# New I5 Maybe



## animal007uk (Jan 1, 2011)

Hi everyone, A friend of mine asked me today if i wanted to do a deal on an intel I5 and i will probably end up needing a new motherboard as the one in the i5 setup is probably crap.

It will take a long time to save up for some new parts but i would still like to ask for some info on a good but reasonable priced mobo, I don't realy want to spend more than £80 to £100 and i would rather not have a asus due to nothing but bad luck with there stuff over the last few years.

I will also need some DDR3 as this pc im typing on only had DDR2 so i can't use it in the new setup if i do make a deal with my friend.

I still need to have a look at the I5 system before i make any choises as im not sure what intel I5 cpu is in the pc and it needs to be as good or better than my Q6600.
I will be overclocking hopefully so any mobo i buy needs to have good options for that 

Any info on DDR3 and a good mobo will be very helpfull as i have not had any experiance with the new intel stuff. Thanks in advance

p.s at a guess i would say it will take me at least 2 months to be able to buy everything so the most important part i need first is DDR3 ram but i have no clue what to look for hehe, and i dont want to spend anymore than i need to on ram and 4 gig should be enough.

AS buying online is not that easy for me i will probs get the parts i need from here.
http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/ They have there own warehouse and shop.


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## Jamborhgini313 (Jan 1, 2011)

Sandy bridge

nvm didnt read lol


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## DonInKansas (Jan 1, 2011)

Jamborhgini313 said:


> Sandy bridge



How is this helpful AT ALL when he said an i5 chip is what he's getting a deal on?

First thing we need to know is your budget.  This is the time to buy RAM since prices are down a bit.


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## animal007uk (Jan 1, 2011)

Jamborhgini313 said:


> Sandy bridge



I wish but like i said im doing a trade so Sandy bridge is out the question.



DonInKansas said:


> How is this helpful AT ALL when he said an i5 chip is what he's getting a deal on?
> 
> First thing we need to know is your budget.  This is the time to buy RAM since prices are down a bit.



lets say £200 for ram and mobo.

Sorry i should have mentioned that although SLI or Crossfire would be a nice option its no realy that important so a good mobo with 1 PCI-E slot will also do if it has good overclocking fetures.

I think i have found some ram i might get.
http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=MEC-D34096D16X

So its just the mobo now but i realy have no clue about them when it comes to I5.


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## Dent1 (Jan 2, 2011)

Which model of i5 are you getting, because the low end i5 that are only dual cores will end up slower than your current Q6600 in a lot of tasks.


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## Easy Rhino (Jan 2, 2011)

DonInKansas said:


> How is this helpful AT ALL when he said an i5 chip is what he's getting a deal on?



you can't fix stupid...


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## animal007uk (Jan 2, 2011)

Dent1 said:


> Which model of i5 are you getting, because the low end i5 that are only dual cores will end up slower than your current Q6600 in a lot of tasks.



I'm not to sure yet i will find out sometime in the morning, I will update as soon as i know.

To be honest i will be glad to get rid of this mobo and ram because it never did work right for some reason, I even tryed all the manual setting and 3 diffrent types of DDR2 lol but it wont run at 1066mhz. with the new bios this board is supose to be able to overclock ram to 1333mhz.


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## Deleted member 74752 (Jan 2, 2011)

Won't go wrong here... GIGABYTE GA-H55M-UD2H LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI Micr...

Plenty of screens available if you desire. You can duplicate with pretty much any of the Gigabyte mb's.

You can do this with a good air cooler...


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## JrRacinFan (Jan 2, 2011)

Which board is your trader including with the i5?


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## Dent1 (Jan 2, 2011)

animal007uk said:


> I'm not to sure yet i will find out sometime in the morning, I will update as soon as i know.
> 
> To be honest i will be glad to get rid of this mobo and ram because it never did work right for some reason, I even tryed all the manual setting and 3 diffrent types of DDR2 lol but it wont run at 1066mhz. with the new bios this board is supose to be able to overclock ram to 1333mhz.



Presuming that it's a low end, dual core i5.

Your best options if you are desperate to "get rid of the motherboard" is to sell everything on Ebay, luckily for you the Q6600 is still much wanted and will fetch a good £90-100 alone. Once your motherboard, CPU and Ram is sold, use the same money and buy a AM3 platform with X6. At the very most you'll have to put another £50-100 into the rig with your own money.

If your mate happens to have a quad core i5, it’s a good deal and I would jump on it!


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## Deleted member 74752 (Jan 2, 2011)

Dent1 said:


> Which model of i5 are you getting, because the low end i5 that are only dual cores will end up slower than your current Q6600 in a lot of tasks.



You might do some checking on that. The lowest i3 530 beats the Q6600 in nearly all benchmarks. (And the 13/15 can be clocked mightily unlike the 6600)


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## JrRacinFan (Jan 2, 2011)

rickss69 said:


> You might do some checking on that. The lowest i3 530 beats the Q6600 in nearly all benchmarks. (And the 13/15 can be clocked mightily unlike the 6600)



That's benchmarks, day to day use it performs same. Just wanted to throw that in there.


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## cdawall (Jan 2, 2011)

i3 560 i have does great 

i would turn and sell the p45, q6600 and DDR2 and get this guys i5 and a GB H55 board i love my H55N mini ITX board, DDR3 on them is good clocking get some gskills


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## Dent1 (Jan 2, 2011)

rickss69 said:


> You might do some checking on that. The lowest i3 530 beats the Q6600 in nearly all benchmarks. (And the 13/15 can be clocked mightily unlike the 6600)



Thats not true. 

