[homerdog]

The E6750 has served me well, but some recent games ( namely BF:BC2, it's funny being CPU limited I can use whatever graphics settings I want, even 4xMSAA and my framerate is the same ~30FPS avg ) aren't playing nice on 2 cores.

Where should I go for a good price on a decent (at least 6MB L2) Yorkfield? Newegg has the Q9300 for $230 - I could get a Lynnfield for less than that.

[Davros]

If you must have 6mb L2 (does the extra cache make a difference ?) then the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 S775 2.66GHz 6MB 1333FSB is a good buy (couldnt find the 9300 for sale in the uk)

best bet get the lowest clocked Q9** cpu as (the ones with 6mb cache) they are the cheapest and over clock it. All Q9** o/c to the same speed as far as I know that would give you best bang for buck

ewiz.com has them for $154

$145
http://alrightdeals.com/Item.htm?Id=S0_CPU___Q9300

Or mendel is thinking of buying a new pc why not make him an offer for his Q6600
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=58460

[homerdog]

The 6MB L2 comment was in the context of a 45nm processor. That is still less cache per core than what I have now, but overall it should be fine. The Q8XXXs with 1MB L2 per core would be a downgrade from what I have now in single threaded performance so I don't want that.

I'm thinking a Q6600 is the best bet. Can be clocked to 3.2GHz easily enough to match my E6750 in single threaded performance. Only downside is the power use, but I can live with that since the computer sleeps when I'm not using it.

[Davros]

mendel has his running at 3.2 (i beleive you can get them to 3.6 on air with a good cooler)

[Tahir2]

I had one running at 3.6GHz stable and stock volts and 4GHz with a bump. All using air cooling and an Arctic Freezer Pro.

[Albuquerque]

There are a multitude of Q9650X's on eBay, which feature fully unlocked multipliers for around the $250USD mark. Now, that may not be 'cheap' per-se, but it's a ridiculous amount of clock capability for a pretty low pricetag.

I've been considering picking one up and running it at 4gig

[brain_stew]

Originally Posted by homerdog

The 6MB L2 comment was in the context of a 45nm processor. That is still less cache per core than what I have now, but overall it should be fine. The Q8XXXs with 1MB L2 per core would be a downgrade from what I have now in single threaded performance so I don't want that.

I'm thinking a Q6600 is the best bet. Can be clocked to 3.2GHz easily enough to match my E6750 in single threaded performance. Only downside is the power use, but I can live with that since the computer sleeps when I'm not using it.

I was in a similar predicament and went with a cheap, used Q6600 and I couldn't be happier. I've got it clocked to 3.4ghz on budget air and it works fantastically.

[swaaye]

My dumb Gigabyte P35-DS3R mobo undervolts my Q6600 to 1.18v on default settings. I can only get it to 3.0 GHz this way. I can set the voltage manually but that locks Speedstep's voltage too.

Also, I've managed to fry my 4-pin power connector. One day (after ~a year of running the box) the computer turned off for no apparent reason and I found that connector cooked. I had to get out some needle files and clean up what's left of it and crimp the connectors a bit. I actually considered just soldering the power wires to the mobo... Best to find a mobo with the 8-pin CPU power plug.

But I've had this machine since mid 2008 and it's still working great.

[homerdog]

You run Speedstep on an overclocked CPU? Interesting.

I disabled the power saving features on my E6750, but I was able to clock it at 3.2GHz while undervolted. I got a great chip.

[ShaidarHaran]

If you have a Micro Center nearby I suggest you stop in and pick up a Q9550 for $179. I got mine a little over a year ago for only $169 and have had it running at 4GHz ever since. No desire to upgrade to a faster CPU, excepting purely for bragging rights.

[homerdog]

I see they have the Q9300 for $140. In store pickup only though and it's a long way to Atlanta.

Still mulling this over, I can't believe it's this difficult to find a decently priced Core 2 Quad.

[swaaye]

Well maybe you should just stick with the C2D for now and pick up something new from the next chip generation...

Originally Posted by homerdog

You run Speedstep on an overclocked CPU? Interesting.

Yup. I always keep the power saving stuff enabled because the computer spends most of its time idle.

It's annoying that the BIOS doesn't give more control over how Speedstep behaves. With AMD CPUs you can make your own clock/voltage steps with various 3rd party programs (K10stat, RMClock, PhenomMSRTweaker, etc). There really isn't anything for Core 2 CPUs.