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Is the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4ghz good for modern gaming?

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CPUs Master

The Q6600 is a decent processor but you can make up the gap between the newer processors by overclocking it.

Here is a gaming hierarchy list for CPUs:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-o...

Judging by the list (and I hope it is accurate) the 955 and the Q6600 is very close to each other. That being said for me @ 1600x900 with a HD 7770 I max out Skyrim on ultra settings. If you play at that resolution or overclock the processor you should be able to do the same if not better due to the video card. I can't testify the performance on BF3, still have yet to play it because I a tend to stay away from video games during the school year :lol: 

Can't stop once I get into a game.
Anyways if you can you could also consider an i3 processor, they are not too expensive and are quite good.

Edit: Forgot to mention a crucial part of my post, I run the 955 Black edition. Hehehe, bet you were thinking why the heck was I mentioning the 955 and comparing the HD 7770 with no processor.
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haha ok thanks dude, but my computer that i have still has the original dell motherboard from when my parents got it, so that is probably a pretty big bottleneck, so do you know of any other motherboards that would be better but are still kind of cheap?
CPUs Master

Here is a nice board:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/G31M-GS%20R2.0/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

The Asrock page states it can overclock up to great amounts and that it supports processors up to 105 watts which is exactly yours. I assume you still have DDR2 ram?

Edit: To be honest, you are kind of limited with motherboard choices since the LGA 775 series is no longer in production and so motherboards are also limited. That being said you could look on ebay for a motherboard?
CPUs Master

Well get the graphics card first. It will likely be bottlenecked a little bit by the Q6600, but like I said, it will still be fine for playing games. Also most games are not bound to the CPU, they are limited by the graphics card.

If you feel that you want a little more performance, then go out and buy a motherboard that can allow you to overclock. You also need to buy a good heatsink because the one from Dell is not meant for overclocking.

I actually recommend not buying a new mobo & heatsink. You would be better off saving up money for a new system like Haswell when it comes out next year. I think you are better off doing that to get more bang for your buck. Yeah, gaming might suck a little for the short term, but completely modern CPU/Mobo/RAM with your Radeon HD 7870.

I do not believe in age discrimination so I will say to you what I said to a 12 year old....

Get a job you deadbeat.

:) 

CPUs Master

Well I do not own the Q6600 so I can not tell you the exact settings or cautions of overclocking that processor. However read this:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2007/07/25/overcl...
^It's about overclocking your processor.

In addition, one thing I will contribute is no need to worry about melting the processor as long as the temperatures stay under a good range. I would say raise the voltage very slowly in small increments, I hear processors die or get damaged from way too much voltage. I mean WAY TOO MUCH voltage, more voltage than what you need won't damage the processor if its not too much but you should attempt to lower it.

Edit: You could consider a new build as well like Jaguarskx stated. Though the motherboard and heatsink should not cost way too much but factor in the video card and it piles on a bit. So your at a crossroad now and must decide which road to take.

Edit 2: Forgot to mention by the time you save up for a new build the HD 7870 should be cheaper since the new HD 8000 series will be coming out soon and will replace the 7k series.
CPUs Master

Baumber said:
ok thanks i think i might stay with getting the 7870 and maybe upgrading to a new computer in a couple months


Consider being a paper boy if there aren't any vacant jobs. I was a paper boy myself once, and the pay was $250 a month, though the actual money depends on your route and how many papers you deliver. I still remember walking through shivering winters while everyone was inside all cozy and everything watching me out their windows :lol: 
CPUs Authority

I do own the Q6600 in my back up gamer and I will be the first to tell you that you will be lucky to get over 3 Ghz with this chip on any current production 775 board because they are based on one of 2 chip sets G31 or G41 and both mediocre overclockers at best. If you want extreme overclocking (3.0Ghz +)on the 775 platform I would look at a used P965X/P975X intel board or 680 or 780i nvidia board. That being said I use the ASUS P5G41T-M-LX Plus with my Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz and a Zalman CNPS cooler which seems to be capable of playing any game I have thrown at it with plenty playable frame rates on a GTX 260 216. Hope this helps if you have any question please feel free to ask.

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CPUs Authority

I'll just let you in on this little piece of information. I actually just got done rebuilding a friends system, my older E8400 based system. Matched with a 550Ti, it's not bad. Now when I had it, I clocked it pretty decently with my modified GeminII cooler paired with two high CFM 120mm fans from silverstone. I got some really nice clocks out of it and at the time it was paired with an 8800GTS 512mb. The E8400 was one of the first .45nm chips if I remember correctly and I had a good batched chip. I did play all the hot games on that rig after I built it. It was retired to him on the cheap to help him get his Diablo 3 on without being on an old dell craptop with integrated craphics. However, the 8800GTS decided to retire itself to the big bin'o'dead cards.

Just a few weeks ago I tossed an eVGA 550Ti 1GB into the machine.

E8400 @ stock 3.0Ghz
4GB DDR2 667
MSI P7n Diamond (nVidia 680i Chipset)
eVGA GTX 550Ti
Sound Blaster X-Fi

Now, that does sound like a pretty kickin` machine for back in it's day. But in games like Rage, Dungeon Siege 3, Dead Island; it still maxes all the settings (aside from Anti-Aliasing for the most extremes) on them all at 1920x1080. I'm sure it'd handle BF3, maybe not acceptable; but it'd be playable at lower resolutions. I'll go with the general consensus and say don't worry about that processor much. Yeah; back in their day, the E8400 was a better gaming chip as not many games took advantage of a quad core processor and the extra 600Mhz of frequency did help. But as soon as more developers went into supporting triple and quad core platforms; the quad cores started becoming more capable to handle the games and would actually outperform the dual cores with higher clocks.

I wouldn't worry too awful much about that. I'd be more worried about finding out what you do have sitting in that machine you have. Will the power supply hold the extra wattage from the GPU? I'm almost positive it does, but does the machine have PCI Express lanes for the GPU? Does your power supply have the 6 or 8 pin connectors the video requires, and if not does the card come with the adapters? There's a few other things I'd look into before just slapping a new video card into a machine.

:) 

I hope this helps out; and don't stress on that processor. It's not going to affect your gameplay nearly as much as some other potential bottlenecks could.
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