The i3 530  might win in the odd benchmark, but overall its slower. The i3 530/540 gets beat out by the Q8400, the Q8400 is slightly slower than the Q6600 due to it having half the L2 cache.


http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Intel/Core_i3_540_530/1.html


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 2, 2011)

yup thats true but im pretty sure an i3 530 at 4.5ghz on a near stock aircooler is gonna rape the q6600 which tends to be in the 3.2 - 3.6ghz range

evidence to my conclusion im running a 965be and even at 4ghz 2800nb and a 5850 overclocked and i3 530 at 4.5ghz + gtx 460 could still go toe to toe with me and beat me in some benches it went back and forth.

that said a 965 is faster then a Q6600 any day of the week and if an i3 530 or i5 anything will keep up with the 965 or surpass it means yes its faster then the Q6600


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## animal007uk (Jan 2, 2011)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> yup thats true but im pretty sure an i3 530 at 4.5ghz on a near stock aircooler is gonna rape the q6600 which tends to be in the 3.2 - 3.6ghz range



Correct, On this mobo i can't get it over 3.2ghz but it might be this cpu's limit as i got my core 2 duo E6550 to 3.4ghz.

I still havent managed to get hold of my friend to find out what I5 it in the pc he wants to do a deal on, but from what he was saying its a small pc so probs has a mATA mobo in it.


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## Dent1 (Jan 2, 2011)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> yup thats true but im pretty sure an i3 530 at 4.5ghz on a near stock aircooler is gonna rape the q6600 which tends to be in the 3.2 - 3.6ghz range



A.) There is no review to support what you are saying.
B.) Not everyone manages a super overclock of 4.5GHz, you need the best motherboard, cooling, skill and a lot of luck. 
C.) It doesnt take away from the fact that the Q6600 Q8xxx is often faster than a dual core i3/i5, effectively in most situations it would be a downgrade.

You can throw in overclocks all you want to justify a downgrade but you are kidding yourself about a bad purchase.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 2, 2011)

could be luck of the draw on the chip or mobo eitherway the i3 530 will if overclocked be an upgrade an i5 is a better bet anything in that range is superior to the i3 but no matter how you look at it an extra 1000mhz will make its presence felt in games and most apps 

below is an i3 530 stock vs q6600 now in general the i3 is faster add in overclocking as the OP will be overclocking the i3 will slaughter the q6600.

now if we compare it to an i5 dual core
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/53?vs=144

the i5 rapes the q6600 the improvements in IPC aka per clock performance is highly evidence in games like Crysis where its 2 cores at max and the higher the speed the better the faster clock per clock performance makes itself evident and in multi threaded situations and i5 dual core with hyperthreading smacks the Q6600 around likes its a cheap whore in the medieval ages
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/53?vs=118

the above reviews are with the same damn GPU across the board and in nearly every test an i3 wins let alone an i5 making the gap even wider

oh and dent its not a super overclock i did a bench off with JR racingfan its on the damn forums the only reason he couldnt clock higher was cause he had some seriously shitty DDR3 ram at the time that was rated at 1066mhz. And it was done on a stock fucking cooler so k thx bye.

and let me tell you about a bad purchase 2x 6970s at $750 when 2 days later the 6950s are found to unlock without issue and doing this on and AMD platform thats a complete bottleneck i know bad purchase decisions i make them all the time fact is an i3 or i5 will be on par at stock with a q6600 overclocked its far faster and since the new sandy bridge chips are due soon the OP could probably score an i5 750 for cheap pop into the H55 sell and the i5 if its a dual core or keep it dosent matter really its still an upgrade


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## animal007uk (Jan 2, 2011)

My friend just phoned, He thinks the I5 is a quad core but he is going to double check and said he will be round at 2pm.

Ok if it is the quad core i will defo do a deal because this Q6600 was basicly a free upgrade not so long back so i wont be losing out in a sense. i swoped my dual core for it lol.

As i said in an earyer post i don't need super fast or exspensive ram so i chose some corsair XMS3 1600mhz ram that i might get.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 2, 2011)

the 1600mhz is more then enough if it dosent clock high u can set the divider down to 1333 or 1066 and get higher cpu speed and bring the ram up to its rated speeds if neccesary. 

eitherway i3 is on par with a q6600 i5 dual core is faster native i5 quadcore is superior in every situation.


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## NdMk2o1o (Jan 2, 2011)

animal007uk said:


> My friend just phoned, He thinks the I5 is a quad core but he is going to double check and said he will be round at 2pm.
> 
> Ok if it is the quad core i will defo do a deal because this Q6600 was basicly a free upgrade not so long back so i wont be losing out in a sense. i swoped my dual core for it lol.
> 
> As i said in an earyer post i don't need super fast or exspensive ram so i chose some corsair XMS3 1600mhz ram that i might get.



What are you paying for the corsair? I have some Geil 2x2GB 1333 from my old rig I am willing to part with


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## Dent1 (Jan 2, 2011)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> could be luck of the draw on the chip or mobo eitherway the i3 530 will if overclocked be an upgrade an i5 is a better bet anything in that range is superior to the i3 but no matter how you look at it an extra 1000mhz will make its presence felt in games and most apps




I was going to spend 1hr analysing the Anandtech reviews.  But I already proved that with the i3 540 vs. Q8400 review from TechPowerUps own website my point, I do not need to go down the route of doing a PHD analysis of numerous other websites in addition.

Your argument is essentially a different case from what I’m disputing. I'm not disputing that a "i3 530 will if overclocked be an upgrade" we know this. What in argument is that a dual core i3/i5 is slower than a Q6600 or 8xxx series (as already demonstrated above on TPUs very own review) 

If overclocking in ones only reason to upgrade, one can argue that that the OP could invest in a "better" motherboard and overclock his Q6600 to 3.6-4GHz dependant on which batch of Q6600 he has and in theory he would challenge a i3 530 @ 4GHz+ for less money. If your only crutch is overclocking this is a possibility, no?

