Thinking of an E8500

[ConTRo13R]

Just wondering is this actually a worthwhile upgrade from my Q6600?

Been pondering this for a while now, and can see both sides but canot come to a conclusion.

My spec

Q6600 @ 425*8 on 1.402V
BFG 680i D00
BFG 8800Ultra OC SLI
2GB OCZ Reaper PC6400

[PeterStoba]

For gaming then maybe, video encoding etc.. then no, depends what you're doing and if the software supports it

[handscombmp]

I'd say keep it until you decide to upgrade to a Core i7 or a an AMD.

If you really want to upgrade your best to upgrade your ram to 4gb

[ConTRo13R]

is AMD new offering better than the Q6600?

[Webby]

Not worth the upgrade, just stay with what you currently have and save towards an i7 or what ever comes after or wait and see waht AM3 CPUs from AMD can do.

Your already at 3.6GHz so in games you will notice little to no difference even if the duel was clocked at 4.5GHz and for everything else that is multithreaded the quad will stomp all over the duel.

[ConTRo13R]

Is the 8mb of L2 cache of the q6600 split into two 4mbs fro ech dual on the die or is it an overall shared?

If so then the extra 2mb of cache from the E8500 will see a worthwhile performance increse in games.

That is what they system is for,and oc'ing too

EDIT: and I7 is a long way off for me, would need new mobo, ram and cpu thats another £1000!!!

[handscombmp]

As we've already said i'd doubt you'd see a worthy increase and with more games taking advantage of multi-threading the q6600 will start to pay off.

You may say that the i7 is expensive but it's only just been released so it will be. it will deffinatly drop in price and but the time the q6600 is starting to show its age it will be cheap enough.

As i've said if anything your ram will hold you back slightly

[ConTRo13R]

4GB even with a 32bit OS? not really worth it tbh

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Your system is fast enough for now!! I wish I had a 3.6ghz quad core in my system!! Apart from another 1gb of RAM(if you need it) and eventually a newer graphics card your system will do fine for most things currently.

[matty-hodgson]

i dunno who worked out 3.6GHz but 425*8 = 3400.

[handscombmp]

4GB even with a 32bit OS? not really worth it tbh

You may not get the full 4gb RAM but you will still get some more and like CAT-THE-FIFTH Ram is currently the only upgrade you need.

I wish i had something like that as well!

[ConTRo13R]

i dunno who worked out 3.6GHz but 425*8 = 3400.

Thanks for correctly it for me lol

would be doing 450 * 8 but have hit the blasted fsb hole at 1800mhz FSB of the 680i boards, been over a year and havent bothered to go higher lol

will be soon as i get back to uni though i have the itch