nostalgia build Upgrading from Kentsfield to Yorkfield

[metaleggman]

Hey all,

 

This is my first post here, so I apologize in advance if I've failed to apply the rules properly.

 

Tl;dr: Do you guys think it's worth spending $75 on a QX9650 to replace a Q6600? I'm considering doing some final upgrades to my first ever build, primarily as a windows 7 pc to use as a physical "compatibility mode" for windows 10, as well as for nostalgic purposes. I'm also planning on replacing my gtx 280 with a gtx 680, but I'm more or less convinced that's a sure thing for around $100.

 

Long version: Back in high school, I built my first (and I guess only) gaming rig. It consists of a Q6600, evga 780i SLi, 8gb of corsair dominator ram at 1066Mhz, 1250w cooler master psu, Zalman cooler, and an evga gtx 280, all in a ridiculously huge and heavy thermaltake armor series. I recently just got my current laptop up and running again (thinkpad yoga s1) and decided to load some games up on the ngff ssd I installed. Sadly, because I'm running w10, compatibility isn't perfect (mainly older directx titles), and Intel hd 4000 graphics have always left something to be desired. But, my laptops have always been about productivity and light media use, not gaming, so I decided to grab my old rig from the garage.

 

Well, despite a few kerfuffles, I got her up and running just fine (heck, the blue cathodes still haven't burnt out!). But it got me to thinking, what could I do to zest her up a bit? After all, she was my first gaming pc, and my first pc I built, so it feels odd to sell or scrap the thing. My main goal is to use it as a windows 7 machine, mainly for gog titles, and steam games before ~2015 or so.

 

So after doing some digging, besides upgrading to a new cooler and other odds and ends, I can really only upgrade the cpu and gpu, as anything else would essentially require a complete rebuild, which would defeat my purpose. The primary candidates are upgrading to a yorkfield cpu (qx9650 or q9550) and upgrading to a gtx 680 of some sort (as anything newer would require a uefi bios). Both can be had anywhere from $50 to $100 (usd) depending on the exact model and make, used on eBay, meaning part of me is seriously considering dumping $100 to $200 into this old build. Is this ludicrous? Should I just clean it up as is and use it solely as a physical "compatibility mode" for windows 10? Or is there a charm to feeding into nostalgia and doing something somewhat fool hardy? I mean, isn't that what love is all about?

 

And to be clear, I'm well aware for only a few hundred dollars more I could build an okay rig, with some obvious sacrifices here and there. Hell, I've been watching LTT for several years now, so I've learned that much for sure. But I already have a console and don't plan on playing the latest and greatest on a pc any time soon (and when I do plan a new build, I'd want to budget at least a grand or so...).

 

Im fairly certain the gpu upgrade would be worth it, since the gtx 280 isn't a big fan of 1080p60 gaming. But would the CPU upgrade be worth it? It would consume a bit less power, and would be faster, and I've seen qx9650's go for $75 even. My worry would be that the yorkfield chip would be just as much of a bottleneck as my Q6600 it's replacing, even if I'm playing games like Crysis or Bioshock.

 

Any comments or thoughts welcome. 

[LinusTech]

Way too much for that chip, IMO.

[idontknowwhy]

5 minutes ago, LinusTech said:

Way too much for that chip, IMO.

oof

[Fasauceome]

Can you overclock with your board? You may be better off getting a cheaper c2x and overclocking to compensate. You may also want to pair it with a 1050 ti, better power consumption for ever so slightly better performance. Core 2 quad maxes out with a 1050 ti, which I discovered with my own build not long ago, so core 2 extreme should help even things out. Shoot for 3.5 GHz or higher.

[givingtnt]

6 minutes ago, metaleggman said:

Hey all,

 

This is my first post here, so I apologize in advance if I've failed to apply the rules properly.

 

Tl;dr: Do you guys think it's worth spending $75 on a QX9650 to replace a Q6600? I'm considering doing some final upgrades to my first ever build, primarily as a windows 7 pc to use as a physical "compatibility mode" for windows 10, as well as for nostalgic purposes. I'm also planning on replacing my gtx 280 with a gtx 680, but I'm more or less convinced that's a sure thing for around $100.