The only advantage to moving to a dual core i3 or i5 would be to move to DDR3 and move to a motherboard that has support. But then again AM3 allows the same move with a better line up of CPUs and CPU backward compatibility with AM3+ for cheaper.

People are quick to throw up overclocking, but surely if the OP sold his current equipment, he could pick up an Phenom II X4, Athlon II X4 (maybe even a Athlon II X3) overclock it to near 4GHz. You get your overclocking fetish out the way, move to DDR3, a relevant socket,  a CPU which potentially works on AM3+, whilst being faster and cheaper than the dual core i3/i5 alternative.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 2, 2011)

and im saying that a 965be is faster then a q6600 no matter how you slice it and it still loses to an i3 530 overclocked in day to day tasks and games. so no matter how you slice that the i3 is still faster hands down i know because i watched what i considered to be an inferior CPU match and beat my setup not to long ago and wave bye bye if better ram was in said rig


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## Dent1 (Jan 2, 2011)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> and im saying that a 965be is faster then a q6600 no matter how you slice it and it still loses to an i3 530 overclocked in day to day tasks and games. so no matter how you slice that the i3 is still faster hands down i know because i watched what i considered to be an inferior CPU match and beat my setup not to long ago and wave bye bye if better ram was in said rig



Again I'm not talking about overclocked results here.

 I'm just casually saying that trading a faster processor for a potentially slower processor under the illusion or fallacy that a 4.5GHz overclock will take place seems is a strange concept.


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## animal007uk (Jan 2, 2011)

NdMk2o1o said:


> What are you paying for the corsair? I have some Geil 2x2GB 1333 from my old rig I am willing to part with


http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=MEC-D34096D16X


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 2, 2011)

Jr's & Crazyeyes' benchmark thread

so your saying that hes unlikely to hit said overclock even tho its completely possible with shitty 1066mhz ram and on a stock cooler without even so much as hitting the thermal barrier'

besides its already been confirmed the chip the guy has is an i5 the lowest end i5 650 beats a Q6600 handily  if its an i5 quad aka the 750 its obviously superior so this argument is still moot its still an upgrade even with the overclock option removed


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## NdMk2o1o (Jan 2, 2011)

got 2x2Gb of these http://www.geil.com.tw/products/showGallery/id/125 they're the 1333 kit though they will run at 1600 or 1333 with tighter timings, lemme know if your interested at £40 shipped RM recorded and I will list them in the FS section with pics etc


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## Dent1 (Jan 2, 2011)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> Jr's & Crazyeyes' benchmark thread
> 
> so your saying that hes unlikely to hit said overclock even tho its completely possible with shitty 1066mhz ram and on a stock cooler without even so much as hitting the thermal barrier'



I'm not doubting that 4.5GHz can be achieved. But its still a gamble, if the OP is unfortunate enough to inherit a dual core i5 and is also unfortunate enough not to achieve 4.5GHz he will have egg on his face. Its a gamble. I'm just letting the OP know all the possibilities.

I'm sure at one point the OP thought his Q6600 would surpass 3.2GHz upon purchase.




crazyeyesreaper said:


> if its an i5 quad aka the 750 its obviously superior so this argument is still moot its still an upgrade even with the overclock option removed



Which is why I told the OP "If your mate happens to have a quad core i5, it’s a good deal and I would jump on it!" 

 Evidence


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## animal007uk (Jan 2, 2011)

> I'm sure at one point the OP thought his Q6600 would surpass 3.2GHz upon purchase.



No i traded my E6550 for this quad core mainly to see if i could get my ram to run at the proper speed but there is something not right with this motherboard, Runs fine with ram at 800mhz so i can't moan realy. And trust me when i say i have tryed everything to get the ram to run at 1066mhz lol.

I first tryed OCZ ram but when set to 1066mhz 2.1v the pc just beeped so i sent the ram back and it tunred out to be faulty, I then changed the ocz for the ram i have now but had the same problem so sent it back, This is the 3rd lot of ram i have tryed corsair xms2 pc8500 5/5/5/15 2.1v. < i think it lies on teh sticker for the timings cause on teh profile at 1066mhz it says 5/6/6/18 or something.


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## NdMk2o1o (Jan 2, 2011)

Just to chime in, any i5 will hit 4ghz on most boards with just raising the bclk and maybe adding a touch of vcore, anything over 4ghz generally requires a lot more voltage 1.4+ and tweaking which may not be doable on low end boards, however even an i5 dual at 4ghz is a hell of a lot better than his Q6600 at 3.2ghz which is all he can get out of it if I read correctly.


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## animal007uk (Jan 2, 2011)

> Q6600 at 3.2ghz which is all he can get out of it if I read correctly.



That is correct 3.2 is all i can get.


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## Dent1 (Jan 2, 2011)

So what is the verdict, its 14:25pm now, has your mate confirmed the CPU yet?


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## animal007uk (Jan 2, 2011)

Dent1 said:


> So what is the verdict, its 14:25pm now, has your mate confirmed the CPU yet?



Not yet lol looks like im going to have to go over his and look at it myself, He's a lazy git and a bit rough when it comes to taking pc's apart.

The mobo will be a futer upgrade if i get the cpu, ill be trading for an almost working mini tower my the sounds of it


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## Dent1 (Jan 2, 2011)

animal007uk said:


> Not yet lol looks like im going to have to go over his and look at it myself, He's a lazy git and a bit rough when it comes to taking pc's apart.
> 
> The mobo will be a futer upgrade.



I think that is your best bet. Go over to his and end this speculation.

Also, I'm 99.9% sure that your current components on Ebay + £80 of your own money will net you a nice Phenom II X6 1055T build. 4GHz can be reached too.

