- Joined
- Jan 11, 2011
I wanted to get a professional opinion from you guys on what should I do with my current setup.
I was thinking about upgrading for some time now and recent pitiful performance in certain demanding games is really pushing me to the ragged edge. My current cpu is a slighlty clocked e6300 which usually runs fine but is fairly outdated... and I suspect hasn't got too much useable life left.
So I was thinking about upgrading and after some research, I came across the q9550. Which is also not-mint condition but a damn sight better and 4 cores will spread the load of some really cpu-heavy games more evenly.
Also the 65W TDP is very attractive since its the same as my e6300 (theoretically, there should be no increase in power consumption between the two).
Only thing I would need to make it all work together then is some 1066 DDR2 CL5 memory (I have CL7 and thats too much for my board to handle at high speeds).
Anyone has a better idea?
Xeon maybe? Would it be a better idea to buy a different C2D/P processor instead to gain slightly more performance and not spend lots of money on outdated tech?
(If it works, I don't care about the age that much but talking potential-wise, newer hardware might have more headroom)
EDIT: 15/10/12
Since I have originally posted this thread, people of these forums have helped me spec up a decent gaming machine
I have gone through upgrading the old 775 socket temporarily from an E6300 to Q6700 which made a massive improvement. But I have upgraded yet again since and reached an i5 2500k - which somehow still manages to beat the Q6700, even after O/C, by a good 50% or more noticeable increase in speed and gaming performance.
At that, I also took out valuable information about new hardware and the way it works so I should be fine from this point onwards upgrading my system further - although there is absolutely no need to do so for a long time.
I chose the Samsung 30nm Green 8gb memory kit - and I must say it offers absolutely AMAZING value, easily reaching 2133mhz within safe voltages.
The processor isn't far behind, reaching 4ghz on stock cooling within really acceptable temperatures, almost never gets maxed no matter what I throw at it - result
And lastly the motherboard with onboard sound as good as my old add-on card and allowing me more O/C options than I ever had as well as plenty of headroom for upgrades and more O/C.
All in all the upgrade cost me 408$ + around 100$ for the Q6700 step. I probably could have had a better rig had I not bought that Quad but it lasted for a good few months and offered me more performace where I needed it - as my old core was struggling. It's great now, I can do whatever I want with no bottlenecks, even background tasks don't choke it
CM Hyper 212 EVO cooler is in post and on the way, as soon as I get it I will push for 4.5ghz + - hopefully I can reach 5ghz within acceptable temps. If not, 4.5 is more than sufficient and I still need to upgrade my GPU.
I was thinking about CrossFire HD5770, since I have one already, I could just get another one. Most Crossfire tests of these cards I've seen are promising although only videos posted show 5770CF on AMD Phenom processors, which aren't half as good as mine Hopefully it would run even better with my setup. If not, then upgrade to an HD7850 would be enough for me, keeping good power consumption while adding performance.
I was thinking about upgrading for some time now and recent pitiful performance in certain demanding games is really pushing me to the ragged edge. My current cpu is a slighlty clocked e6300 which usually runs fine but is fairly outdated... and I suspect hasn't got too much useable life left.
So I was thinking about upgrading and after some research, I came across the q9550. Which is also not-mint condition but a damn sight better and 4 cores will spread the load of some really cpu-heavy games more evenly.
Also the 65W TDP is very attractive since its the same as my e6300 (theoretically, there should be no increase in power consumption between the two).
Only thing I would need to make it all work together then is some 1066 DDR2 CL5 memory (I have CL7 and thats too much for my board to handle at high speeds).
Anyone has a better idea?
Xeon maybe? Would it be a better idea to buy a different C2D/P processor instead to gain slightly more performance and not spend lots of money on outdated tech?
(If it works, I don't care about the age that much but talking potential-wise, newer hardware might have more headroom)
EDIT: 15/10/12
Since I have originally posted this thread, people of these forums have helped me spec up a decent gaming machine
I have gone through upgrading the old 775 socket temporarily from an E6300 to Q6700 which made a massive improvement. But I have upgraded yet again since and reached an i5 2500k - which somehow still manages to beat the Q6700, even after O/C, by a good 50% or more noticeable increase in speed and gaming performance.
At that, I also took out valuable information about new hardware and the way it works so I should be fine from this point onwards upgrading my system further - although there is absolutely no need to do so for a long time.
I chose the Samsung 30nm Green 8gb memory kit - and I must say it offers absolutely AMAZING value, easily reaching 2133mhz within safe voltages.
The processor isn't far behind, reaching 4ghz on stock cooling within really acceptable temperatures, almost never gets maxed no matter what I throw at it - result
And lastly the motherboard with onboard sound as good as my old add-on card and allowing me more O/C options than I ever had as well as plenty of headroom for upgrades and more O/C.
All in all the upgrade cost me 408$ + around 100$ for the Q6700 step. I probably could have had a better rig had I not bought that Quad but it lasted for a good few months and offered me more performace where I needed it - as my old core was struggling. It's great now, I can do whatever I want with no bottlenecks, even background tasks don't choke it
CM Hyper 212 EVO cooler is in post and on the way, as soon as I get it I will push for 4.5ghz + - hopefully I can reach 5ghz within acceptable temps. If not, 4.5 is more than sufficient and I still need to upgrade my GPU.
I was thinking about CrossFire HD5770, since I have one already, I could just get another one. Most Crossfire tests of these cards I've seen are promising although only videos posted show 5770CF on AMD Phenom processors, which aren't half as good as mine Hopefully it would run even better with my setup. If not, then upgrade to an HD7850 would be enough for me, keeping good power consumption while adding performance.
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