Upgrade to i5 or stay confused??

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Jess95

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Mar 28, 2012
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hey everyone.

first time poster on this forum, so bare with me if this is in the wrong section.

firstly specs:

ASUS p5g41m-lx lga775
q6600 @2.9 8mb
4GB A-RAM DDR3
Gigabyte GTX560 Ti
Patriot Pyro 60GB SSD
WD Green 2tb
Thermaltake ToughPower 775W
Windows 7 x64
Thermaltake Jing CPU Cooler
Cooler Master Centurion 5 II Case


I've been using win xp to game for years in a dual boot with win7, but i've been wanting to phase out Win XP and start using only Win7 for games on an SSD along with my 2tb wd internal drive. so i finally got my SSD and removed windows xp and installed win7 x64 to the new ssd, i couldn't keep the XP hard drive due to having limited SATA ports on my board. after testing some games, i notice some give me noticeably less fps in Win7 and were a lot better in XP.

i have a feeling it's my q6600 holding back on the GTX560 Ti, i gave it a slight OC to 2.9ghz and got a big difference in benchmarks. i understand the q6600 is quite an old chip, 5 years old i think. however it's apparently a good overclocker, but i can't get it past a 20% overlcock using the automatic overclock profiles in the bios. i wanted it to 3.6ghz, but i can only get it to 2.9ghz.

I've done quite a lot of research on overclocking and stuff, but it looks like my board won't let it past 2.9ghz or it's time to upgrade.

so im sorta stuck on decisions here.

i could spend more money on older generation hardware and grab a new socket 775 mobo that OC's better for around $100

or i could grab a 2500k and a new z68 mobo for around $320 all up.

or quickly sell my q6600 for whatever i can get and put it towards a sandy bridge.

or i could wait for Ivy Bridge and hope for the Sandy Bridge boards/cpu's to drop in price.

decisions, decisions...
 
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ashdeman

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Feb 25, 2012
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I completely disagree. I bought my GTX580 3GB at Christmas and was running it with my old Q6600 (overclocked to 3.6GHz) for a couple of weeks until I got my i7 2600k. It was bottlenecking like hell. I was getting about 25-30FPS and stuttering on BF3 Ultra, then as soon as I got my new CPU, Mobo and DDR3 I was getting 55-65FPS in BF3. Don't get me wrong, the Q6600 is a hell of a good CPU, but it certainly can't compete with newer CPUs.
 
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tiger6k

tiger6k

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Jan 31, 2012
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I agree. I had the Q6600 OCed to 3.25Ghz. I had an HD5770 and upgraded to the HD7850 just recently. Same situation as ashdeman, my fps was better, but nowhere near what it was after I got my i5-2500k.

Also keep in mind, when you upgrade your mobo, you'd want to upgrade your ram also. If you get a socket 1155 now, you can get a cheap CPU to hold you off until Ivy Bridge, something like

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116409

Although the 2500k is still going to be great even after Ivy Bridge comes out.



 
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jaguarskx

jaguarskx

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Apr 19, 2006
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The difference in performance between Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge will not be that much 6% - 8% on average assuming same clockspeed. If you feel your Q6600 is holding you back, then upgrade. You will get a pretty good performance boost regardless if you are going to buy SB or IB.

I feel that my Q9450 @ 3.0GHz is still providing me with enough performance (I don't play too many games) so I'm going to upgrade when Haswell comes out in 2013.
 
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Jess95

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Mar 28, 2012
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true that, even an i3 is decent for gaming apparently. however when i overclocked my q6600 from 2.4 to 2.9 i got a noticeable fps increase in every game.

but, will games still perform better in XP even when i upgrade to sandy bridge?

nfs hot pursuit was smooth always over 50fps (1080p high settings) in winxp and now it hangs between 40 - 55fps, and blackops as we all know has it's 30% performance difference in win7. apart from these games, every other game is almost the same performance to winxp, maybe 1 - 5 fps difference same settings.
 