Again this is opposed to the dual core i5 variant.


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## cdawall (Jan 2, 2011)

Well you don't have to take it apart if your trying to see if its just a dual core hit windows properties and see what chip it is


@dent the i5 is here selling all his parts for an amd is stupid


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## animal007uk (Jan 2, 2011)

cdawall said:


> Well you don't have to take it apart if your trying to see if its just a dual core hit windows properties and see what chip it is. @dent the i5 is here selling all his parts for an amd is stupid



No DDR3 to use it in, my mate already took it out and sold it ages ago.

I have used AMD most my life and in a way there my fav CPU's but i think i will stick to intel for a while as its nice to have a change.


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## cdawall (Jan 2, 2011)

animal007uk said:


> No DDR3 to use it in, my mate already took it out and sold it ages ago.



Ahh ok to bad your uk I have some old sticks I could sell you for cheap


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## Dent1 (Jan 2, 2011)

cdawall said:


> @dent the i5 is here selling all his parts for an amd is stupid



Why is it stupid, the OP is potentially lacking a decent motherboard and he is missing DDR3. 

With the lack of memory he can not get the rig up immediately anyways. It will take a week to source and deliver the memory and motherboard. In which time he could of sold his rig on Ebay and benefited from a superior 1055T rig.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 2, 2011)

because in almost every damn task the OP will do the 1055t will stil lbe inferior 

fact 99% of users dont run Cinebench all the time or do 3d rendering
fact even a lowly i3 in gaming and day to day tasks will keep pace with a 1055t 

slapping 2 extra cores on  phenom II quad with a slighting better IMC does not make a universally better chip i say this again while sitting here using a 965be.

Considering i do alot of the above tasks id rather have in i5 750 then a 965 be or hell even a 1090T the 2 extra cores just dont offer enough performance when there slower in most tasks besides a select few.

now im not saying the Phenom II chips are bad far from it but while there good chips there showing there age and there toes get stepped on in alot of situations by lowly i3 and i5 dual cores


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## Dent1 (Jan 2, 2011)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> fact even a lowly i3 in gaming and day to day tasks will keep pace with a 1055t




Other than single threaded gaming and single threaded application in general (which I might add that multi-threaded apps are becoming the norn) the Phenom II X6 is vastly superior than the i3 or i5 dual core variants overall, to suggest otherwise is misleading.

Whilst 99% of users don’t run Cinebench all the time or do 3d rendering, 99% of users do want not want to upgrade every 5mins, the X6 gives the user longevity and security as they know that in 2-3 years those guys with "dual core i3s/i5" are forced to upgrade whilst the guys whom thought ahead and acquired the Phenom II X6 are sitting happy.

I'm not saying the OP should get the Phenom II X6, I'm just letting him know that his money could stretch to it if he wishes. 

With that logic, even a lowly Athlon II X3 can keep up with gaming and day to day tasks. The OP could probably buy a Athlon II X3, AM3 board and DDR3 with just the money from the Ebay sale of his current equipment alone. He will benefit from a CPU that can "keep pace" and yet not spend any additional money.

To further add to the insanity, the i3/i5 dual cores could probably keep up with the i7 920 in most single threaded applications and gaming tasks, but common sense will tell you to buy the i7 920 right? especially if it was priced the same. Why doesnt common sense say to buy the Phenom II X6 under the same conditions?  Seems like a bias here.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 2, 2011)

because the price for a 1055t you can get a i5 750 and in games that use multi cores example Dragon Age Origins the intel cpu is still 30% faster with the same damn gpu. sad to say AMD is good enough for its price point but an intel CPU is faster ask anyone whos switched id switch myself if i had the cash but i dont.


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## cdawall (Jan 2, 2011)

the cool thing about most games is 2 fast cores is better than 6 slow ones


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## Dent1 (Jan 2, 2011)

cdawall said:


> the cool thing about most games is 2 fast cores is better than 6 slow ones



I totally agree. But will that be the same once the wave of multi-threaded games continue to pile through.

I'd rather have 6 core CPU that perform 20% slower than 2 cores CPU in 2011, in games.

If it means that in 2012, 2013, and 2014, my 6 cores are 50% faster than the 2 core core CPU in games.


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## Dent1 (Jan 2, 2011)

I feel that nobody even READS what I'm saying. Or if they are reading it, its only being half comprehended.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 2, 2011)

ah yes but you seem to think games are gonna use those 6 cores its been 4 fucking years since quadcores came to be and guess what only 2-3 games actually use 4 cores effectively and effciently so if its been 4 years and were still not there that 6 core isnt gonna see any love any time soon either it will be long past its prime and outdated before 6 cores are used properly in any game.

and the main reason for that is 360 / PS3 which will remain as the mainstream console system untill 2014-2015 before there replaced with all new systems so we still have 3-4 years of console ports.


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## Dent1 (Jan 2, 2011)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> because the price for a 1055t you can get a i5 750 and in games that use multi cores example Dragon Age Origins the intel cpu is still 30% faster with the same damn gpu. sad to say AMD is good enough for its price point but an intel CPU is faster ask anyone whos switched id switch myself if i had the cash but i dont.



This proves nobody reads whats I'm saying:

Yes for near the same price you could buy the i5 750. And it would be a good purchase. I have nothing against the i5 750 as the jump to a i5 750 from a Q6600 is arguably justifiable. My argument is that the jump from a Q6600 to the dual core i3 or dual core i5 is dubious. The i5 750 is not dual core and hence its in my list of recommended processors. The OP should consider the i5 750 too.


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## silkstone (Jan 2, 2011)

Dent1 said:


> I totally agree. But will that be the same once the wave of multi-threaded games continue to pile through.
> 
> I'd rather have 6 core CPU that perform 20% slower than 2 cores CPU in 2011, in games.
> 
> If it means that in 2012, 2013, and 2014, my 6 cores are 50% faster than the 2 core core CPU in games.



