. As far as Nehalem goes, that's 9-12 months away, if Intel doesn't delay it because of lack of competition from AMD, the reason they said that they have already delayed some of their new chips. Waiting a few weeks or even a couple months for new hardware is one thing, but putting it off longer gets rediculous in my opinion. Then you get into the game of always waiting for the next best thing and never building.

As for your AM2 board, the best thing at the moment seems to be to get a 5000+ BE and overclock it to 3.5 ghz. Then buy a good graphics card and you'd be set for another year. If you really need a quad, and probably most gamers don't, then the new Intel chips which are coming out are the best at the moment. The Q6600 is a good chip, but its FSB is 1066, while the latter models went up to a 1333 FSB and the new ones coming out have a 1600 FSB. But if you don't really need a quad, just get the 5000+ BE and overclock it for more performance than your 6000+ gives.

I would wait.
The AMD6000+ is not as good, but I don't see the change as being revolutionary unless you get a game that is designed for quad core and your system is not handling it.

Save your cash for the next major GPU coming down the line in the spring.

With the AMD6000+, I would try and hold off for Nehalm this time next year, unless funds are not an issue.

Buy a Phenom 9600, OC it to 4.3GHz on stock HSF and zoom, baby!

Oh ok... JK.

I agree with the rest of the asembled multitudes. Certinly do nothing until the end of Jan when you see how the new Intels shake out. But even then, you're probably alright to wait to Nehalem. Should be about 11 months away. tic toc tic toc

You have a perfectly good AMD system now - Upgrade your GPU and peripherals as wanted/needed and don't worry about it.

Save extra cash for the next year, and buy a new system based on the best performance/cash whoever has available at the time.

thanks guys ill hold off then

Sailer I know this is OLD but just wanted to clarify. The $500 would be for him having to buy both a CPU(q6600~$300) and a decent DDR2 motherboard(~$200) or so. If he went to DDR3 that would mean a more expensive comparable MB and much more for DDR3 ram.

Seems like he decided to do the smart thing and wait

Thanks

As everybody said keep what you got. But a decent board for a q6600 doesnt cost 200 bucks. You can get one for half of that.

That is really bad advice. I have yet to see a reliable source showing such an overclock even with drastic cooling measures. In addition the 6000 series is an F stepping with 1MB cache while the 5000 only has half that much and is one of the bad latency G steppings.

This will make your system blazing fast. Then after a few seconds just blazing for a fire extinguisher.

Don't buy on hype, that's a mistake. It's better to upgrade when it's actually needed.

Here is an article today on a 5000+ overclocked vs a 6000+ stock.

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/amd_5000_be

The performance gain is minimal, and the cache of the 6000 seems to help in some areas.

I am running an fx-62 at 3.135 Ghz and am contemplating the 5000+ as at my current speed I am drawing 140 watts and my OC is hampered by heat issues. With the lower wattage of the 5000 black I beleive I can hit higher speeds, and the 5000 can be had for only a C-note.

Then my wife gets the fx. (currently running a 2.0 Ghz single core LE)
win win

For ryan I wouldn't recommend the expense right now.

lol, I agree.

My 5000be will not go past 3.3, and I keep it at 3150 to be safe at stock voltage.
Not taking anything away from the chip though, as I do like it very much.
Not the best, but definitely the best for the money.

Only downfall I see to it is that it would have performed a lot better with some more cache.

thanks again guyss

I think the q6600 is a great chip although I would say wait until the Q9450 is out iff you really want to upgrade. It will be at a stock speed of 2.66GHz and FSB of 333 and will OC just as easily as a Q6600 but run cooler.

I OC'ed my Q6600 to 3GHz. With Speedstep on it will run at 2GHz unless more than 10%+ of the CPU is being used at a voltage of 1.160v and when at 3GHz it shows the same voltage. Temps are great for all 4 cores running that fast.

For some game it will benefit a bit like HL2 Episode 2 will offload the physics calculations to the CPU if you have a quad core and Crysis will use the cores more but until there is more utilization stick with what ya have.

My suggestion is to wait until the end of 2008 when Intel plans on releasing Nehalem and see what AMD might have and see what will improve game performance the best for you. Although right now I have 2 online MMOS open, another one updating, WMP and other things running On Vista and have yet to see a slowdown. I just loves my quad.