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Old hardware question

Joined
Oct 4, 2018
Messages
561 (0.23/day)
Location
Canada
System Name HP Pavilion a6552f
Processor Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400
Motherboard Asus IPIBL-LB / HP Benicia-GL8E
Cooling DeepCool Gammaxx 200
Memory 8gigs Kingston 4x2gigs DDR2-800
Video Card(s) Zotac GT630 "Fermi" 2gb DDR3 128bits Synergy Edition
Storage Western Digital Green 7200rpm 1tb
Display(s) LG Flatron EW234 Super LED
Case HP Pavilion
Audio Device(s) Onboard
Power Supply Thermaltake TR2 430w
Mouse Razer Abyssus Mirror Special Edition Blue LED
Keyboard Thermaltake Tt eSPORTS Commander Red LED Backlighting Mechanical Keycaps Membrane Gaming Keyboard
Software Windows 7 Home Premium 64bits
Is it better to have a Q6600 1066 mhz fsb with 8 gigs ddr2 800 or Q9400 1333 mhz fsb with 4 gigs ddr2 800?
 
For your main PC? Neither.
But I would choose Q6600 only because 8GB RAM. Q6600 is about 25% weaker than Q9400, but with good MOBO you can overclock it well beyond 3 GHz.
 
What ever rig run SSD... but I would go with the 8GB RAM.
Between:
1) one with 4GB and SSD
2) one with 8GB and HDD

the 1) it’s going to feel and be a lot faster in the common every day usage...
 
Q9400 with 8g
I don't know if this mixup was intentional or not, but I agree with it. If you can pair the faster CPU with the 8GB, that would be the way to go. If you can't, then I would go with the platform that has the 8GB of RAM.
 
There wont be any expenses and its the choices I have. No overclock possible on these HP boards. So just choose between what I wrote. Thank you. :)

For your main PC? Neither.
But I would choose Q6600 only because 8GB RAM. Q6600 is about 25% weaker than Q9400, but with good MOBO you can overclock it well beyond 3 GHz.
It will be for main PC used for FB, browsing, downloads and Youtube thats it.
 
There wont be any expenses and its the choices I have. No overclock possible on these HP boards. So just choose between what I wrote. Thank you. :)


It will be for main PC used for FB, browsing, downloads and Youtube thats it.
You'll need a GPU to go with it as well, that's able to accelerate the browser. I'd go for the 8GB of RAM system, as 4GB might prove to be very hard to work with in the near future, and both CPUs are very slow anyway. Facebook and browsing on heavier pages might still have hiccups. Youtube will require that mentioned GPU to decode video better and more efficiently.

All in all, it's usable. I still have a FX8350/HD4850 combo and it's quite OK, last version of Windows 10. The Q6600 cannot be that much worse for day to day tasks. Make sure you get some cheap SSD to go with it, because paging will occur rather often with 8GB of RAM, and HDDs are really slow at it. Should improve the experience a bit.
 
OP : The one with 8GB RAM is the winner.
Q6600 is about 25% weaker than Q9400...
Say what now ?
From what I tested, they are equal in performance when FSBs and Core clock frequencies are the same (assuming SSE4.1 aren't used).
One is clocked at 2,4GHz (2x 4MB L2) stock, while the other at 2,66GHz (2x 3MB L2) - so, where did you get that "about 25%" number from ?
At most, it should be at around 10% level (for stock).

45nm helps with power usage/temps and has SSE 4.1 support.
65nm has higher multiplier, which makes it easier to OC on cheaper boards (it can do 3GHz on the boards that only support Q9400 stock).
 
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8GB system is better for the usage you specified.
 
Q9400 1333 mhz fsb with 4 gigs ddr2 800?
This. Mostly because the Q9400 is a solid upgrade from a Q6600. For your usage scenario, 8GB of ram will not do as much for you as the extra power from the Q9400. Ideally, if you could put the 8GB into the Q9400 system, that would be best, assuming of course they're both DDR2 systems.
 
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What extra power of Q9400 ?
I'm seriously confused here...
My scores :
Q9400 @ 3,69GHz : LINK,
Q6700 @ 3,69GHz : LINK.

8GB > 4GB in internet browsing is WAY better to have vs. 200MHz on clock by default.
Unless you can put 8GB in Q9400 I wouldn't bothered with it.

Side note : BSEL mod (or tape mod), should work on OEM HP boards... I think.
 
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OP : The one with 8GB RAM is the winner.