So you are planning on keeping your setup for 2+ years and expecting your cpu to be able to still be able to play the latest games adequately?

Following that logic, why not get the i5 now, then 2yrs down the line shell out $30 or however little for a 3 year old 6 core AMD?


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 2, 2011)

still the i5 is still faster even in multi threaded situations it pulls ahead of the Q6600 but were talking a 4 year old CPU at this point its expected due to improvements in the architecture itself thats why a Phenom II x6 isnt really that great it does oc better then the quads and its NB is better but in general its not worth the price premium due to the very few times it comes out on top compared to a similar i5 quad not even counting anything with HT which tends to be worse for gaming. In general the i5 650 is worth while upgrade if he overclocks it otherwise not a big enough increase.  i5 750 at stock is a worthwhile change overclocked more so.


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## Dent1 (Jan 2, 2011)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> ah yes but you seem to think games are gonna use those 6 cores its been 4 fucking years since quadcores came to be and guess what only 2-3 games actually use 4 cores effectively and effciently so if its been 4 years and were still not there that 6 core isnt gonna see any love any time soon either it will be long past its prime and outdated before 6 cores are used properly in any game.
> 
> and the main reason for that is 360 / PS3 which will remain as the mainstream console system untill 2014-2015 before there replaced with all new systems so we still have 3-4 years of console ports.



Then with that logic, if quad cores not being utilised correctly shouldnt the OP hang onto his current Q6600 knowing that is in the safe zone? Like the OP said, he might have to buy a new motherboard and RAM if he goes for the i5. But according to you quad core is overkill because only "2-3 games" use it anyways, so saving money and keeping his overpowered Q6600 is in his bet interest, right?



silkstone said:


> So you are planning on keeping your setup for 2+ years and expecting your cpu to be able to still be able to play the latest games adequately?




Personally, I've had my CPU for over 1 year already, its showing no signs of slowing down. I could probably go another 2 years easily, same with my video card.



silkstone said:


> Following that logic, why not get the i5 now, then 2yrs down the line shell out $30 or however little for a 3 year old 6 core AMD?



He could buy the i5 now and sell his rig for a 6 core AMD or whatever is "good" at the time. Its a possibility. However, following my logic "getting the i5 now" if its a dual core version makes no sense coming from a Q6600 from a convenience, financial or performance stand point, especially if its costing the OP money to do so.




crazyeyesreaper said:


> still the i5 is still faster even in multi threaded situations it pulls ahead of the Q6600 but were talking a 4 year old CPU at this point its expected due to improvements in the architecture itself




The TechPowerUp reviews clearly show that the i3 and i5 dual cores are slower overall than the Q8xxx. The Q8xxx being slower than the Q6600 would suggest that the Q6600 would also be faster than all the above mentioned processors.




crazyeyesreaper said:


> In general the i5 650 is worth while upgrade if he overclocks it otherwise not a big enough increase.  i5 750 at stock is a worthwhile change overclocked more so.



I would say all the i5 quad cores are worth the upgrade, not from gaming performance alone, but from a overall performance.  Saying that any upgrade he does do will cost him in the pocket for the ram and potentially a motherboard, so I'm on the fence because i'm unsure if the overall performance justifies the associated cost.


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## Deleted member 74752 (Jan 2, 2011)

http://hwbot.org/browseHardwareProcessors.do?cpuSubFamilyId=129

http://hwbot.org/browseHardwareProcessors.do?cpuSubFamilyId=177

http://hwbot.org/browseHardwareProcessors.do?cpuSubFamilyId=176

With the cheapest Gigabyte mb's I have been able to easily overclock the i3/15 chips to 4.5GHz even on air...and I own nearly every one of them.


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## Dent1 (Jan 2, 2011)

I think I'm going to wait until the OP verifies the processor model that he'll be getting. We are all basing our arguments and opinions on speculation. For all we know his mate might be a noob and he might have a i7 9xx ready to swap lol


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## cdawall (Jan 2, 2011)

Dent1 said:


> I think I'm going to wait until the OP verifies the processor model that he'll be getting. We are all basing our arguments and opinions on speculation. For all we know his mate might be a noob and he might have a i7 9xx ready to swap lol



Well if I had to guess noobs I would say you cause I would bet an 1156 chip so core i7 8xx


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## Dent1 (Jan 2, 2011)

cdawall said:


> Well if I had to guess noobs I would say you cause I would bet an 1156 chip so core i7 8xx



Don’t get smart,

Neither you nor me have seen the OPs mates motherboard, and hence neither of us can confirm its a 1156 chip. There is ambiguity from the OP and the OP's mate which processor  he has, so as far as I'm concerned there could be ambiguity as to which socket he has.


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## cdawall (Jan 3, 2011)

Dent1 said:


> Don’t get smart,
> 
> Neither you nor me have seen the OPs mates motherboard, and hence neither of us can confirm its a 1156 chip. There is ambiguity from the OP and the OP's mate which processor  he has, so as far as I'm concerned there could be ambiguity as to which socket he has.



He has held its a i5 I don't see why he would get it all confused more than likely 1156 dual core and ops buddy got an 1156 i7 quad


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## Deleted member 74752 (Jan 3, 2011)




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## Dent1 (Jan 3, 2011)

cdawall said:


> He has held its a i5 I don't see why he would get it all confused more than likely 1156 dual core and ops buddy got an 1156 i7 quad




I'm still waiting for you to say something constructive. None of this uppity nonsense has helped the OP one bit, all its doing is inflating your post count.

rickss69, congratulations


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## Deleted member 74752 (Jan 3, 2011)

4.2GHz still on air


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## cdawall (Jan 3, 2011)

Dent1 said:


> I'm still waiting for you to say something constructive. None of this uppity nonsense has helped the OP one bit, all its doing is inflating your post count.
> 
> rickss69, congratulations



Neither is saying "intels dumb buy a 1055t cause 4yrs down the road it will perform better in 1 game" yet you give your 2 cents.


