Intel Core 2 Quad 9550 or Core 2 Duo 8600 for games...

[Powderhound]

Intel are already changing to socket 1366, and upgrading to DDR3 will require a new motherboard; despite this it provides little advantage at the moment.

[EarlGrey]

Not going to notice much with quad core, but if you do buy a new CPU you'd be daft not to get a quad, as when games thread properly you'll get so much more benefit from them.

ATI 4870 has to be best bang for buck/ future proofed at the moment, would get much more benefit from that than a new CPU.

btw, I noticed a few days ago that Football Manager 2008 utilises four cores extremely well. Maxing out all four cores of a Q6600@3.4GHz whilst calculating matches (under Vista x64 - but shouldn't make a difference)

[Webby]

Well in a slight divergence to what I have said previously maybe the is benefit from getting a faster processor see this review http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=770&p=0

But you have to remember that they are using the fastest single graphics card you can buy in the majority of cases (I would guess anything less than a 4870X2) you will probably still be GPU bound.

As an interesting point quads seem to fair better than duels (at the same clock speed and at much reduced clcok speeds as well) contrie to what has generally been accepted.

EDIT: Having looked at the results a bit closer in the five games a stock clocked Q6600 (2.4GHz) would give the same performance as a E8600 (3.33GHz) in everything except Supreme Commander, considering the price difference (£50 in favour of the Quad) I would go for the quad every time.

[retroborg]

Ok, so I bought the:
Intel Core 2 Quad 9550 (s775/2,83GHZ)
Cache Memory L2 12MB
FSB1333 MHz
45 nmicron

The CPU was recognized properly by my motherboard and the FSB was set to 1333MHz. (as shown in the Bios info)
How ever, in the Bios DRAM Frequency menu, I can now only choose from the following frequencies: DDR-2: 667MHZ, 833MHZ, 1000MHZ, 1111MHZ, 1333MHZ
My current DDR-2 is the KINGSTON KHX6400D2/1G HYPERX 1GB PC6400 800MHZ, (2GB)
http://www.e-shop.gr/show_per.phtml?id=PER.554789
but the 800MHZ is not even listed in the menu, so I have downgraded it by selecting the 667MHz. “DRAM Frequency: Auto” & “CPU Frequency: Auto” if the AI tuning is set to manual, then the PCU frequency is set to 333.

Also, in the CPU settings menu:
“Ratio actual value: 8.5”
“CPU Ratio Settings: Auto”

Also, in CPU-Z 1.47 tool, in the memory timings menu the FSB : DRAM is 1:1

Is there a way to set my DDR-2 to 800MHZ?

If not, I was thinking about upgrading the Ram to this DDR-2 and set it to 1000MHZ in the Bios, in order to have the most out of it.
CellShock Ram 2GB Kit DDR2 1000MHZ 4-4-4-12
http://www.plaisio.gr/product.aspx?p...727&catalog=20
The timing 4-4-4-12 is better than my current 5-5-5-15.

However I noticed that this Ram’s Operating Voltage is 2,20V, where as the Supply Voltage of my current Kingston 800MHz DDR-2 Ram is 1.95V. So I’m not sure if it will work on my M/B?!

Any help will be appreciated!
Thanks in advance

[Webby]

Just set your current RAM to run at 833MHz should be able to handle that easily.

Just to check is your motherboard BIOS the latest revision? As I would have expected you to have been able to set a divider for 800MHz and 1066MHz

Finally your motherboard should have DDR2 voltage control somewhere check what the options are if they state +0.1v +0.2v etc then the starting voltage is 1.8v so if you needed 2.1v for example you would choose the +0.3v option.

[retroborg]

Yeah I have updated the M/B Bios to the latest revision, but I have not been able to set a divider for 800MHz and 1066MHz...
Not sure what's the correct ratio to set it to...?!

I checked the DDR2 memory voltage control and my board supports: 1.80v, 1.90v, 2.00v & 2.10v.
However most of the newer DDR-2s 1066MHZ seem to require 2.2v, so my guess is that they wont work on M/B?
For example: KINGSTON KHX8500D2/1G HYPERX DDR2 1GB PC8500 1066MHZ
http://www.e-shop.gr/show_per.phtml?id=PER.553808

As for the CellShock Ram 2GB Kit DDR2 1000MHZ 4-4-4-12, it is rated to run 4-4-4-12 at 2.1-2.3v
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/464/2/
So, I'm not sure how it will work on my M/B?

[Webby]

You can find plenty of 1066MHz RAM that runs at 2.1v

My OCZ flex 1150MHz runs at 2.1v

The corsair Dominator at least the 4GB (2x 2GB kits) require 2.1v http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=849755

So does the OCZ Platinum 4GB kit http://www.ocztechnology.com/product...n_dual_channel

I would expect that the older memory will require higher voltages and also memory with lower timings are going to require more.