CPU is my bottleneck, ready to upgrade...

[therschbach]

System Specs:

ASUS P5Q-Deluxe
E6400 2.13
4 gb 1066 corsair ballistix
Antec true power trio 650
Visiontek 4870

All my games run great except for Microsoft Flight sim X and as I understand it, it's more of a processor intensive game. I've got the graphics and such cranked up fairly high and get around 25 fps, but I would like to max it out (more or less) and I think the only thing preventing me from doing that is my processor. Is this a reasonable assumption?

I looked at the i7's and to upgrade would run me about $700 plus possibly another copy of vista oem. I'm not ready to do that, so I'd like to just upgrade the chip, but looking at the numbers, the benchmarks, and the prices kind of has me confused on which one is the best for my situation. I want to stay under $300.

So there is the popular Q6600, Q9300, Q9400, or Q6700 in order of price. My board will take the 1333 FSB so I would think that I would want to go that route, but why is the 6700 the highest price but it only has a 1066 fsb? Which would give me the most quality per cost?

 

[roadrunner197069]

Get the q660 and a good cooler, and OC it to 3.6.

 

[topper743]

Are you running your cpu at it's stock frequency of 2.13. Were you ever able to overclock it, if so how high did you get? Just poking around on the web it looks like your current cpu is out of production. What about a q9550? $320 at newegg right now.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041

2.83ghz stock 12mb L2 cache 45nm 1333 fsb. You'll be able to overclock this chip 10-15% easily to around 3.25ghz of course more if you work at it. New tech and should run Flight Sim with no problems. The i7 requires that you change your setup. The q9550 will just pop right in. Do you have a good cpu cooler? I see that your ram is only 1066, it probably won't allow you to run at 1333 even if you get a cpu that will, but it may go part of the way. The good thing about ram is that DDR2 is cheap now.

 

[therschbach]

I've attempted to OC but I couldn't ever get it stable, even at 2.3ghz. I'm using stock cooling and at that speed I was hitting 60 C with full load.

I don't really want to overclock, but that's because I haven't had any luck with it in the past. I also didn't really want to get an aftermarket cooler either because I didn't want to have to take my mobo out to put the bracket on. I just wanted something I could pop in and go without any hassle. I dunno, you think it's worth it?

Good call on the FSB, I wasn't even thinking about the ram hindering the cpu. If I got a 1333 chip, I'd eventually upgrade my ram though...no problem there. I don't want that to determine the cpu I get.

 

[therschbach]

I just realized something. I checked newegg and there isn't any ddr2 1333 ram. So uh...what's the point in having a board with a 1333 fsb that won't take ddr3? Am I missing something or did I not spend my money wisely? Which leads to the conclusion that having a 1333 chip isn't going to be better than a 1066 because I won't be able to run it at 1333 anyway...

 

[grieve]

that 1333 is quad pumped = 333mhz
667mhz dual channel (1333) ram runs 1:1 with FSB 1333...

 

[Jim_L9]

With a FSB of 1333 and a 1:1 ratio for the memory it will run at 667 MHz. The FSB s quad pumped and the memory is double pumped.

 

[flyin15sec]

If you don't OC at all, a dual core E8600, 3.3ghz(333*10) may serve you well for a bit of time. Dual core helps because you are still using a stock cooler, which willl cool a dual core fine.

 

[mtyermom]

That's odd, with that setup you should have been able to overclock easily. You might first want to try getting a good aftermarket cooler and overclocking the processor you have, that would be the least expensive route.

 

[aznguy0028]

if you got money to spare, the E8600 would be a good choice, but IMO it is too expensive to justify the speed.

i would recommend you to get the E8500 or E8400 if you are on a budget.

E8600 (3.33ghz) - 269.00 $
E8500 (3.16ghz) - 187.99 $
E8400 (3.0ghz) - 164.99 $

these are new egg prices. the jump from 8400 to 8500 is .16ghz or 160 mhz, for the price of roughly 20$. the jump from 8500 to 8600 is another .16ghz but for roughly 80$. not justifiable to be honest.

if you're never going to OC, i would say stick to a E8500.

 

[therschbach]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I just did something which may simplify my situation. I got another 4870 on ebay...pretty good deal at $195 shipped. He says it's new and sealed. Anyway, maybe I will get a good cooler and overclock my current chip, and just wait for i7 to be more affordable. If that doesn't get me where I want, I'll consider either the q6600 or the e8500. I won't ask which is better as I just read another thread on that and it seems to be pretty much a tossup...at least on the that thread.

 

[flyin15sec]

WHOA! Don't ever mention Q6600 vs. E8x00 EVER again!!! People have shed blood and tears over this.