wise to get a q6600 or q9550

[pectin232]

Was about to get the q9950 when I found that the q6600 if overclocked can easily beat a q9550. Some were even clocked at nearly 4ghz. I am sure those that got a 4ghz oc q6600 have great knowledge in mobos, memory, bios settings[I am not good in that] and subsystems. I do know some but maybe 1/2 of that only. What is realistic? the q9550 or q6600 when the iCore 7 are out now... maybe in a few days time. Doing database transactions and x264 encoding ... maybe 1 game every other year is what will this being used.

 

[Zecow]

I have the q6600 - OC'ed to 3.6 easily - pushing its limits at 3.8. Each chip are different. I bought my rig 2 months ago, and I chose this because like you, I plan to OC. The Q9950 OC harder than the Q6600. It also depends on your board as well. Don't expect much if you're using the nvidia chipset as they perform badly when OCing.
If you have the cash then go for the Q9550 - its faster and based on 45nm - heat output is less. My Q6600 runs at 1.45v but I'm on water so its fine. But if you're on Air, I recommend Q9550

 

[eklipz330]

errr you forget that the q9550 can also be overclocked, and probably beat the q6600 with ease... WILL beat the q6600 with ease, and it can do 4.0ghz ON AIR...


q9550 should do better in games because of the slightly larger cache and overclocking potential, but both chips are fine choices in their own right [price/performance]

 

[beachfunk]

So what is a fool-proof mobo for oc'ing these chips? Want to try crossfire as well...?

 

[Spitfire7]

Hey whoever has the Q9550, please let me know your clocks and specs for overclocking. I just got mine and want to overclock hopefully to about 3.2Ghz. Kind of new to OCing. Please be detailed with memory, voltages, FSB and whatever else goes into it. Thank you.

I have the EVGA 780i mobo with the Q9550 on air. My specs below.

My Specs:
Quad Core Q9550 2.83GHz 1333Mhz 12MB cache 45nm
EVGA 8800GT 512MB Superclocked (Core 700, Mem 975)
4GB Corssair XMS2 DDR2 800 (4-4-4-12) 2.1 volts
EVGA 780i Mobo
700w OCZ GamerXStream PSU
320GB Hard drive 16MB cache 7200RPM
Sound Blaster Audigy SE
Windows XP

 

[bosshoss]

Well...kinda no such thing as "fool proof". The GA-EP45-UD3P will take ya to 3.0-3.1ghz with almost zero BIOS tweaks. 3.2-3.4ghz adjusting a few things here and there, and to achieve 3.6ghz on a q6600 takes quite a few adjustments and quite a few hours of testing.

As far as crossfire goes it depends on what you want to xfire. If you want to try your hand at a pair of 4850s, a P45 board such as the Gigabyte listed above, (or even the ASUS P5Q pro) is plenty adequate. P45 boards run both PCIe slots at x8/x8 link when more than one card is present. With 4850s this is just enough bandwidth as you won't notice hardly any performance difference as an x48 chipset board.

Start delving into a pair of 4870s and the difference does become noticeable. I have a pair of 4850s on a P45 board myself and they rock face. Games run so smooth that it's a whole new experience from my 8800gts. Also remember with xfire, not all games have support, or their support is shoddy at best and they will perform worse than a single card, or you will get errors up the ying-yang. Warcraft being a game that doesn't like crossfire, you have to turn DOWN shadows in the game to keep from getting a glitch.

In the games that support crossfire and work well with it, it's nothing short of a drunken prom night romp in the back seat of your daddys caddy.

 

[pectin232]

Can anyone recommend a mobo [asus or gigabyte] that will overclock the q9550 or q6600 well...and most importantly memory. Is 1333mhz memory or 1600 mhz memory work well with the q9550? As the Q9550 is a 1333mhz CPU do I need to get a identical 1333mhz memory or can I use a 1600mhz... I saw a few at newegg. Problem is I am not sure what memory will work well with the q9550, as I learnt many had problems overclocking the q9550 over 3.6+mhz... I may be wrong. I know many techies here with near god like oc skills have no problems with even 4ghz on air or water...

 

[htoonthura]

Was about to get the q9950 when I found that the q6600 if overclocked can easily beat a q9550. Some were even clocked at nearly 4ghz. I am sure those that got a 4ghz oc q6600 have great knowledge in mobos, memory, bios settings[I am not good in that] and subsystems. I do know some but maybe 1/2 of that only. What is realistic? the q9550 or q6600 when the iCore 7 are out now... maybe in a few days time. Doing database transactions and x264 encoding ... maybe 1 game every other year is what will this being used.

You need more luck than knowledge achieving good oc result.

 

[dieseldre2k]

yea, the upper speeds involve some luck. it depends on the individual chip itself. anyway, u should read this start-off guide before u start doing any overclocking:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=2057083

alot can be learned from that (starting with the fact that u probably wont need RAM above 800MHz).

 

[pectin232]

Seriously I thought memory was as important as the mobo itself... and the chipset like the x38 or x48..... thanks for the link.

 

[mi1ez]

With memory it's often worth buying it a notch faster than you would run it at stock (ie 1066 for a 800 system) to give you a bit more OC headroom, but it depends how serious you are on overclocking.

I bought 1066DDR2 so I could bump it up from 800MHz and keep it stable. I'm now running 1600FSB on my Q6600 so it runs at 800 anyway, although the 1066 does give me slightly better latencies at 800.