Time to upgrade Q6600

[chevmaro]

So I have a Q6600 and an abit P35. I am now interested in running crossfire with my 4870. I was deciding to pickup a new board and keep my current cpu. Was looking at the X38 and P35. But im wondering if I should pickup a new i7 CPU and board instead. Is there much difference from my Q6600 and the new quads? I am running the Q6600 at 3.2. Should I be looking to upgrade right now or would I even notice a difference? I use my box mostly for gaming with occasional encoding of videos.

 

[soccerballtux]

i7 is not worth the money. Phenom 2 940 or a Q9550 CPU is better.

 

[Idontcare]

You'll need new DDR3 ram to go with your new mobo and new CPU. Also if you intend to overclock that 920 much then you'll need a new LGA1366 HSF to replace the stock HSF as well.

 

[chevmaro]

Is the Phenom 2 much better? A new HSF is not a deal breaker for me. Curious though. Will the one I have on my Q6600 fit?

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: chevmaro
Is the Phenom 2 much better? A new HSF is not a deal breaker for me. Curious though. Will the one I have on my Q6600 fit?

No. I wouldn't consider the Phenom II for a "new build"... the only reason I personally am going with it is that it's a drop-in replacement on my current motherboard (Gigabyte 790GX board).

If I were building a brand new machine from the bottom up, it'd be a Core i7 920. Motherboard, CPU and RAM ~$650 if you do your shopping right, and it will be MUCH faster than a Phenom II 940 in just about everything, and overclock fairly nicely. On top of that, it should run a bit better under Crossfire than a C2Q.

Going C2Q with a Q9550 might be worth it if you currently have decent DDR2 ram, which will save you a good bit of money over DDR3. However, it won't be any faster than the i7 overall, and leave you with less headroom for the future.

I would say since your workload includes some video editing, the i7 is the easy choice if money isn't much of an object.

This thread had a similar debate... and I broke it down by cost a ways down in there. Just in case you're curious.

 

[chevmaro]

It sounds like the Q6600 is still a comparable CPU. Im going to keep it and upgrade to a P45 and put another 4870 in there.

 

[chevmaro]

Any suggestions on P45 or X38 boards? Primary interest in this board would be first OC, dont want to lose any clock and then XFIRE performance.

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: chevmaro
It sounds like the Q6600 is still a comparable CPU. Im going to keep it and upgrade to a P45 and put another 4870 in there.

Indeed. If you're at 3.2 with your Q6600, you're still well in the game.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: chevmaro
Any suggestions on P45 or X38 boards? Primary interest in this board would be first OC, dont want to lose any clock and then XFIRE performance.

Isn't P45 a DDR3 chipset? X38 is DDR2.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: Idontcare

Originally posted by: chevmaro
Any suggestions on P45 or X38 boards? Primary interest in this board would be first OC, dont want to lose any clock and then XFIRE performance.

Isn't P45 a DDR3 chipset? X38 is DDR2.

Nope. My P5Q is P45, and its DDR2.

 

[dbcooper1]

Gigabyte P45-UD3P or R are both good. I'm running a Q9550@ 4.0Ghz for a month or so now with no issues. It uses DDR2.

 

[spacegoast]

I would also go with the Gigabyte P45-UD3P as dbcooper1 suggested. It is an awesome overclocker and will handle x2 4870's just fine.

 

[Tweakin]

Starting to sound like a broken record...Gigabyte P45-UD3P. I just spent a week playing with the R version (no crossfire) and it is a great board...fast, OC's nice and it's stable.

Additionally, it uses DDR2 and doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

 

[Markfw]

But these aren't crossfire motherboards, they just have 2 slots, right ? I don't see crossfire anywhere in the specs. And one is 8x only.

2 x PCI Express 2.0 x16
(one running at x16 model, another one running at x8 model)

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: chevmaro
Any suggestions on P45 or X38 boards? Primary interest in this board would be first OC, dont want to lose any clock and then XFIRE performance.

x38/x48 will give you the full 16x + 16x PCIe slots for CF

p45 cuts the bandwidth in half - 8x + 8x PCIe
- not a huge deal for 4870 class but it might be for next gen or if you stick a 4870x2 in one of the slots as i do with mine for crossfireX-3

 

[MegaWorks]

I have a X38, a P45 and now an nForce 790i Ultra. I love all of them, it depends on what you would like to do with your board. I bought the 790i because I already have the Q6600 and I wanted 3 full PCI-E 2.0 running at 16x. I got a good deal on those DDR3 in my rig, so I told myself that I always wanted to try SLI. So why not?

I've heard a lot of crap about the nVidia chipsets but I took the risk to try them out.

