Old PC CPU Upgrade

[xu^]

Hi all ,not been involved with PC's for a good few years, kinda lost interest,but anyway...

I'm running a rather old system with
Q6600 @2.4
Asus PK5 Premium Motherboard
4gb ram ddr2
nVidia gtx 750 ti 2gb

Used to have it overclocked a few years ago to 3.2ghz for a long time then it started crashing on anything above default 2.4ghz, My question is now would it make "much" difference if I was to chuck a Q9650 @3ghz in over my Q6600?
I think its the fastest CPU my board will take and maybe 1 of the fasted socket 775 CPU's available anyway, would it make much difference, i do a little gaming obviously nothing new,but hoping it would improve frame rates a little.

I've no interest in building a new PC, to be honest and just a little speed boost would be all I need, dont have to time or money to build a new system, but a cpu upgrade and possibly a slightly better gfx card if it would help.

thanks for any suggetions

 

[TheMadDutchDude]

If it’s struggling to maintain a basic overclock or 3.2, I think your motherboard may be on its way out. I don’t think a Q9650 would run very well on it. Set your Q6600 to 333 FSB (3 GHz) and see if it’ll run. If not, the 9650 won’t either as that’s a 333 FSB chip.

 

[Wavetrex]

Don't bother.
The core performance of that chip is completely outdated at this point.

Save your money and think about getting something more modern, even if in the middle-to-low-end side.
For example, a Ryzen 3600 would be orders of magnitude faster than that ancient CPU.
If that is too much, an 1600 would still serve you well and can be had for very cheap today.

 

[lexluthermiester]

If it’s struggling to maintain a basic overclock or 3.2, I think your motherboard may be on its way out. I don’t think a Q9650 would run very well on it. Set your Q6600 to 333 FSB (3 GHz) and see if it’ll run. If not, the 9650 won’t either as that’s a 333 FSB chip.

Could be voltage.
@xubidoo
Have you tried bumping up your voltage one or two steps to see if it helps? As long as you don't go crazy, you won't hurt it.

Don't bother.
The core performance of that chip is completely outdated at this point.

Save your money and think about getting something more modern, even if in the middle-to-low-end side.
For example, a Ryzen 3600 would be orders of magnitude faster than that ancient CPU.
If that is too much, an 1600 would still serve you well and can be had for very cheap today.

That was not a useful suggestion. While you're not wrong, the OP did not ask if the system was out-dated, they asked for help getting it running. Context is important.

 

[xu^]

ok had it running at 3ghz and so far fingers crossed , ran a few games and older 3d mark a few times and so far seems ok...

I know the system is totally out dated and doesnt hold a candle to modern systems, but ive seen a few Q9650s going for around £35-40 on ebay and wondered if it would make much if any difference.
To get a better chip such as a ryzen, would mean new board,cpu,memory etc and to be honest ive no inclination at all to do it.

Im assuming a Q9650 @3ghz would still out perform my Q6600 @3ghz ?and maybe bumping my gfx up from a 750 gtx to something a little better as long as its cheap

If its pointless and i wouldnt see any gains then i wont bother ,just thought as they are cheap...

 

[lexluthermiester]

Im assuming a Q9650 @3ghz would still out perform my Q6600 @3ghz ?and maybe bumping my gfx up from a 750 gtx to something a little better as long as its cheap

Yes, and yes. A Q9650 would have high headroom for a solid OC as well. Those can effortlessly go to 3.6ghz(9x400mhz FSB) on a minor bump of voltage(1.375 to 1.4). Additionally, a GTX770 would be an excellent and inexpensive upgrade as well. The gains would be worth the price of admission for those two items.

 

[theFOoL]

Your MB might be able to run a Modded Xeon CPU the Xeon E5450 LINK support chipset LINK

 

[lexluthermiester]

Your MB might be able to run a Modded Xeon CPU the Xeon E5450 LINK support chipset LINK

That is a very involved process. Can't recommend that for a non-geek, which the OP doesn't seem to be.

 

[theFOoL]

That is a very involved process. Can't recommend that for a non-geek, which the OP doesn't seem to be.

ah OK OK well works fine on my system and I'm a geek so well at least with my Q6600 I was able to go @3.3 and that's it. Anything higher would crash/restart

 

[TheMadDutchDude]

I wouldn't bother changing the Q6600 to the Q9650. The IPC increase isn't worth it, especially if you aren't wishing to upgrade the system anyway.

Let the Q6600 ride strong. It was an amazing CPU back in the day, and I was so happy when I finally got one... this brings back good memories.

 

[Wavetrex]

ive seen a few Q9650s going for around £35-40 on ebay

That is exactly why I've told you to save your money.

That 35-40 quids are wasted money, paying for something that already belongs to your city's pile of household waste ( even if £35 seems little )

Yes, the chips were amazing for the time and I also had some WOW moments, for example when I managed to overclock my Q6600 to 3.75 Ghz (Yes, 56% overclock !).
However, the massive difference to today's chip means that even at that clock the "Core2" architecture is slower than what a modern "Lake" (Intel) or "Zen" AMD runs at minimum (idle) clocks.

