Upgrade to what from E6600?

[Guest dswo]

A year and a half ago, I built a new box based on Core2Duo E6600, GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 motherboard, and Win XP Pro. Now have 8800GT video and 4 Gb 800MHz RAM from OCZ. Haven't tried overclocking yet, although I purchased an Arctic Freezer 7 last summer. (Still haven't installed it; last time I reinstalled the stock cooler, in hopes that better goo would lower temps, it took all afternoon to get everything back together and at the end of it all my temps were the same. I know better what I'm doing now, but the memory of that wasted afternoon still haunts me.)Any thoughts on a smart upgrade for the CPU?I'm thinking US$200-300, although for the upper end of that range I'd want a big jump up from what I have now. Am also not in a hurry, so if there's something really good coming out in six weeks that will either be much better OR drive down current prices I can wait.

[Guest jimcooper1]

I'd try overclocking that E6600 first and get it up to 3GHz+Read this article it shows that with your MB and CPU (and the right BIOS) you could go as high as 3.6GHz+http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2854Although we normally recommend the E6300 or E6400 for the P965 chipset, we find the E6600 to be in the sweet spot for CPU performance at this time. It has the slight performance advantage of the 4MB cache in most applications, a decent multiplier for overclocking, excellent price to performance considerations, and recent E6600 steppings are consistently hitting the 3.6GHz to 4.0GHz range on air cooling now.otherwise I'd go for the E8500But you'd be spending

[Guest ugotkevin]

Just a couple of thoughts. Did you put the heatsink thermal compound stuff on? That will take some time to "cure" and will lower the temp by a few degrees. Also the motherboard controls the speed of your CPU fan (of course you know that). But because the temps haven't reached a certain level the fan will just idle, and the heatsink won't shine until you put on the heat. Usually you can control the fan speed either in the bios or the software that comes with the mobo. Also many aftermarket heatsinks come with a connector that you hook directly to your powersupply, then your fan will run at 100% all of the time.I don't know for the E6600, but I would imagine that you can get 3.0GHz pretty easy. Try overclocking first before getting another CPU.

[Mace 1,904]

IMO you don't need to upgrade the cpu, the E6600 is quite nice Core2 design.You would not be blown away by any cpu upgrade you might do at this time--you would see a moderate improvement but nothing that I think is worth $200-$300. Instead you can overclock as was said for a nice bump.RhettFS box: E8500 (@ 3.16 ghz), AC Freezer 7 Pro, ASUS P5E3 Premium, BFG 8800GTX 756 (nVidia 169 WHQL), 4gb DDR3 1600 Patriot Cas7 7-7-7-20 (2T), PC Power 750, WD 150gb 10000rpm Raptor, Seagate 500gb, Silverstone TJ09 case, Vista Ultimate 64ASX Client: AMD 3700+ (@ 2.6 ghz), 7800GT

[Reset XPDR 1,271]

As others have suggested, you have the right ingredients already so just OC that sucka! I reckon you could get it to 3.2GHz (8x400) reasonably easily, and possibly at stock CPU core voltage. And get that ACF7P on your CPU - it does a far better cooling job when actually attached to the CPU ;-)Gary

[Guest D17S]

I agree. There's really no where to go. You made the smart buy back then and it's aging well. It's time to spend another afternoon. Install the cooler. Then set the CPU's voltage to 1.45 and the FSB to 350 (you must have, or must get DDR2-800 ram). Lock the DDR ram at 800Mhz and the PCIe buss at 100. Otto (Auto) should take care of this, but safety first. Boot. Get and run CPUz and Coretemp. Check your Vcore and CPU speed with CPUz and temps with Core temp. Anything below the mid-80s is fine. Get and run Prime 95. It it gets through an hour of Prime, shut down and raise the FSB a bit more. Re-Prime. Once you find a stable FSB setting, start bringing down Vcore a bit. Your final target is a stable 400Mhz FSB with the minimum Vcore. Setup Vista's sleep mode and never shut your computer off. It'll pay for that cooler in electricity savings in 6 months, and reduce your carbon foot print as well. Win/Win.That's the best upgrade available, and it's free to-boot.

[jackcnd 0]

Agreed o/c what you have...Intels new CPUs since yours in many ways only just do that anyhow.Your FSB is 266 by default, the new ones are 333 and 400, but you can adjust yours and get a new chip for free.Here's Intels specs on your chip note the voltage range and temp:http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SL9S8

[psolk 3,040]

I would beg to differ...The difference between my old board, DDR2 and E6600 @ 3.6 and my new rig below is huge. There are still a lot of other options...Just playing devils advocate-PPrimary RigLiquid CooledIntel C2D E8500 468X9.5 @ 4.45Asus Maximus Extreme2 gigs OCZ Reaper DDR3 @1400Dual OC'd XFX 8800GTX @ 2 gigs24 inch Widescreen LCD 16XAA/16XAFDual 19 inch LCD'sRaid-0+1PCPower and Cooling 1k Quad SLIhttp://home.comcast.net/~psolk/3monitorsa.htmlBackup RigAsus P5N32E-SLI PlusE6600 @ 3.63 gigs Corsair XMS28600 GT1TB WD CaviarBackup Rig 2AMD 4000 San Diego @ 2.72 Gigs Kingston Corsair XMS CL2XFX 7900 GTX Raid-0

[Guest D17S]

That's all CPU clock, based on the O/C of a Single core. The Vcard sli (if they are) only maintains eyecandy aa/af at higher resolutions, the memory at 1400 will provide entirely subjective results at best, and the raid is a great idea - but only for redundancy. Once a simmer has a single modern HD, a single 8800GT and 4 gigs of AnySpeed ram, it's all about core clock on a Single core. The quad will only help with scenery loading. It will not help FPS.

[Reset XPDR 1,271]

Don't forget that the OP has an upgrade budget of $200-300, which is a fraction of what would be needed to upgrade to your level of system. The best thing he can do with the $300 is keep it in his pocket and whip out the OC monster instead.Gary

[Guest dswo]

Thank you, gentlemen, for pointing me in the right direction.