# E8600 vs. Q9550 vs. i7 920



## Candy

Ok this might seem like a bit of an odd comparison but I'm contemplating buying a new CPU because I have a bit of spare money and I think I can afford it.

Now before anyone yells i7!!! at me, I'll just tell you what I'll be using it for. Main purpose would be gaming, I don't really do anything like photo/video editing very often, I occasionally do 3D modeling (3DsMax), I usually have a number of programs running at once. For example I like having my own music while gaming so I want to be able to run fairly intensive games and iTunes at the same time. I've been playing Saints Row 2 lately and its either a very poorly scripted game or my E6750 doesnt cut it because when I'm driving around I sometimes get lag, its not the graphics because I can run Far Cry 2 on max and the graphics in Saints Row are no where near as good.

Here's the prices:
E8600 3.33Ghz $270
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115054&Tpk=e8600
Q9550 2.83Ghz $270
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041
i7 920 2.66Ghz $289
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202

As you can see they're all pretty close. I wont be buying off newegg but the price differences are very similar here in Australia anyway.

Is it still the case that a faster CPU is better for gaming? Or is the i7 just better hands down for what I want? I realize I will need a new mobo too if I buy the i7 but if its really going to be worth it I will because I've been thinking of getting a new one anyway for other reasons. 

Or might it be a good idea to get the Q9550 and overclock? Or will the E8600 do what I want? Although they are both the same price...haha confusing.

Anyway, your input would be much appreciated


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## Kesava

Personally I would get the i7. You know how I am with buying stuff I don't need haha. But if I actually used logic and didn't just get an i7 because I wanted one, I'd have to go for the Q9550. I mean you may have money to blow thanks to Kevin Rudd, but if I were you I wouldn't get the i7 because you have to get a new mobo and everything.
On one review the guy got a 20fps increase with an i7 over the E8600.
Thats good but probably not worth the cost of replacing your motherboard to get the new cpu.

If I were you I'd just get the Q9550 and overclock it.


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## Candy

Yeah thats kinda what I was thinking. But I'm still not sure. Did you mean E8600? Cos you wrote E6800.

Anyone else got an opinion?


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## Kesava

Yeah I did mean E8600...


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## mikesrex

If you can afford spending 200-300 on a mobo and 70-120 on RAM then go i7.  You can sell your current rig to make up for the price.

I sold my E8400 rig minus the hard drive and case for $450 to a friend of mine (Corsair 620HX, 8800GT, Gigabyte P45 mobo, GSkill D9 RAM, etc...) and bought stuff ( i7920-229 from Fry's, Gigabyte X58-UD3R-199 newegg, GSkill 3x1gb 99 (currently 69 shipped), PC&P 750 W silencer- 109 shipped, 2 HD3870's for 180 shipped, and a ThermalrightUltra120Extreme for about 80ish) to build an i7 rig for around $850ish total.  

Or you could just upgrade your current system with the Q9550 and be done with it.  Later on down the road you could build a newer rig when newer stuff comes out.


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## Kesava

Candy, you know you don't really need it  I mean it's expensive to upgrade all that. You should get a nice case like the CM690 and more ram and a Q9550 and a good HSF like the Zalman 9700 they have in Taspc. You could have an awesome system still, especially if you overclock the Q9550.


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## Candy

mikesrex said:


> If you can afford spending 200-300 on a mobo and 70-120 on RAM then go i7.  You can sell your current rig to make up for the price.
> 
> I sold my E8400 rig minus the hard drive and case for $450 to a friend of mine (Corsair 620HX, 8800GT, Gigabyte P45 mobo, GSkill D9 RAM, etc...) and bought stuff ( i7920-229 from Fry's, Gigabyte X58-UD3R-199 newegg, GSkill 3x1gb 99 (currently 69 shipped), PC&P 750 W silencer- 109 shipped, 2 HD3870's for 180 shipped, and a ThermalrightUltra120Extreme for about 80ish) to build an i7 rig for around $850ish total.
> 
> Or you could just upgrade your current system with the Q9550 and be done with it.  Later on down the road you could build a newer rig when newer stuff comes out.



That does seem like a very good idea, but I dont think I really need an i7. I would only go the i7 if it was a considerable amount better for what I want out of this system. I dont think it is because as I mentioned, I will mainly be using it for gaming and a small amount of multi tasking. Spending all that extra money isnt justified imo.



Kesava said:


> Candy, you know you don't really need it  I mean it's expensive to upgrade all that. You should get a nice case like the CM690 and more ram and a Q9550 and a good HSF like the Zalman 9700 they have in Taspc. You could have an awesome system still, especially if you overclock the Q9550.



Yeah, I was actually thinking of getting that case.
The only question now would be is the Q9550 or E8600 better for what I want. Cos I could easily overclock to 4Ghz+ with the E8600, so would that make it better for gaming?


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## mikesrex

Candy said:


> That does seem like a very good idea, but I dont think I really need an i7. I would only go the i7 if it was a considerable amount better for what I want out of this system. I dont think it is because as I mentioned, I will mainly be using it for gaming and a small amount of multi tasking. Spending all that extra money isnt justified imo.
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah, I was actually thinking of getting that case.
> The only question now would be is the Q9550 or E8600 better for what I want. Cos I could easily overclock to 4Ghz+ with the E8600, so would that make it better for gaming?



it really depends on what you want.  IMO I would go with the quad core as more and more games and applications can make use of the multiple threads.  As newer games and applications come out, the i7 will shine even more.  Keep in mind that the i7 has hyperthreading and runs 8 threads.  I would go with the most your budget reasonably allows.  

Think about how much you could sell your current rig for as a whole, then figure you could build a really nice i7 for less than $1000 total.  I'm not sure how much things cost or if you could easily sell your current rig where you are from, but it is worth thinking about.


