My son has an older s775 PC in his room for homework and surfing, and with a shuffle round with kit I have here, I can upgrade him a bit. Option 1: Change 2GB DDR2 to 4GB and replace C2D E6xxx with E8400 Option 2: Change whole mobo to AM3 785 with 4GB DDR3 and Phenom II X2 555BE that is OC from 3.2 to 3.6. On paper, the standard Phenom and E8400 are fairly well balanced. What would you suggest? Whatever's left over will be sold as a complete PC or mobo/CPU/RAM Thanks
Can you unlock the other two cores on the 555 BE? (see, for example, http://www.anandtech.com/show/2927) Simply that, whilst i'd otherwise tend towards the E8400 (i assume it'll also o/c), if the usage will gain from multithreading &/or multitasking then an unlocked 555 BE should then have a reasonable advantage. i believe the OP isn't looking at buying anything at all.
Thanks Harlequin, that's another route. The mobo that the E6xxx is in won't OC, so that may not make best use of Q6600. IIRC, however there's a pin mod to get 3GHz straight out of Q6600. At the moment, I'd like to use existing kit and then see what I have to play with in £ when I've sold the leftovers. PD - I can unlock the 3rd core on the 555 (did it a while back and then shut it off again as it messed up the temperature reading system).
Okay, it was just a thought. if you're prepared to buy a processor, you could also have a look at the comparative prices of a half decent Xeon 771 - as, for a couple of quid, you could get a pin reversal sticker. Though, tbh, you 'may' be better off looking for a better full machine that's collection only (& local to you) on eBay than spending more money on either of these ones.
PD. The machine he's using was a sub £20 special, so not bad so far. The case and DVD writer + PSU were worth it for that. As he's not doing anything majorly demanding that will heat it up, I think that reinstating the 3rd core on the 555 BE would be a benefit. It is running a better than standard CPU cooler, which will help. It's also DDR3, which makes it better to strip later on Never tried the 771 Xeon game, but would be tempted to try it on a more modern setup.
I've got a Q6600 you're welcome to? I can't guarantee it'll work as it's been on a motherboard on a wall as a kind of "this is what the inside of a computer looks like" display, and I used it to try to get confidence inserting and removing CPUs (as I get way too anxious doing such jobs - every time I repair or upgrade something I'm convinced it won't work.... and of course it always does, every time, and I've a degree in the subject, but I STILL get the same anxiety all the bl**dy time!).... but it's free. It is a redunculously nice CPU, just a shame the MB died (although it's possible it was the CPU ... there's only one way to tell though.) (Sorry, posh camera has just died - need to charge the battery!) Julie x
Hi Julie, That is a really generous offer thank you. I would be interested to give it a try , and then we'll know one way or the other. I would pay the postage of course, and happy to send you another s775 CPU if you need one to keep your display complete! Harlequin, thank you also for the offer of some RAM. I probably have enough DDR2 800 to put 4GB in , but will let you know.
Jewelie is very kindly posting the Q6600 this week for testing - quad core goodness! Thank you again .
The Eagle has landed! The Q6600 is here and ready to be tested. Just need to take down a working PC and pop it in. Huge thanks to lady Jewelie, rep coming your way
Good News! I got some time to test the Q6600 today - it lives! Next job is to try the tape BSEL mod to see if it can be persuaded to bump up to 3.0 GHz in a PC that has no OC options. Jewelie, thank you again
Is that a strong possibility? I was going to try the 2 strips of tape to fool the system that its bus was 1333 rather than 1066
OMG. I'm so glad. I did not think it would work. It does mean that when the PC went it was definitely the motherboard that died (it was a freaky form factor Dell with lots of odd/unique bits to it so I decided not to try to fix it.) I have a new found respect for how hardy CPUs are, especially given how it got treated whilst I experimented with it on the display board and practised applying thermal paste on it (CPU + small piece of glass = great way to observe what happens when playing with thermal paste.) This has actually helped somewhat with my PC building anxiety, I'm always convinced I'm going to break something expensive, particularly the CPUs. Excellent. xxx
