Thinking of ditching the Q6600 towards a i7 930

[Guest]

Hey guys, ive have my Q6600 (G0) for about 2 years and its starting to show its age.
I know this has been covered countless of times but im stuck in a pickle!

My current setup
Intel Q6600 (G0 stepping at 2.9ghz)
Gigabyte EP43-DS3L mobo
G.Skill 4 GB PC6400 ram
ATI 5770
Corsair TX750W 750-Watt
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler


Now i read everywhere that the Q6600 overclocks like a beast (atleast 3.2) for most with the G0 stepping but im having trouble even setting it at 333fbs (3ghz).

anytime i set it higher than 2.9ghz my pc just shuts down after i exit bios.

My dilemma is, should i hop on the upgrade train or should i keep my q6600 and try to overclock it correctly.

I have a big urge to upgrade to
Intel I7 930 (from microcenter)
$199

ASUS P6X58D-E Motherboard - LGA 1366,
$239.99

C13-2044 ::Corsair XMS3 Tri Channel 6GB PC12800 DDR3 Memory - 1600MHz, 6144MB (3 x
$159.99

+$20 mail in rebate + 15% bing cashback free shipping and i will pickup the 930 from microcenter.

so for about $600 i can hop on the i7 train or keep my 6600 for a while.

Any suggestions are appreciated!


Heres pics of my bios

all of the fans are pulling air into the back of the case, and the top 2 fans are pulling air out of the top.

anything look funky?

thanks a lot

 

[xaira]

dude, you wont see a difference upgrading from quad to quad, when you say showing its age, what do you mean?

 

[Guest]

All around the system, isnt as snappy as i would like it to be, back 2 years ago it was perfect but now i multitask a ton more, have tons of tabs open on firefox, play a few more demanding games, and do a lot of audio/winrar ripping.

DDR2, i dont have any more sata connectors available, my mobo doesnt overclock well (unless im not setting it up properly).

It just feels like its time to upgrade tbh and many have said that going from a q6600 to a 930 was a big step.

 

[_orbital_]

go for it and ASUS P6X58D premium like me ;]]

 

[xaira]

if you ask me, i say get 4 more gigs of ram and reinstall windows

 

[daship]

Go read some overclock stickys and do it right. I see problems in your settings but Im not gonna hold your hand.

 

[spentshells]

Go read some overclock stickys and do it right. I see problems in your settings but Im not gonna hold your hand.

 

[chedderslam1976]

reinstall windows

+1

 

[Guest]

I might reformat soon im currently running windows on my intel 40gb SSD.

Investing in 4 more gigs of ddr2 ram would be a waste of my money in my opinion, ive thought about it, but its pointless to spend more money on a system thats going to get phased out in the near future.


daship and spent thanks a ton for your input

I have read a few stickies on several sites in regards to overclocking but a lot of it goes over my head.
Im a rookie overclocker, the last time i overclocked a cpu was my AMD barton 2500+

 

[expat]

hi,
i upgraded from a qx 6700 quad to an i7 920 and have not noticed any real world performance gain in games or applications alike.
if i were you i would stick to your current system.

 

[mcnuggetofdeath]

More RAM is pointless. I have 4Gb and it's more than enough. Toms even did a feature to that effect. Google it. Point is a reinstall would do you the most good, also Intel had an updated firmware for their hard drives because they defragged wrong initially, or something to that effect, it's been awhile. I forgot. Nonetheless, I can help with the overclock. Never had any luck with stickies, Just went through item by item on google and learned what every available adjustment did. Simplest thing, I think you'll need more voltage, and probably a new cooler to get above 3.2GHz. My HSF barely keeps it cool enough for my liking, and it was one of the best HardOCP ever reviewed. Second, check your RAM timings. Make sure they're set to the manufacturer specs. Sometimes boards dont auto detect properly.

The links are to pictures of my BIOS. Hope it helps.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4117/4830090106_9015705101_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4078/4829479227_8253aa7ceb_b.jpg

 

[daship]

Its not hard to OC, read the stickys until you understand.

Hint: You need to set PCI express to 100 "ALWAYS"

Your gonna need alot more vcore to OC a Q6600

A vcore of 1.4 will get you 3.4-3.6 easy.

 

[rohn_avni]

ahh no need to upgrade.. u will not notice a big difference in games because there r very rare games that really use a Quad.. so going from one Q to other Q will not beneficial.... stick it long as u can and then upgrade to a whole new architecture... and yes format and reinstall OS and diffrag the HDD.

 

[icraig]

I have to disagree with the above posts, a Q6600 to an i7 930 is a big step up, bench marks show a 3000+ points difference on Passmark and huge differences on Anandtech. (Q6600 vs I7 940 which I think is the closest).

Also I don't believe in dead sockets either, as there'll be 1156/1366 chips for years to come if need be. But with an i7 I don't think you'll need to upgrade in a few years which is when Ivybridge is likely to be out and mature.

 

[rohn_avni]

I have to disagree with the above posts, a Q6600 to an i7 930 is a big step up, bench marks show a 3000+ points difference on Passmark and huge differences on Anandtech. (Q6600 vs I7 940 which I think is the closest).

Also I don't believe in dead sockets either, as there'll be 1156/1366 chips for years to come if need be. But with an i7 I don't think you'll need to upgrade in a few years which is when Ivybridge is likely to be out and mature.

don't just see benchmarks, real world performance is also imp... why spend so much money for that.. he can still play any game with a good gpu.. if he want to upgrade somthing then just upgrade GPU and add more ram...

 

[icraig]

The only benefit in gaming would be with multiple high end gpu's where the Q6600 would be the bottleneck. The OP has a low end video card so that's not the case.

So a 5770 is considered low end to you? I call it high-mid range! Low end is a 5450 or a GT210/220!

 

[xaira]

So a 5770 is considered low end to you? I call it high-mid range! Low end is a 5450 or a GT210/220!

but its not high end, a q6600 can easily push dual or even tripple 5770

 

[Hard Line]

I tend to disagree that in real world there is little dif. according to benchies on another site ( not sure I can mention or link them) games alone see a good 30 or so fps increase at 1680x1050. winrar compression gets cut in half sony vegas pro times get cut by 135 seconds from over 320 seconds to 185.. If I get an ok, i will link to the benchies.. ( i don't want to go against the rules )

 

[Hard Line]

@zipzoomfly yes they were using a higher end card.. but wanted to show it can make a difference depending on the card.. however the other benchmarks for file compression and video encoding etc still show sizable gains

I would love to see a benchmark database where you insert the desired cpu and gpu and you could get results based on that