In your case I would get a x38/x48 board and OC the Q6600 to 3.6Ghz. :thumbsup:

DFI LANPARTY DK X38-T2RB

DFI LP DK X48-T2RSB PLUS

ASUS P5E Deluxe

 

[Jabbernyx]

Still waiting on the 2 channel version of i7. CPU price is fine, but the platform right now is mucho dinero.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: chevmaro
Any suggestions on P45 or X38 boards? Primary interest in this board would be first OC, dont want to lose any clock and then XFIRE performance.

x38/x48 will give you the full 16x + 16x PCIe slots for CF

p45 cuts the bandwidth in half - 8x + 8x PCIe
- not a huge deal for 4870 class but it might be for next gen or if you stick a 4870x2 in one of the slots as i do with mine for crossfireX-3

X38/X48 use PCI-E1, but P45 uses PCI-E2. Theoretically they should have the same (PCI-E v2 has 2x as much at a given amount of lanes, so x8 is like x16)

And why not P45?

 

[apoppin]

Still waiting on the 2 channel version of i7. CPU price is fine, but the platform right now is mucho dinero.

when?

:clock:

X38/X48 use PCI-E1, but P45 uses PCI-E2. Theoretically they should have the same (PCI-E v2 has 2x as much at a given amount of lanes, so x8 is like x16)

excuse me?


x38 and x48 are newer MBs

 

[Jabbernyx]

Originally posted by: apoppin
when?
:clock:

Exactly. Currently have an OC'ed E6600 (3.6GHz) that will be retired to media server duties once LGA 1160 hits.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: BlueAcolyte
X38/X48 use PCI-E1, but P45 uses PCI-E2. Theoretically they should have the same (PCI-E v2 has 2x as much at a given amount of lanes, so x8 is like x16)

And why not P45?

X38, X48 and P45 are all PCIE 2.0. X38 and X48 support 2 x PCIEx16 lanes @ 2.0. P45 supports 2 x PCIEx8 lanes @ 2.0. P35 supports 1xPCIEx16 and 1xPCIEx4 @ 1.1. The PCIEx4 is what cripples that P35 board in CF, the other boards show very little penalty, running at least 2x8 lanes @ 2.0.

THG PCIE Express and CrossFire examined

To the OP: Personally I think spending on a new board at this point is a bit of a waste with i7 out and i5/P55 launching in 5-6 months. The Q6600 is still pretty good though and you might be able to get it higher with a P45 or X48, although I'd avoid spending any more than $150 on the board.

 

[zenguy]

Sorry,

X38 and X48 both use PCI-E 2.0 and can run 16x by 16x.
The P45 splits a Single PCI-E 2.0 so each runs at 8x

Some Review Sites such as Tweaktown notice a degradation on the P45 with the 4850s whith high settings. I can only assum the 4870s would see even more degradation.

If you are willing to Risk Open Box...........

NewEgg has an X38 Asus for $105!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...?Item=N82E16813131219R

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: BlueAcolyte
X38/X48 use PCI-E1, but P45 uses PCI-E2. Theoretically they should have the same (PCI-E v2 has 2x as much at a given amount of lanes, so x8 is like x16)

And why not P45?

X38, X48 and P45 are all PCIE 2.0. X38 and X48 support 2 x PCIEx16 lanes @ 2.0. P45 supports 2 x PCIEx8 lanes @ 2.0. P35 supports 1xPCIEx16 and 1xPCIEx4 @ 1.1. The PCIEx4 is what cripples that P35 board in CF, the other boards show very little penalty, running at least 2x8 lanes @ 2.0.
THG PCIE Express and CrossFire examined

To the OP: Personally I think spending on a new board at this point is a bit of a waste with i7 out and i5/P55 launching in 5-6 months. The Q6600 is still pretty good though and you might be able to get it higher with a P45 or X48, although I'd avoid spending any more than $150 on the board.

the x4 slot actually doesn't make a great deal of difference compared to the x8 slots of the P45 in crossfire...IIRC performance is less than 2% difference in most games when running the same setup on the two different chipsets...both chipsets however are considerably inferior to the X38 and X48 chipsets with their x16 crossfire setup.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Stumps
the x4 slot actually doesn't make a great deal of difference compared to the x8 slots of the P45 in crossfire...IIRC performance is less than 2% difference in most games when running the same setup on the two different chipsets...both chipsets however are considerably inferior to the X38 and X48 chipsets with their x16 crossfire setup.

Not according to this review. It clearly shows the x4 1.1 boards (965 and P35) tanking in Crysis and other titles at 1920 or higher:
THG PCIE Express and CrossFire examined

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: Stumps
the x4 slot actually doesn't make a great deal of difference compared to the x8 slots of the P45 in crossfire...IIRC performance is less than 2% difference in most games when running the same setup on the two different chipsets...both chipsets however are considerably inferior to the X38 and X48 chipsets with their x16 crossfire setup.

Not according to this review. It clearly shows the x4 1.1 boards (965 and P35) tanking in Crysis and other titles at 1920 or higher:
THG PCIE Express and CrossFire examined

yeah I didn't see that article (It's a THG article so it's flawed in some way).

I hadn't really tested any CF setups at resolutions higher than the native 1680x1050 of my monitor.

looks like there is a difference at higher res's