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## Deleted member 74752 (Jan 3, 2011)

Weeee!


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## silkstone (Jan 3, 2011)

Very nice, think it'll get to 4.5 on air? now that would be amazing.


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## Deleted member 74752 (Jan 3, 2011)

silkstone said:


> Very nice, think it'll get to 4.5 on air? now that would be amazing.



Prolly, but you could'nt do anything with it other than look at it on desktop...


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## animal007uk (Jan 3, 2011)

Thanks for all the replys, Now hopefully to stop people arguing with each other it might be best to say i do not want to go back to AMD, I have used AMD most my life so i want a change for now so will stick to intel.

I still haven't managed to find out what intel I5 is in my mates pc but i have manged to get hold of someone who will lend me some DDR3 to test the pc so i won't need to take it apart.


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## animal007uk (Jun 10, 2012)

Right first of all i know this is an old thread of mine but i don't see the need to make a new one as the questions i have are still based around an I5 sandy bridge CPU.

So let me start by saying my mate started being an idiot so the swop never happened.

This is where i am at today with new parts or parts i will be getting.

Stuff i have recently perchased.
http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B004R7MTPQ/?tag=tec053-21
http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B001X017G2/?tag=tec053-21
OCZ 750W Fatal1ty Series Semi-Modular PSU | Ebuyer...

Things ready to be bought.
Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus Case | Ebuyer.com
Intel Core i5 2550K 3.4GHz Socker 1155 6MB Cache.....

My problem is what motherboard to get, I do not wish to go over the top so my budget will be a max of £130. I have been looking at an asrock mobo.

This is the asrock board
ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Socket 1155 DVI VGA HDMI....

I have read this board is pretty good and seems to have more than enough fetures that i might use at some point so i guess my question is now is, Does anyone own this board and how does it perform.

Thanks in advance.


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 10, 2012)

Might as well go P67 with the 2550k as it doesn't have an integrated gpu on-die.
http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B004EXS6MS/?tag=tec053-21

http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B005FGMQAQ/?tag=tec053-21

Asrock P67 EXTREME4 V3 1155 Socket 7.1 Channel HD....


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## animal007uk (Jun 10, 2012)

JrRacinFan said:


> Might as well go P67 with the 2550k as it doesn't have an integrated gpu on-die.
> http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B004EXS6MS/?tag=tec053-21
> 
> http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B005FGMQAQ/?tag=tec053-21
> ...



Thanks  Hopefully i can get it at the end of the week.


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 10, 2012)

animal007uk said:


> Thanks  Hopefully i can get it at the end of the week.



Welcome. Shop around though because you might be able to score a Sabretooth second hand for your asking price. I think the Asrock P67 Fatal1ty is in your price range along with the Sapphire Pure Black Hydra.


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## animal007uk (Jun 12, 2012)

JrRacinFan said:


> Welcome. Shop around though because you might be able to score a Sabretooth second hand for your asking price. I think the Asrock P67 Fatal1ty is in your price range along with the Sapphire Pure Black Hydra.



Thanks again for the advice, I have decided to go with the Asrock P67 EXTREME4 board and should be ordering it at the end of the week if the weather dosen't mess up work again like it did last week.


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 12, 2012)

You're quite welcome anytime. If you need a little bit of help just ask, we basically got the same board.


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## animal007uk (Jun 15, 2012)

Right i have £125 to put towards the new mobo but i am a bit confused between the asrock boards.

Asrock P67 EXTREME4 V3 1155 Socket 7.1 Channel HD....

http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B005FGMQAQ/?tag=tec053-21

Both these boards have a very simler name but look totaly diffrent so what would be the best one to go for? If they both perform pretty much the same then i will just go for the cheaper one but if you recommend the other because it has better fetures then i will then choose the better one lol.


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 15, 2012)

Gen3 has a PCIe 3.0 bridge chip for use with Ivy bridge. That's the only difference from what i can tell.


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## animal007uk (Jun 15, 2012)

Thanks  I will just go for the cheaper option then as i do not have anything that will need PCI-e 3.0

Will be nice to have a hole new pc again, its still going to take about 3 more weeks before i have everything but its defo worth the wait lol, Bored of my core 2 quad Q6600 now so need something new to mess with.


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## Bo$$ (Jun 15, 2012)

try using YoYotech or Ebuyer they are cheaper. try for a gigabyte or Asus board, their BIOSes are generally better in my experiance


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## animal007uk (Jun 15, 2012)

I don't like asus and thats all i'm saying on that, Will have a look at some gigabyte boards but i think i will end up getting the asrock.

I do use ebuyer and am looking on there at the moment.


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## boomstik360 (Jun 15, 2012)

animal007uk said:


> I don't like asus and thats all i'm saying on that, Will have a look at some gigabyte boards but i think i will end up getting the asrock.
> 
> I do use ebuyer and am looking on there at the moment.



Out of all my asus boards I've yet to have a problem. The only boards I've had problems with in the past were MSI but they have come a long way.


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 16, 2012)

Upon having mainly used Asus and Gigabyte over the past year I must say both were just as good as the other.


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## animal007uk (Jun 16, 2012)

A few friends and myself have had lots of problems with asus over the last few years and that is why i don't like them but i'm not saying there a bad company or anything, its just something i dont want in my pc.

Dosen't matter anyway as i had aready made my choise so the arock mobo was ordered along with the 2550k cpu.


