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I7-860 or Q9550?

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rommie

Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2009
I bought a system in December, and every component is serving me well, apart from the cpu - Q8200. It's letting me down a bit in games. I'm wondering whether I should buy a new mobo and ram so I can run a core I7-860, or just put a q9550 in there (would cost 3x less), because Passmark shows that there's only ~1,000 points difference between the 2, and I'd be paying 3x more for the core i7. It has been suggested that I overclock my q8200 to 3ghz, but this wouldn't give me the same performance as the Q9550, would it?
 
No, but it would give you considerably more than what you have stock. As a matter of fact, if you have decent RAM you might get it to 3.4ish. Once you have it Overclocked, then judge as to whether or not it is letting you down "a bit" in games. There is really nothing wrong with an Q8200 per se and for the majority of computer owners it is more than enough horse power. Once you step into the arena of the Q9XXX your in a different ballpark. In order for the Q9XXX to be much more effective than what you have, you have to overclock it as well. Once you go down that road, you can't stop. It will require a not just a "decent" motherboard, but a good one. It will also require better than average RAM and top end air cooling. That all might lead to a better Power supply, and then the cycle continues to your GPU. A simple upgrade is never just a simple upgrade. Once you have spent all that money on those components, you will ask yourself, why didn't I just get an i7?

So as you can see, the answer is not a simple one. To answer whether or not it would be giving you the same performance. An overclocked Q8200 will give you equal performance of a Stock Running Q9550.
 
upgrading to new parts is always fun and good, but you have to think whether you need it or not. Or more importantly can afford it.
 
Since you just bought the system in December and you are not happy with the stock performance I think the best and most cost effective option is to overclcok your cpu and see how it performs. If it still doesn't "cut the mustard" then you might have to look into other options.
 
Since you just bought the system in December and you are not happy with the stock performance I think the best and most cost effective option is to overclcok your cpu and see how it performs. If it still doesn't "cut the mustard" then you might have to look into other options.

+1 to the overclock if his cooler can handle it.

run it like that for a while and then check it out.
 
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