Hey everyone! This is my first post and I need some advice...
First of all, here's my system...
Pentium D 940 3.2Ghz (not overclocked)
Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Fan
ASROCK 4CoreDual-VSTA
MSI GeForce 7900GS OC 512MB
WD RaptorX 150GB 10,000 RPM
2GB (2X1GB) PC2 5300 Kingston (DDR2667)
Sony DRU810A DVDRW
Antec TriPower Trio 550 Watt PS
Antec NineHundred Ultimate Gamer Case
2 - Acer AL2223W 22” Widescreen LCD Monitors
I use my pc for daytrading, recording trading videos with Camtasia, custom video editing from my personal video cameras and some gaming but not much.
I have very resource heavy daytrading charting and my broker's trading platform is also resource heavy as well. All in all I have about 8-10 programs or more up and running simultaneously and when I'm trading or editing videos. The only problem I have is when I open Camtasia and begin recording everything slows down a bit. No freezes but the reactions are noticably slower in about 1/2 the programs.
What I need to know is if I upgrade the processor to a Q6600 and not overclock it (since I've not done that before) will it be enough improvement over my current PD 940 to be worth the $265 investment? I haven't ruled out overclocking it to 3Ghz or so which I've heard is pretty easy...I've just never done it before.
I've heard that even the C2D out perform the PD 9XX series but I don't buy into hype. I've looked at the benchmarks on this site and the Q6600 seems to do well and blow my PD 940 away. I guess I'm still stuck on the 3.2Ghz vs. 2.4Ghz thing... I do know that my PD 940 performs well in all my games and I'm able to do most of what I need to do without any major issues.
This is basically a bridge board that I bought while I changed out my DDR and AGP video cards for DDR2 and a PCIE card. It's been very reliable and I'm pleased with it. It will accept all the new Core 2 Quad processors but it states that when the quads are installed the FSB may be decreased by 5%. Is this something to worry about or is this a minimal difference that won't affect performance much at all?
Secondly, my board will only support 2GB of RAM which really stinks. With all that I'm doing I'm tempted to buy a new board also that will support more...even up to 8GB or more if possible but probably 4GB since I run XP Pro 32 bit and not the 64 bit edition.
There are several deals at Tigerdirect.com that look good and this is the one that is most popular now...
Buying a board and processor together at a discount seems to be the most logical choice since I am wanting to add 2 more monitors in the future to my current 2 (totaling 4) through an additional PCIE video card. Another $100 for this board seems like a good deal.
My long term plans are to eventually upgrade to 2 PCIE video cards, run 3-4 monitors and increase the RAM to as much as I can put in whatever board I have. I know that my PD 940 will eventually become overpowered and am hoping the Q6600 won't.
Ok...I've asked this here because ya'll are the experts and this is the best tech site I know of. What do you think I should do? My immediate budget is currently @ $400. Thanks!...EWB
All I can say is based on what soooooo many people here talk about.
There is really no hype in the C2d and quad. The performance is really WAY better and overclocking on the P35 mobo is told to be really simple. I don't own one but so many people can't be saying crap. (the whole net are praising the "new" intel CPU)
Since your running many prog, I would say it will improve performance anyway since the load should be divided on 4 core instead of only 2.
I would order the CPU from here. There aren't many B3s left around, but this will get you a guarenteed G0.
I would get the OEM to save a bit and get a Tuniq Tower to cool it.
The Tuniq should take it to 3.2-3.3ish GHz once you do get around to OCing.
If you want 3-4 monitors it is possible with the P5K-E as it will run Crossfire (and you can use 2 HD3850s which is about $350-400 total). The second will run at 4x bandwidth, which I think should be plenty for just multitasking on monitors.
Edit: And yes, the Q6600 will destroy the PD940 even at stock.
Message edited by cnumartyr on 01-20-2008 at 01:18:34 AM
I know this board isn't that great for overclocking but I doubt I'll be doing much of that at all since I'm not a serious gamer.
If I do decide to overclock the q6600 it won't be by much. Will this board take it to 3.0Ghz - 3.3Ghz on air? I know I'll have to buy a good cpu fan and will probably go with the one suggested by cnumartyr above.
This totals @ the $400 I was planning on and leaves plenty of room for adding another pcie card and more monitors later. I also plan to get the XP Pro 64 bit edition and take advantage of the 8GB of RAM that this board will handle under that OS.
I know this board isn't that great for overclocking but I doubt I'll be doing much of that at all since I'm not a serious gamer.
If I do decide to overclock the q6600 it won't be by much. Will this board take it to 3.0Ghz - 3.3Ghz on air? I know I'll have to buy a good cpu fan and will probably go with the one suggested by cnumartyr above.
This totals @ the $400 I was planning on and leaves plenty of room for adding another pcie card and more monitors later. I also plan to get the XP Pro 64 bit edition and take advantage of the 8GB of RAM that this board will handle under that OS.
Thanks again for all the help...EWB
Yes that should do 3.3GHz with ease, if I'm not mistaken.
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Can you point me to a step by step instruction guide on how to overclock the q6600 on this board. I've googled it and come up with so many results it's insane. What do you recommend?
crashingmedic 
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