E6550 or 6600?

K

Katotonic

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 11, 2006
Messages
320
At face value which one of these is the better choice (excluding any kind of overclocking), building a new rig and need some advice.

The 6600 runs @ 2.4 w/ 1066fsb

The 6550 runs @ 2.33 w/ 1333fsb


My RAM will be coming in at 800mhz and I won't be overclocking and assuming all things are equal, which is the better choice for gaming?
 
Kind of need an answer on the two I posted, getting a huge discount on either one of them.
 
If you're not OCing then obviously go with the faster of the two at stock speeds. In fact, go with the 6600 of those two regardless, as it has a considerably higher multiplier so when and if you do decide to OC you should get considerably better results. (...and there really is no reason not to OC a C2D. It couldn't be much easier.)
 
LOL, my name says "n00bie" next to it for a reason, I won't be OC'ing because the manufacturer locks the Mobo.

My real question should have been "Will I benefit more from the ramped up FSB speed or the slightly faster core speed?"
 
Use some software overclocking then. You're missing a rare opportunity if you don't overclock. How often does a CPU core come along that overclocks like C2D?

C2D has been a milestone for enthusiasts.

But I guess if you're not overclocking, you should go with the higher FSB. That should help in more instances than the extra 70Mhz with the E6600. To be honest, the E6600 is rather dated, it's been put away by the Q6600s.
 
CoW]8(0);1031458340 said:
Use some software overclocking then. You're missing a rare opportunity if you don't overclock. How often does a CPU core come along that overclocks like C2D?

C2D has been a milestone for enthusiasts.

But I guess if you're not overclocking, you should go with the higher FSB. That should help in more instances than the extra 70Mhz with the E6600. To be honest, the E6600 is rather dated, it's been put away by the Q6600s.
Click to expand...

I wasn't aware there was a software overclocking application that could by-pass the locked mobo's, pretty new to CPU overclocking (only overclock my vid card)

Could you point me in the direction of said software?
 
:p Good luck with clockgen since the clock generators it supports are all pretty old. It won't have your clock generator and you will have to experiment. I've found that even if you find a close one, it's going to lead to lock ups most of the time and it won't have the speeds in order so it might jump from 133 to 300 QDR between steps or worse. edit: you'll probably have better luck with setfsb if it supports your clock generator (don't hold your breath, the list is short).

A 1066MHz FSB E6600 CPU can be pad modded to 1333MHz FSB, taking it to 3GHz. If it doesn't require any extra voltage, that's a simple overclock: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=132900 Otherwise you'll have to also pad mod the voltage.

I did a "pad mod" on another board but I didn't want to mess with the CPU so I did it on the motherboard instead (it will be different on every motherboard, this is just an example of a 800MHz -> 1066MHz FSB mod):
mbmodku7.png
 
Thanks for the help guys, looks to be a little beyond what I'm comfortable doing, but I am giving another look at the Q6600, just not sure whether or not it will be worth the extra few hundred bucks (because of the savings I'll be passing up on the entire rig)

Anyone know if price cuts are coming by early November? If RAM or CPU's drop by my deadline I might just wait.
 
CoW]8(0);1031458340 said:
But I guess if you're not overclocking, you should go with the higher FSB. That should help in more instances than the extra 70Mhz with the E6600. To be honest, the E6600 is rather dated, it's been put away by the Q6600s.
Click to expand...

Don't agree. FSB speed is not all that important in comparison with processor speed, and the E6550's low multiplier means that if he ever does decide to OC (gets clockgen to work, gets a new motherboard, whatever) he will be severely limited by it. I would always recommend the E6750 over the E6600, as it has proven to be a far better overclocker (4+ Ghz as opposed to topping out around 3.6Ghz on average with the E6600), but not the E6550 over the E6600.
 
Katotonic said:
Thanks for the help guys, looks to be a little beyond what I'm comfortable doing, but I am giving another look at the Q6600, just not sure whether or not it will be worth the extra few hundred bucks (because of the savings I'll be passing up on the entire rig)

Anyone know if price cuts are coming by early November? If RAM or CPU's drop by my deadline I might just wait.
Click to expand...

Well, I wouldn't be passing up a few hundred for a Q6600. They're not very useful right now and with Penryn around the corner you'll definitely see some depreciation in price and relative performance.
 
CoW]8(0);1031459496 said:
Well, I wouldn't be passing up a few hundred for a Q6600. They're not very useful right now and with Penryn around the corner you'll definitely see some depreciation in price and relative performance.
Click to expand...

I see the Penryn is scheduled for late this year and early next year, not sure if it will have an impact on current Conroe prices by November.

I know Crysis will benefit from the Quad processor and I'm wondering how many other apps. in the near future will do the same.

Tough Call.
 
Katotonic said:
LOL, my name says "n00bie" next to it for a reason, I won't be OC'ing because the manufacturer locks the Mobo.

My real question should have been "Will I benefit more from the ramped up FSB speed or the slightly faster core speed?"
Click to expand...


this is a key point that i think most people on this board simply miss. Some people simply have enough CPU speed at stock, and for these people, there is no point to overclock. There is very little risk in OCing these chips, but if you dont need the additional power it provides, why bother?

now when it comes time to need it, by all means, ramp that mofo UP :)
 
Katotonic said:
I see the Penryn is scheduled for late this year and early next year, not sure if it will have an impact on current Conroe prices by November.

I know Crysis will benefit from the Quad processor and I'm wondering how many other apps. in the near future will do the same.

Tough Call.
Click to expand...

At the moment (granted, beta, not final code) it's looking like anything below a GTX is going to choke in Crysis, and... to be honest, it's nothing special, I don't see why people are getting so hyped. I wouldn't make choices based on speculation and a single gamebefore I made choices based on budget. Just... keep that in mind.
 
Katotonic said:
Thanks for the help guys, looks to be a little beyond what I'm comfortable doing, but I am giving another look at the Q6600, just not sure whether or not it will be worth the extra few hundred bucks (because of the savings I'll be passing up on the entire rig)

Anyone know if price cuts are coming by early November? If RAM or CPU's drop by my deadline I might just wait.
Click to expand...



I dont think we will be seeing any more price cuts coming for desktop cpu's any time soon (......at least the investor in me hopes to not see anymore,anytime soon). Quads for 280~ is damn good,and I think people in this community are spoiled given the price war AMD and intel have been on.Rather then a continued 'price war',I only see Intel introducing 45nm quads and duallys at low entry prices,and of course this will yet again force AMD's hand to introduce thier new chips at low,and or lower prices as they cant compete on the performance charts in general.

Intel will continue to dictate AMD's prices on upcoming product for a very long time to come.
 
The important thing is what motherboard are you planning on getting if you want to OC? If you end up getting a good CPU and end up that you can't OC worth poop because of the motherboard.

For the price and a bang for the buck. I would get the Q6600 G0(B3 isn't worth it, 10C higher in temp).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top