 

Long version: Back in high school, I built my first (and I guess only) gaming rig. It consists of a Q6600, evga 780i SLi, 8gb of corsair dominator ram at 1066Mhz, 1250w cooler master psu, Zalman cooler, and an evga gtx 280, all in a ridiculously huge and heavy thermaltake armor series. I recently just got my current laptop up and running again (thinkpad yoga s1) and decided to load some games up on the ngff ssd I installed. Sadly, because I'm running w10, compatibility isn't perfect (mainly older directx titles), and Intel hd 4000 graphics have always left something to be desired. But, my laptops have always been about productivity and light media use, not gaming, so I decided to grab my old rig from the garage.

 

Well, despite a few kerfuffles, I got her up and running just fine (heck, the blue cathodes still haven't burnt out!). But it got me to thinking, what could I do to zest her up a bit? After all, she was my first gaming pc, and my first pc I built, so it feels odd to sell or scrap the thing. My main goal is to use it as a windows 7 machine, mainly for gog titles, and steam games before ~2015 or so.

 

So after doing some digging, besides upgrading to a new cooler and other odds and ends, I can really only upgrade the cpu and gpu, as anything else would essentially require a complete rebuild, which would defeat my purpose. The primary candidates are upgrading to a yorkfield cpu (qx9650 or q9550) and upgrading to a gtx 680 of some sort (as anything newer would require a uefi bios). Both can be had anywhere from $50 to $100 (usd) depending on the exact model and make, used on eBay, meaning part of me is seriously considering dumping $100 to $200 into this old build. Is this ludicrous? Should I just clean it up as is and use it solely as a physical "compatibility mode" for windows 10? Or is there a charm to feeding into nostalgia and doing something somewhat fool hardy? I mean, isn't that what love is all about?

 

And to be clear, I'm well aware for only a few hundred dollars more I could build an okay rig, with some obvious sacrifices here and there. Hell, I've been watching LTT for several years now, so I've learned that much for sure. But I already have a console and don't plan on playing the latest and greatest on a pc any time soon (and when I do plan a new build, I'd want to budget at least a grand or so...).

 

Im fairly certain the gpu upgrade would be worth it, since the gtx 280 isn't a big fan of 1080p60 gaming. But would the CPU upgrade be worth it? It would consume a bit less power, and would be faster, and I've seen qx9650's go for $75 even. My worry would be that the yorkfield chip would be just as much of a bottleneck as my Q6600 it's replacing, even if I'm playing games like Crysis or Bioshock.

 

Any comments or thoughts welcome. 

tbh, id say stay away. get a better socket/cpu.

is it worth 75$ ?
not really. 

(don't get me wrong, these are great chips (see my q6600 4 screen flight sim in my signature) but in this, my gpus are suffering a ton from bottlenecks.
and even if I upgraded the cpu.. it woudn't do much.)

 

[Fasauceome]

1 minute ago, givingtnt said:

tbh, id say stay away. get a better socket/cpu.

is it worth 75$ ?
not really. 

Nostalgia is worth a lot man

[KarathKasun]

Id say its worth... $25 at most.

[givingtnt]

Just now, fasauceome said:

Can you overclock with your board? You may be better off getting a cheaper c2x and overclocking to compensate. You may also want to pair it with a 1050 ti, better power consumption for ever so slightly better performance. Core 2 quad maxes out with a 1050 ti, which I discovered with my own build not long ago, so core 2 extreme should help even things out. Shoot for 3.5 GHz or higher.

yes, the 780iSLI is a great board to OC on those chips. 
 

[KarathKasun]

Just now, givingtnt said:

yes, the 780iSLI is a great board to OC on those chips. 
 

Until the chipset de-laminates.

[givingtnt]

Just now, KarathKasun said:

Id say its worth... $25 at most.

id say its a bit more. 35-40..