Say what now ?
From what I tested, they are equal in performance when FSBs and Core clock frequencies are the same (assuming SSE4.1 aren't used).
One is clocked at 2,4GHz (2x 4MB L2) stock, while the other at 2,66GHz (2x 3MB L2) - so, where did you get that "about 25%" number from ?
At most, it should be at around 10% level (for stock).

45nm helps with power usage/temps and has SSE 4.1 support.
65nm has higher multiplier, which makes it easier to OC on cheaper boards (it can do 3GHz on the boards that only support Q9400 stock).
Passmark CPU chart and userbenchmarks: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/mid_range_cpus.html & https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core2-Quad-Q6600-vs-Intel-Core2-Quad-Q9400/1980vsm244
 
For general purpose like that I'm of the opinion that a tablet is the best choice. My father uses an ultrabook and I think even that's a waste. He mostly uses it for YT and reading online news or his medical books. He doesn't even use the keyboard. If I accompanied him when he purchased it I would've steered him to buy a tablet.

But seems OP is getting a free system (I think) so disregard my opinion please.
 
Which is a average of ALL scores submitted (OC'ed or not)...
We aren't testing how fast PCs with those CPUs are, we want to know how fast CPUs themselves are vs. each other (on the same platform).

You can tell this table isn't good at comparing CPUs, when Xeon X3220 is ~5% faster than Q6600.
(hint : they are the EXACT same thing, but with a different name).
Q6600 vs. Xeon X3220.png
 
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For general purpose like that I'm of the opinion that a tablet is the best choice. My father uses an ultrabook and I think even that's a waste. He mostly uses it for YT and reading online news or his medical books. He doesn't even use the keyboard. If I accompanied him when he purchased it I would've steered him to buy a tablet.

But seems OP is getting a free system (I think) so disregard my opinion please.

It's all parts I have laying around and it's holidays coming so I just wanna give a PC to a family in need.
 
Q6600 overclocked to 3.2Ghz super easy on just about every mothboard by raising the FSB to 400

Q66 and OC gets my vote
 
What extra power of Q9400 ?
I'm seriously confused here...
My scores :
Q9400 @ 3,69GHz : LINK,
Q6700 @ 3,69GHz : LINK.
Getting a Q6600 to 3.7ghz is not an easy task without serious voltage. A Q9400 needs only a minor bump in voltage. Additionally, I greatly doubt the OP is overclocking the system in question. They may not be able to, so the point is mute without further input from the OP.

At stock, the Q9400 has a solid advantage over the Q6600. For the everyday tasks the OP discussed, 8GB does not have the same advantage over 4GB.
It's all parts I have laying around and it's holidays coming so I just wanna give a PC to a family in need.
Are we talking about parts that can be overclocked or are they OEM(HP/Dell for example) systems with lose parts you are throwing in? If possible, are you willing to overclock? If we have more info we can help you put together the best possible combination of parts in the final system. Given that you intend it as a gift, would really love to help you out here!
 
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Getting a Q6600 to 3.7ghz is not an easy task without serious voltage. A Q9400 needs only a minor bump in voltage. Additionally, I greatly doubt the OP is overclocking the system in question. They may not be able to, so the point is mute without further input from the OP.

At stock, the Q9400 has a solid advantage over the Q6600. For the everyday tasks the OP discussed, 8GB does not have the same advantage over 4GB.

Are we talking about parts that can be overclocked or are they OEM(HP/Dell for example) systems with lose parts you are throwing in? If possible, are you willing to overclock? If we have more info we can help you put together the best possible combination of parts in the final system. Given that you intend it as a gift, would really love to help you out here!
No overclock possible its OEM parts
 
Since overclocking is not possible, the best combo would be the Q9400 with the 8GBs of Ram. The RAM should be agnostic and as both are PC2 (DDR2) 800MHz, and thus should be interchangeable.
 
Since overclocking is not possible, the best combo would be the Q9400 with the 8GBs of Ram. The RAM should be agnostic and as both are PC2 (DDR2) 800MHz, and thus should be interchangeable.
Read first post please.
 
Read first post please.
I did. Unless your ram is soldered to the board, there is no technical reason why you could not pair the 8GBs of memory to the CPU and board that houses the Q9400. That would be the best combo your could do with what you listed.

If you just can't seem to part the RAM from the rest... then by all means, go with whatever the 8GBs is. Modern browsers eat gobs of RAM
 
If you cant combine q94 with more ram (or can you get some more ram any chance?) than the system with 8gb ram. But it depends on operation sys too...
 
get the one with 8gb ram. q9400 is not much faster that q6600, but the extra 4gb of ram will make a lot of difference. and get some cheap ssd, those boards are sata2 anyway.
 
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