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Worth Upgrading e6850?

S

Subliminal

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 15, 2004
Messages
158
Hey folks,

So my system is a few years old now and has been working great, but for some reason I've gotten bitten by the upgrade bug.

I have an e6850 that's been stable at 3.4 Ghz for over a year now. Hums along pretty good.

I've been eyeballing a few different processors, but was wondering if it's even worth it.

The majority of what I do is internet, downloading, decompressing, watching 720P video, rinse repeat. I do a little Illustrator and Photoshop here and there, but no real gaming. Occasionally I'll find a game I like and play it (FEAR2 was probably the last one, lol).

Anyway, I think I know the answer, but figured I'd pose the question.

Thanks,

damon
 
A new CPU would help in decompressing large files, Illustrator and Photoshop and when you game (depending on your GPU).

If you can get a decent price for your E6850 on Ebay or something, it might be worth swapping it out for a used Q6600. You're probably only looking at a price difference of ~$50, which is a great upgrade since you'll be doubling your core count.
 
You could also try to sell your 6850 on here. If you have a local microcenter, and if your mobo supports yorkfields you could pick up a q8300 @ 90$ new. Q6600s (G0s) go for about 110$ shipped.
 
iwanthats said:
You could also try to sell your 6850 on here. If you have a local microcenter, and if your mobo supports yorkfields you could pick up a q8300 @ 90$ new. Q6600s (G0s) go for about 110$ shipped.
Click to expand...

That's a great price for the Q8300. Definitely a worthy alternative to the Q6600, even if its a little slower at stock, and harder to overclock due to the low default multi.
 
I'm in the same boat debating just waiting out for the next release early next year or just spending the 90 bucks now and maybe having it last me till the end of next year..... touch call
 
If your C2D at 3.4 GHz is doing what you want it to do right now, I'd wait a bit. You can always look an see if you're actually utilizing both cores at 100% while you're decompressing video and working in Photoshop.

Wait until January and see if Sandy Bridge comes out. When it does, look on the for sale forums here and get a cheap i7 setup from someone else with the upgrade bug too!
 
Thanks, guys.

I think I'll probably just sit tight for a while. It doesn't seem like it makes much sense to upgrade without going to the new 'i' core line, and financially I'm not sure if that makes any sense to me yet.
 
i'd just wait it out, a C2D at anything above 3.0ghz is going to do exactly what you described just fine. there is no need for an upgrade. my i7-920 never goes above 30% usage unless im folding, i'll have multiple firefox sessions, itunes, extracting, file xfer, while watching a video and it still won't breach 30%. i couldn't image you'd feel like an upgrade would be worth the money. if i wouldn't have been robed recently i would still be rocking my q9450 with sli gtx 260 216's... and wouldn't even consider an upgrade.
 
I'm in the exact same boat, except using an e6750. I've had a whole system in my NewEgg shopping cart for weeks now but just can't bring myself to pull the trigger. I'm only really playing BFBC2 presently and despite my CPU being maxed out when playing that game, the graphics performance albeit not at maximum, is definitely playable for me on 8800GTs in SLI. I'll probably wait until after the holidays to see what SandyBridge has to offer along with what new video cards are out and spend some Xmas monies on a new system.
 
i would definitely recommend against going with a q8300.. if your going to drop ~$100 you might as well just upgrade your mobo/ram/cpu for ~$250-300 and see a real performance increase.
 
I upgraded my e7200@3.4 to a Q6600@3.2, and I notice a pretty big difference. I've mostly been playing fallout lately, but the game seems a lot smoother. I'm running with a 1GB 460@850.

It could be in my head, but the $100 for a used Q6600 was a great deal. Now I just have to see if I can flip my e7200 for $40 or so making it a $60 upgrade :)
 
Well, I've been playing a little Black Ops and it seems to run fairly well on my computer...although not at 1920x1200, that's for sure!
 
Yeah, for gaming the E6850 will do fine, you won't see a huge huge benefit from upgrading to a quad. Now compressing\decompressing and rendering images, with that you would see a pretty good boost. As far as BO at 1920x1200, at that resolution the choke is generally more on your video card than your processor.
 
Yeah, I know. Just can't justify upgrading the video card when it works titties for everything except high res gaming (poor old 9600 GT).

I'm holding out for a while. I'll probably wait until the next gen comes out and then buy something of the current gen for less...that's kind of my thing. ;)
 
I went from an E6850@3.4GHz to a Q9550@3.8GHz myself. Everything is snappier overall, however I do game a lot so it was worth it to me. For your use I don't think I would bother.
 
Well, I did some tuning on my system. My mobo didn't like 4 sticks of ram (not a ram problem...more a mobo problem) so I purchased 2x2GB sticks.

I overclocked to 3.5, tuned up the memory and started playing black ops. After about 2 crashes, I settled at a very stable 3.3 Ghz and the memory trumped up a bit. I installed Tuneup Utilities 2011 and let it do its thing, and now she's snappy as can be!

My scores on the Windows Performance Index are all 6.7-6.9...except my ol WD Black 640 GB is a solid 5.9.

So, I think you're right...the best upgrade for me right now would be in the HD dept.
 
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