Upgrade to Q9550 or move to an i5 750

J

jakuum

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 1, 2004
Messages
432
So the fry's ad today has the a core i5 750 and a gigabyte ga-p55-ud3r bundle for $200 dollars after rebate ($20). Basically only need ram and I can get a core i5 system going for <$300 bucks. I have a microcenter nearby so I can also pick up a Q9550 for $170. I'm just wondering if I should get the Q9550 and just OC or buy the combo and new ram and just replace my current components. Right now I'm running a:

E7200 @ 3.2ghz
asus p5-vm hdmi
4gb ddr2 800 ram
9600gso overclocked
bfg 550w psu

I mainly game and surf the web. Will be doing some vms later on, at least 4 running at a time for various purposes. Gaming is done at 1920x1200, and I will be getting a new graphics card later on, kinda waiting to see how prices go. Just looking for a bit of guidance :p.
 
If you upgrade to the i7 you will most likely need a new PSU too when you upgrade the video card.
I had a bfg 550w and it wouldnt run my current setup in my sig.. The Q9550 will last you for a while..
Another idea would be to buy whatever you decide and make some of that money back by selling the old parts in the FS\FT thread :)
 
Regarding the psu, it is an LS-550. I made sure of that when buying it :p. And selling my current compnents is part of the plan. So costwise it would work out to either:

a) I buy Q9550 and sell off my E7200 to recoup some of the costs
b) I buy the i5 720/gigabyte mobo combo for $200 and buy some ram for <$100 and sell off my current mobo/ram/cpu to recoup some of the costs.

Either way i'm not out of pocket too much. Or I could just wait for a year or so before upgrading ram/cpu/mobo and just buy a new graphics card for now. Main reason I'm considering quad atm is that these seem like great prices and dunno how the dualcore will handle half a dozen vms running at the same time.
 
That add has to be a mis-print, but if it is correct I am getting my new build from Frys today.

:)
 
If it's a wash price wise either way, I'd go i5, but if it's going to cost you some money, the Q9550 is no slouch.
 
I agree with It_shiro. You should upgrade that video card. However, the LGA775 is EOL so I would go with the i5 750 + P55-UD3R combo. That's a good deal on it as well.
 
I had an interesting experience this last weekend. My friend had believed his P35 motherboard was fried in a recent storm, so we rebuilt his entire rig with an i7 920, overclocked it to 4Ghz with his 4870x2.

Then later that night we tested his old P35 and found that it still worked. He then got cold feet about all the money he had just spent on his new rig and we took it all back and bought him a Q9550 instead to replace the E6750 he had been using. We were also able to get it to about 4Ghz.

In the end, the performance difference between the two (i7 and Q9550) was negligible. If a Q9550 can go toe to toe with an i7 920, I would think it would perform quite favorably against an i5.
 
GotNoRice said:
I had an interesting experience this last weekend. My friend had believed his P35 motherboard was fried in a recent storm, so we rebuilt his entire rig with an i7 920, overclocked it to 4Ghz with his 4870x2.

Then later that night we tested his old P35 and found that it still worked. He then got cold feet about all the money he had just spent on his new rig and we took it all back and bought him a Q9550 instead to replace the E6750 he had been using. We were also able to get it to about 4Ghz.

In the end, the performance difference between the two (i7 and Q9550) was negligible. If a Q9550 can go toe to toe with an i7 920, I would think it would perform quite favorably against an i5.
Click to expand...

It depends on what you're doing with it. I wouldn't say the difference is negligible, but probably such that you wouldn't notice the difference unless you were doing something very CPU intensive that would take a long time to complete (rendering, etc.).
 
I would get the Q9550. Even though 775 is a dead socket, that chip is still incredible performance-wise.
 
kirbyrj said:
It depends on what you're doing with it. I wouldn't say the difference is negligible, but probably such that you wouldn't notice the difference unless you were doing something very CPU intensive that would take a long time to complete (rendering, etc.).
Click to expand...

QFT. Just because a particular user doesn't notice the difference, doesn't mean it is negligible in absolute terms. It was merely negligible to that user and thus the Q9550 was the more logical choice. :)
 
That being said. I ended up getting a Q9550 because I figured I had most of the parts and it was "good enough" for what I needed, especially since it didn't cost me too much.
 
kirbyrj said:
It depends on what you're doing with it. I wouldn't say the difference is negligible, but probably such that you wouldn't notice the difference unless you were doing something very CPU intensive that would take a long time to complete (rendering, etc.).
Click to expand...


Yes

I would just get the Q9550

If the performance were a lot more or if you got a lot of new features on the new boards (like USB 3, Sata 3, new PCI-E) I would get the newer one (even if only a little faster). Looks to average slightly faster for most users with the same features. Just more money.


Make sure the board can recognize the cpu first though
 
Great position to do Q9550 E0 upgrade. Best performance for the money.
 
Yea I think imma just get the Q9550. Current mobo serves me just fine and don't need all the features of the new one. That and I just installed windows 7 about a month back and don't feel like doing another load :p. Thanks for the advice all :).
 
I say go Q9950 for now even they are very popular cpu and 12MB cache is a big plus.:cool:

I do still have new unopened G.Skill 2x2GB ram ripjaws, i5 750 cpu on the table and my mobo is just DOA on me right out of box with bad cpu socket (damaged pins) never ever touch with it. I just send it back to RMA, I was like WTF !!! :mad:

I should have buy Q9550 first place :rolleyes:, Anyway when my new replacement mobo arrives here and give me a deep thought :eek:, maybe sell all my i5 stuff and get me one new Q9950 like everyone else.;)

LONG......LIVE......LGA775 !!! :)

BTW, I think I made a poor decision to rush to buy i5 stuff. :(

phatbx133
 
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You didn't mention being dissatisfied with your current rig. Is it struggling to do what you need, or do you just have the bug? On the one hand, I think the Q9550 is the 4870 of the 775 socket. It's a great processor at a great price. But on the other hand, it's the 4870 of the 775 socket. :D

I really think it comes down to how often you upgrade, and how your system is running right now. If you're not in dire need of a processor upgrade, I think the new graphics card would make more of a difference for you. Heh, that is an incredible deal on the i5, tho. Wow. Is that really right? :eek:
 
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I'm not really dissatisfied, just a combination of the upgrade bug and I want the rig to last me for at least another year if possible. A new graphics card is definitely in the pipeline, just holding off a bit watching the prices on the new ati cards. And yea the deal on the i5 is real :p. Although from what I read many of the fry's locations were sold out before noon.
 
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