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## animal007uk (Jun 17, 2012)

Well now i'm not happy, I placed the order with ebuyer and payed for a saturday 16th delivery and the items never showed up, There was no indication of a problem on my ebuyer account so i canceled the order because there is no way to contact anyone at ebuyer over the weekend.

Anyways decided to take a look on amazon and thanks to my dad giving me a loan i managed to order everything so by friday the 22nd i should get these items.

Intel I5 2550K
Asrock P67 Extreme4 Gen3
8gig G-Skill Ripjaws X 2133mhz DDR3

All thats left to get is the new case but now im not sure what to get lol, I would like a full tower case with lots of room and good cable management but has to be £80 or less, Might be able to push it to £100.


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 17, 2012)

Check out the CM Storm Scout & NZXT Phantom Mid

http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B006I2H04I/?tag=tec053-21

http://coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?product_id=2912

I know case is more "personal" taste than anything though. I'm a mid tower case guy.


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## animal007uk (Jun 17, 2012)

JrRacinFan said:


> Check out the CM Storm Scout & NZXT Phantom Mid
> 
> http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B006I2H04I/?tag=tec053-21
> 
> ...



Just want to make sure everything is going to fit ok, The cooler i have is rather tall and almost touches the side panel on the case i have, The main thing i want is bottom mounted PSU slot.


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 17, 2012)

99% of current "gamer" mid cases today accomadate for large heatsinks. I am a sucker for the Phantom mid though.


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## animal007uk (Jun 17, 2012)

JrRacinFan said:


> 99% of current "gamer" mid cases today accomadate for large heatsinks. I am a sucker for the Phantom mid though.



I think you twisted my arm lol, DO realy like the case you linked, Have made my mind up and will order it in 2 weeks from today.


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 17, 2012)

animal007uk said:


> I think you twisted my arm lol



LMAO Nah man, really didn't mean to come acrossed as that. There aren't any really good looking sexy full tower cases in that price range.


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## animal007uk (Jun 17, 2012)

JrRacinFan said:


> LMAO Nah man, really didn't mean to come acrossed as that. There aren't any really good looking sexy full tower cases in that price range.



You're right and i have just looked at all the pics in the link, Its got a nice layout inside and lots of room and it does look damn nice. I do want it


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## animal007uk (Jun 19, 2012)

JrRacinFan Thanks again for all your help, everything has been ordered and if amazon's dates are correct everthing including the tower will be delivered on friday .

So just a run down again on what i ended up getting.

Intel I5 2550K
Asrock P67 Extreme4 Gen3
8gig G-Skill Ripjaws X 2133mhz DDR3
OCZ Fatal1ty 750watt PSU
Sapphire Radeon HD6870
NZXT Phantom 410 Midi Tower Chassis
Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme Rev.2 CPU Cooler
Arctic Cooling MX-4 Thermal compound
Thrustmaster RGT Force feedback clutch racing wheel


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 19, 2012)

Looking good. How much were the Gskills?



animal007uk said:


> Thrustmaster RGT Force feedback cluth racing wheel



This is what mainly caught my eye the most.


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## animal007uk (Jun 19, 2012)

£50 for the ram.

Hehe i had to get a wheel and coulden't find a logitch G25 to buy anywhere at the time so had a look on amazon and noticed this thrustmaster wheel, Got it for £65 new  Have tryed it on dirt 3 and F1 2010 so far and i like it was much funess \o/


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 19, 2012)

I need to get a new wheel. Got an old school Sidewinder, still works but its so stinking old.



animal007uk said:


> £50 for the ram.



Not too shabby.


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## animal007uk (Jun 19, 2012)

JrRacinFan said:


> I need to get a new wheel. Got an old school Sidewinder, still works but its so stinking old.




The last wheel i used was the microsoft one but that was some years ago now, At the time i thought the microsoft wheel was great but they never updated drivers for the force feedback as far as i rememeber so it wont work in windows 7. 

If you can get the thrustmaster wheel cheap its worth a buy in my opinion but thats only if you want the clutch, There might some better force feedback wheel at a good price without clutch.

Once everything turns up i will get some pics sorted and if possilbe i will try make a small vid of me playing F1 2010 on this wheel.


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 19, 2012)

Would be worthwhile for me to get the clutch. I can't stand gamepad shifting, but the "actual" feel of shifting I like. You get a brownie point for the RGT . Think there will ever be a new GRiD release?!


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## animal007uk (Jun 19, 2012)

JrRacinFan said:


> Would be worthwhile for me to get the clutch. I can't stand gamepad shifting, but the "actual" feel of shifting I like. You get a brownie point for the RGT . Think there will ever be a new GRiD release?!



I hope so as i love grid, Been one of my fav games for a long time and it still looks damn good  There was some talk of a grid 2 if i remeber right and i think if we do get a new grid it maybe next year sometime.

I like the pedals that come with the wheel, There massive lol and there is good spacing between each pedal to.


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## Bo$$ (Jun 19, 2012)

animal007uk said:


> I hope so as i love grid, Been one of my fav games for a long time and it still looks damn good  There was some talk of a grid 2 if i remeber right and i think if we do get a new grid it maybe next year sometime.
> 
> I like the pedals that come with the wheel, There massive lol and there is good spacing between each pedal to.



can you swap the gear stick to the correct side??


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## animal007uk (Jun 19, 2012)

Bo$$ said:


> can you swap the gear stick to the correct side??



No thats the only downside for us uk'ers but im not to fussed


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## animal007uk (Jun 21, 2012)

Well everything is here apart from ram but a good friend lent me 2gig till my ram turns up (hoping it will be today.

