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quad intel CPU decision help?

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hi in the hunt for a new cpu somthing to play fsx better and essentialy do everything better

canidate
q6600 @ 199.99+tax, q6700 50$ more so not worth it to me
q9550 @ 334.99+tax, the q9450 is only 10$ less so not worth it

a side option is E8500 only 200$ but dual core will that make a significant impact on multithreaded games like supreme commander, FSX and other new multithreaded games?

looked at q9300 which is 279+tax where i am at so its not worth it as far as i could gather

so which is the better option, i know that 9550 is better and 45nm, but at an extra 134$ is it worth it?
i saw some benchmarks i know 9550 beats q6600 hands down but not by as far a margine as 134$?

current specs

asus P5KL-E p43
e4500 2.2ghz @ 2.7ghz works good but i want to add more
2gig 667 ram
bfg oc2 8800gts 640mb
1x sata seagate 500gig
1x IDE WD 250gb
1x IDE dvd+/-rw

Message edited by devils-haven on 09-03-2008 at 04:06:49 AM

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Are you in the US? Q6600 is $180 on newegg, Q9550 is $325, both free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115018
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115041

As for performance difference, it can be quite large at stock, especially in video encoding using latest software that take advantage of sse4. So the more expensive q9550 can be worth the extra. Q6600 does overclock a larger percentage respective to it's lower stock clock (typically from 2.4ghz stock to 3.6ghz, a 50% increase), resulting in similar performance when both cpus are oced. So if you oc, the price gap is not worth it.

Also, q6600's higher 9x multiplier (or q6700's 10x) helps with oc, 1600mhz fsb = 4.0ghz at 10x, 3.6ghz at 9x, 3.2ghz at 8x, 2.8ghz at 7x. Check what fsb your motherboard can handle.

------------------------------ Q6600@3.6ghz, GA-EX38-DS4 motherboard, 8gb 800mhz ddr2 4-3-3-12, 8800GTS(g92)@780mhz, 1TB + 1.5TB hdds, 850watt psu
Reply to dagger

I am in canada, greater toronto area, and the prices i poseted are from pc village http://www.pcvonline.com/ place right across the street from me and i find they have realy good prices

and the cpu's i showed are all retail packages including the heatsink

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by devils-haven on 09-03-2008 at 04:19:38 AM

Reply to devils-haven

devils-haven wrote :

Keep in mind, you should not use the stock heatsink Intel include on expensive, hot running quad. It's barely enough for dual, and just not enough with quad. Full load temperature run too high even at stock. Get aftermarket hs instead.
http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm

------------------------------ Q6600@3.6ghz, GA-EX38-DS4 motherboard, 8gb 800mhz ddr2 4-3-3-12, 8800GTS(g92)@780mhz, 1TB + 1.5TB hdds, 850watt psu
Reply to dagger

My Q6600 arrived just yesterday and I can't describe how pleased I am with it. Only had 1/2 hour before I had to go out so I've only taken it to 3GHz on my P5K-e so far and not really stressed it. I'd go for the 6600 if you plan on OCing.

Reply to mi1ez

The Stock HeatSink/Fan is fine for the quads, so long as you are not OverClocking.

Intel Provides different HeatSinks and Fans for different CPUs.
So HeatSink/Fan that comes with the quad will transfer more heat than the ones with dual cores.

------------------------------ If its good in theory but not in practice,
its not good theory.
Reply to zenmaster

What do you use your computer for primarily? At 2.7+ your chip should run any game and application flawlessly, provided you have a capable video card. I would only upgrade if you video encode/transcode, or have an addiction to the couple of games that are optimized for 4 cores.

Why not upgrade your video card to a 4850/4870, then a year or two from now, go with a Nehalem platform?

Reply to sportsfanboy

my current cpu is e4500 at 2.7ghz its slower bus speed even with overcklock i can't reach a bus of 266mhz or 1066 fsb, and less on die cach 2mb total, game like supreme commander against 3 ai's starts to slow down to a crawl after 1 hour of playing and i also want to speed up Flight Simulator X, my current monitor is lcd tv at 1360x768 and i think my 8800gts(g80) can still hold its own, tell me if my assumptions are wrong? i do ocasionaly play crysis, and other gpu intensive games, but until now they are all working flawlesly

Message edited by devils-haven on 09-03-2008 at 03:58:35 PM

Reply to devils-haven

We should be seeing the new EO Stepping Q9550 (SLB8V) soon.
Also OE stepping for all the E8xxx series.

Reply to knotknut

don't automatically assume 3.6 overclock for the q6600. I had two of them: one did 3.6 no sweat, the other couldn't handle 3.2. it depends on VID(among other factors), which you can't tell until you pop it in the machine and start up.

regardless, there's no wrong answer to this question. you'll be happy with either choice. just look at your budget and decide what you can afford.

------------------------------ They call me crazy for yelling, alone in my room, at the computer screen. They just don\\\\\\\'t understand the game.
Reply to jeremyrailton

The Q6600 is a very nice CPU for the price itself. If you do video encoding en multitask allot you might aswell buy the Q6600. You can't really go wrong for the price, and these things are very stable, you can get them to 3,0ghz easily and remain stable. Thats with stock cooler... I recommend to get a nice aftermarket cooler , Hyper TX2 , or Xigmatek rifle coolers.

Reply to radium69

Go with the Q9550...
It has a L2 cache of 12mb as opposed to the 8mb on the 6600.
I found it way better than my original QX6700..both temps and overclocking wise. Heading up now to QX9650..4ghz here I come

ok it is done, thx for the advice, listened to all of it and made the decision
got the q6600, and with the money i saved i got 4 extra gigs of ram

http://www.pcvonline.com/productDe [...] rodID=5294

nagitiated from 99.95 to a low price of 82$ hope thats a good deal newegg has them for 20$ more

as soon as i put it in i will reply with the overcklock i got

Reply to devils-haven

i got q9550...

i have it at 3.85 ghz and since the architecture is about 10 % better than a kentsfield its about equal to a 4.235 ghz kentfield... and since my mobo can only get a stable fsb of 453.... (w/o super high voltages) 8.5 * 453 = 3850 versus 9 * 453 which is 4.077

so for me the q9550 was better than the q6600... the q6700 may have been a better choice... but at a certain speed i don't think clockspeeds well over 4 ghz matter

Reply to thogrom

install getting 3.465ghz right now stable with all test passed
using 1.35 for the vcore hope thats not high, my mother board on auto kept giving it 1.4-1.45v

at full load for 15 minuts getting 61C temp

Message edited by devils-haven on 09-03-2008 at 08:52:43 PM

Reply to devils-haven

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