Is the Phenom II 1090T a decent upgrade from a Q6600?

[Zachnorn]

My coworker wants to sell me a 1090T and motherboard for $100. I think it's a good deal, but is it worth the price for the performance I'd get? I mostly play games, but I have done other things like video editing (not as much as I used to) and server hosting (mostly Tekkit, which is a Minecraft mod pack).

Would it be worth the upgrade?

My current specs:
Q6600 B3 @ 2.4 GHz stock (I had it at 3 GHz but stopped due to heat/stability issues)
ASUS P5K-E motherboard
6 GB DDR2-800 RAM
XFX 4850 512 MB

I have been searching about this for about a week now and I'm still not sure about it. Some websites I have seen say that it would give me a decent boost and others say it should be about the same in the real world. Most stuff I have seen is from 2010 and 2011 and I don't know how much has changed now that programs and games are becoming more multithreaded.

I may or may not need to buy a new motherboard anyway (and I wouldn't get one with a 775 socket) since I'm having issues that could be motherboard related. I'll probably post more about that on the Motherboards section later tonight.

Thanks in advance!

 

[clutchc]

I think it would be a good gaming upgrade, yes. The X6 is a faster processor for gaming. And today's games are becoming more and more multi threaded. Tom's Hardware ranks the X6 as being 3 tiers above the Q6600 for gaming. And 6 cores will help with your video work, too.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

 

[iam2thecrowe]

AMD phenom II cores are very similar in performance per clock to core 2 cores. The phenom II uses newer SSE instructions making it faster in newer games, and the x6 obviously has more cores and higher clock speed compared to your core 2, better for some newer games supporting the extra cores. For $100 for mobo and CPU that is a great deal, snap that one up quick.

 

[Zachnorn]

Sounds great, thanks for the help! Does the 1090T have any known issues with heat like the Q6600? I live in a warm climate (Southern California) so heat is always a concern.

 

[clutchc]

Sounds great, thanks for the help! Does the 1090T have any known issues with heat like the Q6600? I live in a warm climate (Southern California) so heat is always a concern.

No more so than any other 125W processor. It comes with a big 4 pipe noisy heat sync/fan. I had a 1090t for awhile. I didn't notice any higher temps than with the 125W 4 core Phenom IIs. You won't want to squeeze it into a small case with limited airflow, though. It needs at least a mid-sized ATX case with good airflow.

 

[Zachnorn]

I'll pick that up, then. Thanks again for your help! I have an Antec 900 case and I'm ordering some new fans for it, so I should be fine.

 

[clutchc]

Being a Black Edition processor with an unlocked clock multiplier, you will probably want to overclock it eventually. If so, pick up an aftermarket cooler. The stock cooler is fine for stock wattage, but when you O/C it, the wattage and thus temps will rise more than the stock cooler can keep up with... at least not w/o making one heck of a lot of noise.

Btw, what board comes with it?

 

[Zachnorn]

I'm going to reuse my Hyper 212, I just hope that I can find its AMD pieces. I'm not sure about the motherboard, but I do know it uses DDR3.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

Sounds great, thanks for the help! Does the 1090T have any known issues with heat like the Q6600? I live in a warm climate (Southern California) so heat is always a concern.

i never had any problems with my q6600, ran it at 3.5ghz with a hyper tx3 with no real heat issues. I live in australia where it can get quite warm, although i have AC, but would often run it near 30C ambient temps in the peak of summer.

 

[Intel God]

Is he selling you DDR3 memory as well because you'll need that for this swap to work

 

[DSH]

I've been using a 1090T overclocked to 3.975 GHz on a Crosshair IV Formula for 2.5 years now and it does very well with all the newer games. I play a lot of Battlefield 3 and the 6 cores all get used. Per core performance is on par or even better than the FX 8350 cores in benchmarks I've run. I don't plan on upgrading unless it's a must.

 

[Zachnorn]

Thanks again, everyone! I went with it and I am really enjoying the 1090T. I'm working on overclocking it now. Just a question about that: is it normal for the CPU case temperature to be higher than the core on AMD CPUs? It wasn't like that on the Q6600 for me. The CPU case temperature seems to affect my ability to overclock since my CPU underclocks itself to 1600 MHz when the case hits 55 C, even though the cores are about 45 C. It only gets that hot when using OCCT Linpack, but the case is always hotter than the cores. I don't know if this is relevant, but at stock, my motherboard wants the CPU to get 1.45 volts. I undervolted to 1.4 with no problem, which still feels high.

My motherboard is an ASUS M4A77T/USB3 and my cooler is a Hyper 212+ with Arctic Silver 5. My ambient temperature is unknown (my indoor thermometer broke recently), but my hard drive is about 30 C if that helps.

 

[MajinCry]

Sounds like dust if you ask me.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

Thanks again, everyone! I went with it and I am really enjoying the 1090T. I'm working on overclocking it now. Just a question about that: is it normal for the CPU case temperature to be higher than the core on AMD CPUs? It wasn't like that on the Q6600 for me. The CPU case temperature seems to affect my ability to overclock since my CPU underclocks itself to 1600 MHz when the case hits 55 C, even though the cores are about 45 C. It only gets that hot when using OCCT Linpack, but the case is always hotter than the cores. I don't know if this is relevant, but at stock, my motherboard wants the CPU to get 1.45 volts. I undervolted to 1.4 with no problem, which still feels high.

My motherboard is an ASUS M4A77T/USB3 and my cooler is a Hyper 212+ with Arctic Silver 5. My ambient temperature is unknown (my indoor thermometer broke recently), but my hard drive is about 30 C if that helps.

well you have 6 full cores, and your overclocking them all, so expect temps to get quite high. High overclocks are only good with really good cooling on a 6 core phenom. Keep in mind AS5 thermal compound takes many hours to cure. I always use noctua nt-h1 thermal compound now, it works better and has no cure time.

 

[Zachnorn]

I hope it ends up being worth $100. My Q6600 was a poor overclocker since it is a B3 and the computer was giving me issues. It's been too soon to have any of the issues I saw with my old motherboard installed, but we'll see if that goes away.

I did some cleaning in my case but as it is 6 years old, it's possible that there is some dust in there that I missed. I'll check some more and check that my cables aren't in the way of airflow.

Also, those temperatures have happened on stock. I'm assuming since it is Linpack, that it's not that bad since testing with Linpack is supposed to heat up the CPU more than most other programs. Regular OCCT testing hasn't made the CPU case temperature break 50 C. I'm wondering if I need to try undervolting some more. I'm on 3.4 GHz with 1.4v right now and I'll probably overclock some more later tonight.

 

[clutchc]

I hope it ends up being worth $100.

Oh, it'll be worth it. I sold my 1090t alone for $118.50 on ebay. And you got a MB in the deal too.