Need some advice

Wondering if I can upgrade my current Intel Q6600 to another processor.

Motherboard info says it is a LGA775 socket and is compatible with Intel 06/05B/05A processors. I have no idea what processors these are.

Also the manual states that it suports Intel Next-Generation 45nm multicore CPU's.

Can someone help?

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Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....

Need some advice

Wondering if I can upgrade my current Intel Q6600 to another processor.

Motherboard info says it is a LGA775 socket and is compatible with Intel 06/05B/05A processors. I have no idea what processors these are.

Also the manual states that it suports Intel Next-Generation 45nm multicore CPU's.

Can someone help?

I am not sure what brand of mob that you have, but try the following link. You can see which Intel processors are compatible with Intel boards, and visa-versa.
My Q6600 is matched with a DP35DP board, but the board is in the last days of its support cycle, and I will be upgrading to another Core i7/930 or up and a DX58SO board sometime next year.

http://processormatch.intel.com/CompDB/

Depending on if the bios supports it, you can. I upgraded a couple of my q6600s a while back to Q9450s. I had to do a bios update on my Asus board for one of them to get it properly recognized, the other one just worked.

-Dave

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Really, really best to get direct claim of support from your motherboard manufacturer by BIOS revision. I think both Gigabyte and Asus list this explicitly by Intel sSpec code (for example, SLB8V is most recently shipped sSpec for the 9550)--not sure about others.

That said, I suspect there is quite a good chance that you could run a Penryn-generation quad unless your motherboard manufacturer has been unusually reluctant to update. Between the process improvement and the design improvements that would be a nice pop both in total performance and in performance/watt.

As it happens, I run a Q6600 at dead stock condition, and a Q9550 also at dead stock. They both run Einstein almost exclusively, and the current RAC ratio is 39% better for the Q9550.

The BIOS is, in a way, part of your CPU's brain. The trick is that Intel relies on patching of microcode to fix some bugs they ship in their CPUs. If your mobo BIOS does not have direct support for the exact stepping of the exact model of your CPU, it cannot possibly know the intended patch list and do the job (this happens at every boot--as the memory that stores these patches on the CPU is volatile.

Of course, many of the bugs are for obscure things that "usually don't matter", so you'll get lots of stories of people running successfully on BIOS/board combinations that don't support their particular CPU/stepping. But even if it runs OK for a while, you don't know when it might matter--so this is a case where I think it is better to play it safe.

If anyone reading this has a more accurate view of the microcode patch issue--please note corrections to my sketch.

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I would also recommend buying a new complete system. I had my Nvidia GTX 295 card on an LGA 775 system and I would usually go between 4000-7000 points per day (depending on giving compressor cooled air to the system it would peak around 10,000 points).

I bought a system with LGA 1366 i7 with the 920 - which overclocks nicely if you have appropriate cooling - processor and now my RAC goes as high as 27,000. Granted, it has 8 threads with ht on compared to the system mentioned above which had only 4 cores (Q9300) and no hyperthreading. But the graphics board seems to work much faster.

I already burned one of these new boards, but the replacement board has lasted about 8 months now. So if you have a high end GPU, my experience is that it's definitely worth it to buy a high end motherboard.

That said, I noticed that your RAC seems pretty high so my case probably doesn't apply directly to you.

Actually I'd like to know how the original poster achieves such high performance. I thought I had a pretty decent Asus LGA 775 board (in the 130euro price range in 2008-2009). If you compare my scores, remember that I only have one board but the 295 shows as two because it has two GPUs.

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archae86's advice was the best......
Check your mobo manufacturer's website and bios updates.
They will tell you what newer processors they fully support.

Then, you can go to Newegg and check processors by socket.....
[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007671 600005851&IsNodeId=1&name=LGA 775]LGA775 list[/url]

Gawd, I do luv Newegg's website. Tiger has some good deals now and again, and I do buy from them because they are 1 day shipping for me at ground rates.
But searching for something on their site is nothing like shopping at the Egg.

EDIT.....I think I formatted that link right, might be something in the link itself that is not posting right.
Just go to the Egg, get to the desktop CPU link, and click on LGA755. There are your choices, if your mobo supports them.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

You have spaces in the link (they have to be %20)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007671%20600005851&IsNodeId=1&name=LGA%20775

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- ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)
 

You have spaces in the link (they have to be %20)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007671%20600005851&IsNodeId=1&name=LGA%20775

Ahh so.....
Never knew that trick. I just copied the link as it was on the site.
Thanks.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Sounds like you are in the same boat I was about a couple weeks ago. I had an e8400 @ 3.84 and wanted a bit of a stronger crunch + more general power especially for the tasks I run on my main rig, but not move into a full fledged monster. (read i7).

I decided the smartest move was to just move into the strongest chip on the 775 pin and get a q9650. I can't speak on how well it crunches yet as I have performed the swap prior to the work starting to flow again. But at 4GHz 4 cores has got to crunch better than two!

So optimally your q6600 rig should run any of the 45nm chips just fine. You may have to look into a bios update depending on how old your current bios is, I had to on my Asus Rampage, but it's not a huge issue. You'll be happy with whatever chip you decide. I would however strongly suggest one of the 9550's or the 9650 if you are going to spend the money, they are the best of the best when it comes to the 775 platform!

(Side note I said one of the 9550's because you have to versions a 9550 and a 9550s which is lower power / TDP)

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Traveling through space at ~67,000mph!

Yes.......I want to improve the cpu operation without upgrading to I5 or I7 mainly because I am on a fixed income and don't have a lot of money laying around.

I was thinking the 9550 cpu's also. Least expensive one is about 275.00 and that would be in my range. Moving from a 2 GB cache to 16 GB cache. How much improvement would that give me?

Probably hard to answer due to different memory speeds and NB. All my MB are Asus of one kind or another.

Lets see I see empty boxes for a P5KC, P5Q Pro Turbo, Formula Maximus Special Edition and one more that is not easily identified from here.

Oh.........work is flowing in as I type this.............

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Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....

Q9550's are a good chip. They OC well and because of their 12MB L2 cache are faster than a Q6600. For the same clock speed I find they are around 15% faster.

T.A.

The Q9505 is the same chip as the Q9550 with half the cache & closer to $230. It might be something the think about.
If you want to compare CPUs Intel changed their processor finder site to http://ark.intel.com

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