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Anonymous_26

Anonymous_26

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Mar 22, 2012
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Yea the difference between Sandy Bridges and Ivy Bridges is going to be pretty small. I would say how soon do you neeed/want this new computer? If you pretty much need a new computer NOW I would just go with Sandy Bridges. If you can wait I would wait to see how Ivy Bridges is.
 
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Jess95

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Mar 28, 2012
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the computer itself is fine, just runs a q6600, everything else in it is quite new, even the board i only got it last year.

as for the RAM, it's just 4GB a-ram from my local pc store, i also ordered another 4gb kingston ddr3, so soon ill have 8gb all up.

but when ivy bridge comes out, how will sandy bridge prices be affected immediately?

because i will be buying an lga 1155 board, which can take Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge CPU's. im tempted to get the board now without the cpu, or grab a cheap one to hold off, but i'd quite like an i5.

btw, i haven't tested bf3 yet :p
 
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Jess95

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Mar 28, 2012
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i was hoping to grab an i5 cpu off ebay as the ivy bridges come out, might get it cheap against the retail price.
the best price i can get it for brand new in australia is $215, just the 2500k the ill spend up to $150 on board if does everything i need.
 
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tiger6k

tiger6k

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You really can't go wrong with the Sandy Bridge i5. If you've been wanting to upgrade, I'd say pull the trigger. Like I said earlier, I had a similar setup as you with a Q6600 and HD 5770. I got an 1155 mobo, 8g 1600mhz ram, HD7850, i5-2500k and I could not be happier. For midrange prices (I built my whole computer for under $700, it's playing games like a champ.

PS It murders bf3 at 1080p and ultra.
 
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Jess95

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Mar 28, 2012
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that's amazing!
but i'd be quite disappointed if i bought th cpu this week and when ivy bridge comes out shortly the 2500k price drops.

i might give it a few and check on ebay, if there's nothing i'll head down to the IT store.
 
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capt_taco

capt_taco

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I don't think the price is going to drop much on the i5-2500k. It's surprisingly low for the performance you get already (at least by Intel's standards). Plus Intel knows they don't have any serious competition with AMD's latest generation biting it so hard.

I'd expect Ivy Bridge to come out and basically end up so that you're paying $50-$100 more for a CPU than you would for its Sandy Bridge equivalent, and SB stays the same in price. Looking at previous generations like Yorkfield, they pretty much stayed within $20-$30 of their original price right up to the end.
 
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tiger6k

tiger6k

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I think he'll be fine with the 560ti. That's an excellent card and he can go to high settings or turn down AA and he'll be within the 30+ fps which is quite playable.

Just to clarify also, I got the MSI 7850 which I'm running at 1050mhz over the 860mhz stock. So I'm right around where the 570 is playing BF3, and beat it in other games.
 
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Jess95

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Mar 28, 2012
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im quite happy with the 560 ti. i use to have a gt430.

hmmm. the q9550's are still just over $200 :eek:
ill give it a few weeeks and maybe i could pick up a second hand 2500k for around $150 on ebay or something?
i can't buy from newegg and ncix because im in australia and they don't ship here.

if i can't find anything i'll head down to centrecom, the i5 is $215 there atm.
http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/bx80623i52500k-intel-core-2500k-1155-p-50221.html?sort=3a

i'm quite set on this particular CPU. apparently the i3's, i5's and i7's are quite similar in gaming performance, but i'd really like the quad core, and to overclock, at least that way it's more futureproof than an i3 system.
 
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antonisrsx

antonisrsx

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gtx 580 3gb is way better than the gtx 560 ti 448. maybe you was bottlenecking bc you didnt have enough ram? or maybe your psu couldnt affort the gtx 580 3gb? of course with i7 2600k the gtx 560 ti 448 will perform little better but surely it will not double the fps of the game.. maybe your problem with your q6600 pc was something else (ram,psu)...
 
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