CPU seems a bit warm but i haven't had chance to setup all the case fans yet so will get around to doing that later 

I think something in the old pc was letting down my HD 6870 because i was only getting 17000 points in 3dmark 2006 but have seen lots of people getting 20k+ so i ran the test again on the new setup and got 23063 points.

Love the NZXT case to its a nice size and looks great.

lol i must have been tired lastnight after building this thing because i diden't even notice the bios time is wrong haha best get that sorted out now i think.


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 21, 2012)

I bet you are astounded right now. They are nice chips  Oh the 3dmark points you are talking about, it's just the switch over to Sandy bridge you are seeing, it's odds are twice as fast a cpu.


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## animal007uk (Jun 21, 2012)

JrRacinFan said:


> I bet you are astounded right now. They are nice chips  Oh the 3dmark points you are talking about, it's just the switch over to Sandy bridge you are seeing, it's odds are twice as fast a cpu.



What puzzled me was the first graphics test, I was getting around 90FPS at the start with my old HD5750 so i expected a bit better with the HD6870 but was still only seeing 90/93FPS and now with this new cpu it jumped upto 150 ish fps 

Hmm any tips on the fan setup in this case? I usualy have a front intake fan then have my CPU fan blowing air to the back of the case then have an exhaust sucking air out, I notice there is a big fan at the top of the case aswell but i don't think i should use it if im doing the fan settup im used to.


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 21, 2012)

Do your normal intakes on the bottom front and use the "big" fan as exhaust. It works very very well and makes sure all the bad air is getting out of the case. It runs at a low rpm but it astonishingly pulls a ton of air out.


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## animal007uk (Jun 21, 2012)

Thank you, I will make a start on it once i wake up a bit more and have some more coffee hehe


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## animal007uk (Jun 23, 2012)

Loving the new pc  Here are a few pics.

http://img.techpowerup.org/120623/4ghz.png
http://img.techpowerup.org/120623/case.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/120623/amp.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/120623/inside.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/120623/setup.jpg


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 23, 2012)

You liking the big fan? Get your ram? Looks astonishing btw.


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## animal007uk (Jun 23, 2012)

JrRacinFan said:


> You liking the big fan? Get your ram? Looks astonishing btw.



The big fan is nice  The ram turned up thursday 21st and i am running it at 1866mhz 10/10/10/28 1.530 volts. 

Will start doing some overclocking soon but for now all i have done is set turbo mode to 4Ghz and overclocked my GPU to 950mhz core and 1150 on the ram. 3dmark 2006 went from 23000ish to 25200 ish woo.

The 2 games i have installed run so much better to, Dirt3 is loads of fun on the wheel and F1 2010 feels like a new game, I think i will buy F1 2011 next week.


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## animal007uk (Jul 2, 2012)

JrRacinFan your help is neede again hehe, I updated the bios and now all the options are diffrent, Before i updated i had an option to set the turbo mode but since the update that option seems to be gone, I want to try and get the cpu to 4.5ghz.

I was going to set the multi at 45 and turn of turbo but it wont let me do that so do i just set the multi to 45 and then mess with the voltage? If so i seem to have 2 options, normal and offset mode and this is where i'm stuck.


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## JrRacinFan (Jul 2, 2012)

Upload a ss of your UEFI for me please.


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## animal007uk (Jul 2, 2012)

Pic of old bios turbo mode.






Pics of new bios.













I also ordered the corsair H80 CPU cooler thing to and should have that by friday, Temps so far haven't hit over 54c from what i have seen so far but i decided i might aswell get the H80 while i'm working lol.

Sorry for the size of the pics its not my camera and i have no idea how to use it


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## JrRacinFan (Jul 2, 2012)

Change to all cores**insert multi** change to fixed voltage **insert voltage**. Gotten a lot easier. I just needed confiation that your bios was same or near to. Additional turbo over volt to +.004 and wattge limits to like 150


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## animal007uk (Jul 3, 2012)

JrRacinFan said:


> Change to all cores**insert multi** change to fixed voltage **insert voltage**. Gotten a lot easier. I just needed confiation that your bios was same or near to. Additional turbo over volt to +.004 and wattge limits to like 150



Thanks  I will have a good mess with things when i get back from work later and post back with my results.


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## JrRacinFan (Jul 3, 2012)

Ok now that I'm not AFK. LOL can tell it was bad typing on my part. 

VCCSA = .925
CPU PLL = Shouldnt need over 1.79v
CPU LLC = I like to use Level 2, gives just a small amount of vdroop
VTT Voltage = Dependent on chip but shouldnt need over 1.15v
Spread spectrum = disabled unless you get bad EMF distortion
PLL overvoltage = disabled

Ram is "plug n pray". Should be fine at 2133 cl11 @ 1.55v though. If not drop down to 1866 cl9 @ 1.55v. 

Set CPU volts to 1.35v Start stock multi and work your way up til you can no longer get it stable or heat overruns you(heard things are ok up to 80C, I like to go 75C max). IBT runs, Prime95, you know, the works. Have fun!! 

PS: Remember, Sandy bridge is still relatively new to me.... Take my insight and settings with a grain.


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## animal007uk (Jul 3, 2012)

Did a few settings before i read your post, Went to 4200mhz and ran a few basic test then the pc just restarted lol, No error log or blue screen .

You mention wattage settings in one of your post so should i set them all to 150 or just leave on auto.

I also understand that this CPU might not clock so high but it dosen't matter to me realy as i am only going to try 4.5ghz and even if that don't work it will be worth testing just for the fun of it hehe


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## JrRacinFan (Jul 3, 2012)

Set em all to 150. If your cpu consumes more than that then is definitely something wrong.


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## animal007uk (Jul 4, 2012)

I decided to wait till friday untill i start to realy try things, I want to fit the corsair H80 first but it wont turn up till the end of the week.


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