Just now, fasauceome said:

Nostalgia is worth a lot man

id say no more than 40$ usd

[KarathKasun]

Just now, givingtnt said:

id say its a bit more. 35-40..

Not market value, performance value.  I can get 4c/8t SB Xeons at $40.

[Fasauceome]

Just now, givingtnt said:

yes, the 780iSLI is a great board to OC on those chips. 
 

Get yourself a nice CPU cooler like the dark rock 4, which I believe comes with a mount for a second fan, maximize the airflow over it, and go nuts. Should make for a decent 1080p system if you bump that clock speed as high as it'll go. Not sure what you meant by "I'll need uefi for modern graphics cards" with your original post.

[Fasauceome]

3 minutes ago, givingtnt said:

id say its a bit more. 35-40..

id say no more than 40$ usd

What was the last nostalgic CPU you bought? Was it $40?

[givingtnt]

20 minutes ago, fasauceome said:

What was the last nostalgic CPU you bought? Was it $40?

I don'T buy old cpus
I bought the q6600 because I was on a SUPER STRICT budget for a non-profit organisation that wanted a 3 screen surround + 1 screen instrument panel flight sim for the cheapest ammount possible.

I oced a q6600 to 3.2Ghz on the stock cooler. no nostalgia here.
the mobo cost me more than the cpu and ram combined. and the cpu was at a higher price than usual, but it was the only one I could get on short notice (thanks to the guy who opend his shop on a day off for me)

nostalgia is the stupidest thing for old hardware. it shoudn't affect the price whatsoever on older items, if you look well enough, you'll find someone who sells for a reasonable price.

[AskTJ]

Too much for that chip.

[Dabombinable]

What's the motherboard? Because a Xeon X5450+socket mod costs far less and gives you a CPU that could easily do 4GHz on air.

Note that a very low end G33 motherboard such as the Asus P5K VM can handle one at stock speeds.

[metaleggman]

Haha, despite most answers being in the negative, I just wanted to thank everyone for what are all positive and constructive comments. Let me just say I feel welcome haha 

 

9 hours ago, LinusTech said:

Way too much for that chip, IMO.

Straight from the golden goose himself  

 

8 hours ago, givingtnt said:

tbh, id say stay away. get a better socket/cpu.

is it worth 75$ ?
not really. 

(don't get me wrong, these are great chips (see my q6600 4 screen flight sim in my signature) but in this, my gpus are suffering a ton from bottlenecks.
and even if I upgraded the cpu.. it woudn't do much.)

 

Haha, oh, I've been wanting a better socket since like...2010  But I just haven't been bothered to save up for a new build since I've adapted to console gaming (hell, I'd probably save up for an xbox one X and entertainment system before a PC lol; I'm still using a samsung from 2010 (what a trooper tho! You'd be shocked how well it looks thanks to the calibration) and a logitech Z-5500 I originally bought for my PC).  Hell, when I realized DDR3 and the new sockets started coming out after building my rig, I realized I got slightly boned.  Could you link me to your build though?  Based off your experience, I'm wondering if you think I may as well stick with both the Q6600 and the GTX280, and just overclock the the Q6600 and adjust my expectations   I don't mind losing whatever I put into it if it all blows up, but I don't want to get zero performance per dollar haha.

 

8 hours ago, fasauceome said:

Nostalgia is worth a lot man

Haha, well, not that much; it's part of why I asked.  I wanted to know if it was solid or I should just wait for a good deal, or hell, just OC and clean it up.

 

8 hours ago, KarathKasun said:

Until the chipset de-laminates.

Care to elaborate?

 

8 hours ago, givingtnt said:

id say its a bit more. 35-40..

id say no more than 40$ usd

Good to know, that's more reasonable.

 

8 hours ago, fasauceome said:

Get yourself a nice CPU cooler like the dark rock 4, which I believe comes with a mount for a second fan, maximize the airflow over it, and go nuts. Should make for a decent 1080p system if you bump that clock speed as high as it'll go. Not sure what you meant by "I'll need uefi for modern graphics cards" with your original post.