Keep those 40 quids, put them in the piggy bank, put some more the next time it's raining and you don't go out... and get a proper system for 2019-2020 when you can (or when your current Q6600 dies completely... which I doubt it will, mine still runs to this day, even after that 3.6-3.75 Ghz torture)

 

[theFOoL]

Would y'all think the Xeon E5450 was a good buy for me? I just wanted to try a Xeon after All. I could switch back

 

[TheMadDutchDude]

You would need to modify your motherboard, your BIOS, and make a few pin modifications. You can’t just plug them in. It’s not that simple. Save your money!

 

[theFOoL]

No no it came like this. Look my link above. They have applied the hack/mod and it actually worked. Just curious if I made the right choice but as I said I could easily go back to Q6600

There's videos on YouTube that people show how to do it manually but Aliexpress has our backs

 

[timta2]

The good thing about upgrading to a Q9650 would be that it wouldn't depreciate much, if you decided you wanted to go in a different direction after trying it. You could probably put it right back on eBay or sell it locally for a similar price.

I personally went from a Q6600 to a Q9550 a number of years ago and while it was a noticeable upgrade, in terms of performance, it was nothing like the increase I got by going to a Core series CPU.

 

[eidairaman1]

Capped off tbf.

Time for an upgrade.

No matter how much you cpu upgrade you are too far behind. A Ryzen 3 1400 is a viable upgrade.

 

[Mussels]

you wont feel any performance boost by upgrading, since the best for that socket is still really weak by todays standards. Q6600 was the king of its era, and lasted many years longer than it should have.


Todays equivalent is likely the ryzen 3600, if you do plan to upgrade.

 

[MrPotatoHead]

A 120/240gb ssd would breath more life into that old system than the q9650, the extra 600 mhz is negligible with such an old cpu, a small cheap bump in gpu power would also be worthwhile and another 4gb ram, after that there's no point doing anything else and your next upgrade would be a new system, I did something similar with an old hp compaq a few weeks ago and went from barely running windows 7 basic with a dual core E6850, 2gb ram and 160gb hdd to running Windows 10 x64 now with 4gb ram, q9450 and 120gb ssd

Bare in mind I would only do the above upgrades if they cost next to nothing for good working used parts.

 

[lexluthermiester]

@xubidoo
Seems to be alot of opinions poopooing the idea of an upgrade from your Q6600. The reality is if you go from that to a Q9650(or even a Q9550) you bump your stock FSB from 266 to 333, bump the stock speed from 2.4ghz to 3ghz and vastly improve your OC potential. Having owned both I can confidently tell you that you will notice an improvement. Keep in mind, a new CPU means new RAM and new motherboard, if you don't want or can't afford those required upgrades, a Q9650 or Q9550 and GPU will serve you well.

 

[Chrispy_]

As dumb as it sounds suggesting you spend real money on an old DDR2 platform, if you can get a Q9650 for £35 it's not a stupid idea. At the very least it will confirm whether your motherboard is dying or not, at which point you can either keep the Q9650 or sell it on again for a small loss. At least if you find out your board is dying you have a heads up and can start saving to replace it.

The alternative is to buy a whole new platform - something like an Athlon 200GE, A320 board, and 2x4GB of DDR4 for around £130 total. That's going to be better than a Q9650 but it's also four times the price.

 

[MrPotatoHead]

I Looked at a q9650 and couldn't justify the £35 cost for the age of the platform, I got a q9450 for £12 which was a much easier pill to swallow and not too far off the performance of a q9650 in all honesty my use case is different in that this is an oem machine and I can't overclock so it's 300mhz or so in difference which won't be missed, still stand by ssd advice for such an old platform that will be like a night and day improvement imo

 

[xu^]

Thats my main problem ,buying a cpu for £35 and then maybe another 4gb ram for £9 and whatever a reasonable gfx card would cost ,added up probably would be over £120 , but like i said earlier , ive no inclination to build a PC as its not used that much to be honest.

Even if i skip the gfx card and just stick with cpu+ram its still around £45 ish , decisions decisions lol ,maybe i should just not bother doing anything and leave as is ....arghh!!

 

[eidairaman1]

Thats my main problem ,buying a cpu for £35 and then maybe another 4gb ram for £9 and whatever a reasonable gfx card would cost ,added up probably would be over £120 , but like i said earlier , ive no inclination to build a PC as its not used that much to be honest.

Even if i skip the gfx card and just stick with cpu+ram its still around £45 ish , decisions decisions lol ,maybe i should just not bother doing anything and leave as is ....arghh!!

2 choices,

Leave it alone

Save up and get a legitimate upgrade.

C2D/Q has ran its course.

 

[MrPotatoHead]

Thats my main problem ,buying a cpu for £35 and then maybe another 4gb ram for £9 and whatever a reasonable gfx card would cost ,added up probably would be over £120 , but like i said earlier , ive no inclination to build a PC as its not used that much to be honest.

Even if i skip the gfx card and just stick with cpu+ram its still around £45 ish , decisions decisions lol ,maybe i should just not bother doing anything and leave as is ....arghh!!

Add the ram and ssd that's about £25 then call it a day, next time you get the upgrade itch it's new build time

 

[eidairaman1]

Add the ram and ssd that's about £25 then call it a day, next time you get the upgrade itch it's new build time

I wouldnt spend anything on it.