Worthwhile upgrade? (Q6600)

I have an older PC in my living room that I use as an HTPC and to play some games on my TV (low resolution, 1080p).

Originally it was built about 5 years ago with a Gigabyte 965P-DS3 (I believe revision 1.0, but I need to check).

I put in a Radeon 5770 last year to give it a boost...which was a success.

Now I am thinking about swapping out the E6400 I have had in there since the original build (consistently ran at 3.2ghz) for a Q6600 to ride until the entire system is rebuilt...since the Q6600 should be about the best chip the board will take.

Would it be worth my while to sell the E6400 (~$40) and buy a used Q6600 (~$80) at about a $40 difference?

Worth it isnt up to us monetarily speaking.

Is there something this unit isnt doing well that a quad CPU can fix?

Nothing in particular yet, but the CPU is starting to fall out of the "Preferred Range" with some newer apps and games.

And I'm thinking that doubling the number of cores and keeping nearly the same clock with some extra cache would prolong it's viability.

Id say its a worthy upgrade. I tried playing some games on my e8600, even at 4.5ghz it was no fun. I tossed in a q9550 and it made all the difference

Sounds good to me, I'll go ahead with that change. Managed to grab a Q6600 for $85 shipped.

And the board I have is a Rev 1.0 board (the only time adopting C2D early hasn't been good) so the Q6[7|6]00 is the best CPU that it will take.


Also of note to anyone who still has a Gigabyte P965-DS3 and is looking for their Rev number, it's on the left hand side of the board (back of the case), near the middle between the I/O interface and the top PCI-E slot. Printed in white. At least it was for me.

for 85 thats a decent upgrade.