So the EVGA 780i SLI has an older legacy BIOS (I think it's a phoenix BIOS, but I'm not sure if that's a brand or type haha).  Sadly, I can't provide some sort of "confirmation link", but I think it has to do with issues of modern graphics cards not having legacy and UEFI compatible BIOSes; some of them are only compatible with UEFI motherboards and OS installations.  Reading online, most people take a PCIe slot to be a PCIe slot to be a PCIe slot, at least in terms of backwards compatibility, which on its face is true.  But after discussing the topic with a EVGA spokesperson, they said the 780i wouldn't be compatible with anything past a GTX 680 because of the board's legacy BIOS.  I'm sure there's cards here and there that might work, but, besides a DOA card, I don't want to have to deal with BIOS compatibility issues, so no need to fly too close to the sun on the graphics card.

 

8 hours ago, Dabombinable said:

What's the motherboard? Because a Xeon X5450+socket mod costs far less and gives you a CPU that could easily do 4GHz on air.

Note that a very low end G33 motherboard such as the Asus P5K VM can handle one at stock speeds.

EVGA 780i SLI, dusty but still running strong.  You're referring to the LGA771 Xeon chips right?  The ones with the sticker socket mod right?  Might get that instead, tbh, then.

[Dabombinable]

12 minutes ago, metaleggman said:

EVGA 780i SLI, dusty but still running strong.  You're referring to the LGA771 Xeon chips right?  The ones with the sticker socket mod right?  Might get that instead, tbh, then.

Well you're in luck then. If it was an nForce650i or 680i based motherboard, the socket mod wouldn't be possible:

https://www.delidded.com/lga-771-to-775-adapter/2/

 

Also, with the socket mod its best to use the oldest compatible BIOS that you can. In the case of my Asus P5q Deluxe the newest BIOS decreased memory compatibility, system stability and performance (swapping BIOS chips easily solved that problem though)..

[Fasauceome]

8 hours ago, metaleggman said:

  But after discussing the topic with a EVGA spokesperson, they said the 780i wouldn't be compatible with anything past a GTX 680 because of the board's legacy BIOS.

Got anyone you know with a GPU to test with? it would be a fun experiment, and it's super common to see vids online with core 2 quad + gtx 1050, seems to be a really popular budget combo. It might not be "officially supported," but hey, neither are the LGA 771 CPUs.

[ApolloX75]

I had no issues running my 1080 on my 790i FTW with a QX9650 clocked at 4.5GHz. it's a fun setup but if you can't get your clocks past 4GHz it's slower than a cheap third gen i5.

 

That being said at 4.5GHz I was seeing comparable benchmarks to a stock 4670 in Firestrike. Impressive for a decade old CPU.

[KarathKasun]

13 hours ago, metaleggman said:

Care to elaborate?

That chipset suffers from the same solder failure as the GTX 7000/8000 series GPUs.

[Dabombinable]

On 9/12/2018 at 4:41 AM, ApolloX75 said:

I had no issues running my 1080 on my 790i FTW with a QX9650 clocked at 4.5GHz. it's a fun setup but if you can't get your clocks past 4GHz it's slower than a cheap third gen i5.

 

That being said at 4.5GHz I was seeing comparable benchmarks to a stock 4670 in Firestrike. Impressive for a decade old CPU.

In CBR15 you'd be seeing very similar performance to a stock i5 4440, or Ryzen 3 1200. And when it comes to Xeon X5450/E5450, they overclock far better than any Core 2 Extreme, excluding the qx9775 which is an LGA771 Xeon with an unlocked multiplier, 1600MHz FSB and the Core 2 branding.

[ApolloX75]

2 hours ago, Dabombinable said:

In CBR15 you'd be seeing very similar performance to a stock i5 4440, or Ryzen 3 1200. And when it comes to Xeon X5450/E5450, they overclock far better than any Core 2 Extreme, excluding the qx9775 which is an LGA771 Xeon with an unlocked multiplier, 1600MHz FSB and the Core 2 branding.

I managed to get my X5450 up to 4GHz, but hit a wall with it unfortunately. I may put the bench back together at some point and try again.