I currently have the Intel Core2Quad Q6600 but i'm getting a new build very soon. I was wondering wether it'd be worth it upgrading to the i3 530. According to the tom's hardware cpu charts the Q6600 performs slightly better overall. However if I kept the q6600 that's limit me to an LGA775 motherboard & DDR2 RAM. Is it worth getting the i3-530 for £95 so that my system will be more futureproof?
If was my choice I'd pay the extra £50 and go for the i5 750, the rest of the hardware mobo , ram, etc will still be the same. If you look at what everybody says the i5 750 has become the new Q 6600>that said the i3 530's still not a bad CPU by any means
I guess I could save up an extra £50 or so, shouldn't take too long. On the other hand though, I found a ridiculously good motherboard deal with the i3 530 here - only £250. From a brief look at i5 750 deals the minimum was around £400, that's a £150 increase. I'm not convinced that's worth it.
Just tried getting seperate parts on scan & managed to get it £318.71. That's not so bad, only £68 & it has a better motherboard.
you tend to find the pre assembled deals are always more, DIY is the better way to go the only trouble with that is when it all goes wrong you automaticly become you're own trouble shooting department instead of being able to RMA the whole lot, but that said if you know what you're doing it's not a problem
check this out http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/53?vs=118 If your's is a gaming rig, I dont think you should bother. If its a CPU intensive task rig, then you probably could.
As good as the i3 530 most definitely is, it's still only got two physical cores. They might be faster and more efficient than the Q6600's, but there's still only two of them. An upgrade from a quad to a dual is actually a downgrade in some senses; I'd go for the i5 750 - it's worth it.
Ok, so there seems to be a general consensus for i5-750, it'll be tight as I was aiming for a budget of around £550 (without the PSU). Fixed
If you are running tight on budget, ebay might be a good option for expensive components like RAM or computer fairs http://www.britishcomputerfairs.com/ Why dont you post your build here? Maybe we could help you out
please dont use flee bay for 2 very good reasons. 1. you can be sold faulty equipment 2. ZERO warranty
I would not bother upgrading unless my kit was noticably slow. Next year there are new systems coming out and your 1156 if you get it now is going to be as old hat as your 6600 is now. I thi k we have reached a point were futureproofing is not going to happen anymore and you'll see new sockets every two years or 18 months if intel carry on. You could always get a cooler and try OCing if you arn't already. Agreed fleebay is pretty crap but paypal offers you insurance incase things are broken.
So you reckon I should wait for the next major hardware releases. I guess I could, getting a new PC isn't too urgent. On the other hand I heard that AMD are much better if you want to bet futureproof (AM3 has been pretty consistent compared to Intel's constant chip changes). Thoughts on this?
I'm with Domestic-ginger. OC your 6600 (you should be able to reach 3.6-3.8 with a little voltage tweaking) and wait for the next Intel socket. As for AMD, I would have thought AM3 is on its way out. I reckon the new hexacores are the last we'll see on the AM3 platform.
Too true; we have no idea what socket bulldozer is going to use. I'm hoping its going to have a DDR2 memory controller and be AM2+ compatable so I can get one!
Hello fello Chichester forum user, not many of us from those parts (yes i know mine says Havant, but i still work in Chichester) Right, back on topic, personally, i would stick with the Q6600, it's still an awesome chip and shouldn't struggle with much, if anything really. Depending on what you use your machine for, maybe consider upgrading your rig, such as a ram upgrade, or a graphics update. If you list your current specs, we will be able to better advice you on the next best thing. Hope this Helps Sam
Well.. my current setup is kind of complicated. It's a Packard Bell iXtreme 9600 which I bought when my knowledge of tech was much poorer (about 2 years ago). This means most of my parts are unspecified but here goes: Q6600 @2.4ghz 768MB nVidia GeForce 9600GS Packard Bell motherboard 3gb Unspecified RAM 750gb Unspecified Hard Drive Antec Earthwatts ea500w PSU (I added myself due to problems with the standard PSU) Also the BIOS has no options for overclocking If I got a new build would it be easy enough to take the Q6600 from a pre-built pc such as this? Anyone ever heard of any complications with this sort of thing?
I did this, i had a dell with a q6600, bought a mew mobo and stuck in in a HAF 922, overclocked to 3.6GHZ, and bobs your uncle, so to speak. I would definatly say an 'upgrade' to a i3 would actually be a downgrade.