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## RunAway

Does anyone really think the issue she described is because she doesn't have it under the hood with her current set-up? I personally think I would look further into what could be causing the lag..Don't get me wrong,we all like nice new FAST stuff but I would think your current set-up should be able to handle Saints Row 2 with out any lag..Just a thought...


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## Candy

RunAway said:


> Does anyone really think the issue she described is because she doesn't have it under the hood with her current set-up? I personally think I would look further into what could be causing the lag..Don't get me wrong,we all like nice new FAST stuff but I would think your current set-up should be able to handle Saints Row 2 with out any lag..Just a thought...



Im a guy lol, the name might be a little misleading.

Yeah it should be able to handle Saints Row but it doesnt. Its only when your driving around that it happens, and occasionally while walking. The recommended specs are a 3.2GHz Core 2 Duo. Mine stock is 2.66Ghz and when i overclock it, I get a noticeable improvement but its still not enough to make it run smooth all the time. Its not a major issue and is by no means the reason I'm thinking of buying a new CPU. But it would help. The i7 plans are out the window now cos I dont see it being worth it right now, unless the prices go down, which they probably wont for a while.


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## Shane

Q9450 

It will handle anything you throw at it,No real need for an i7 system when even the skt 775 quads are not made full use of yet.


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## Kesava

Candy said:


> Im a guy lol,



Well that's debatable...


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## Candy

Nevakonaza said:


> Q9450
> 
> It will handle anything you throw at it,No real need for an i7 system when even the skt 775 quads are not made full use of yet.



I like your thinking. Im finding it hard to find places that sell the Q9450 though. I'm in Australia remember and so far I havnt found any online stores that stock them.

EDIT: Even newegg dont have them lol (I couldnt buy from there even if they did).



Kesava said:


> Well that's debatable...



Thats so funny I just wet myself...lol


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## DirtyD86

the i7 for sure, i see no reason why you would want to go with the older generation of quad cores for around the same price. during the E8400 vs Q6600 debates, all of the Q6600 supporters claimed it was the only chip worth getting because it was a quad and quads were the future, well now i'm going to use that same argument with the i7. i7 is the future. 

the E8600 is a great chip but i wouldn't buy one if i was in the market for a new CPU. i bet it is an absolute beast of an overclocker, and probably still benchmarks better than the quads in gaming. but at this stage in the game buying a dual is not the smart thing to do even though they will still be practical for a long while


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## Shane

DirtyD86 said:


> the i7 for sure, i see no reason why you would want to go with the older generation of quad cores for around the same price.



I agree in a way but with it been an older generation,The reason i said q9450 is because thats all he would have to buy.. as he already has a nice system.

But if he went for an i7 system he would have to buy a new mobo,ram and cpu and at this current time i see no need for it.

But if Candys happy spending all that money good for him  :good:


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## Candy

DirtyD86 said:


> the i7 for sure, i see no reason why you would want to go with the older generation of quad cores for around the same price. during the E8400 vs Q6600 debates, all of the Q6600 supporters claimed it was the only chip worth getting because it was a quad and quads were the future, well now i'm going to use that same argument with the i7. i7 is the future.
> 
> the E8600 is a great chip but i wouldn't buy one if i was in the market for a new CPU. i bet it is an absolute beast of an overclocker, and probably still benchmarks better than the quads in gaming. but at this stage in the game buying a dual is not the smart thing to do even though they will still be practical for a long while



I see your point, and totally agree with it but now I think about it, the price is really not worth it right now (for me). Perhaps I should wait a few months and see if the price drops. If the CPU remained the same price but the mobo prices dropped I'd be pretty happy going ahead with it.



Nevakonaza said:


> I agree in a way but with it been an older generation,The reason i said q9450 is because thats all he would have to buy.. as he already has a nice system.
> 
> But if he went for an i7 system he would have to buy a new mobo,ram and cpu and at this current time i see no need for it.
> 
> But if Candys happy spending all that money good for him  :good:



As far as Q9450 goes I dont think thats an option cos I cant find anywhere that stocks them. So it would probably have to be Q9550 if I decided to go Quad.

I didnt even know I needed different memory as well, so there's more money for an i7 build.


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## DirtyD86

Candy said:


> I didnt even know I needed different memory as well, so there's more money for an i7 build.



if you want my honest opinion, i say hold off on the system upgrades until you can afford to do it right. with the new socket type out, upgrading to something LGA775 seems a little dumb because that socket is on its way out. save money for the new RAM and motherboard, that way you can upgrade and still be as future proof as possible. 

your current system is by no means slow or terribly outdated, so hang in there while you set aside money for the good stuff


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## Candy

DirtyD86 said:


> if you want my honest opinion, i say hold off on the system upgrades until you can afford to do it right. with the new socket type out, upgrading to something LGA775 seems a little dumb because that socket is on its way out. save money for the new RAM and motherboard, that way you can upgrade and still be as future proof as possible.
> 
> your current system is by no means slow or terribly outdated, so hang in there while you set aside money for the good stuff



Yeah that sounds like a sensible idea. I reckon I'll do that and aim to go i7 towards the end of the year.

Are there plans of another, better, i7 CPU to be released? Cos that should drop the price of the lower end i7's which would be better for me.


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## Domain_Man

Hi Candy 

I had the same predicament last Christmas and decided to get a Q9550 (replacing my q6600). My next plan is to upgrade to an i7 this Christmas or sooner when I get rich 

I overclocked my Q9550 and I'm really happy with my current setup, if you look at the link on my sig - you can see that it's doing really well on the graphics and gaming department. Of course it also helps that I have a decent graphics card.

You can see from the thread (link below) that Q9550's are holding up well against the i7's in this forum on the 3D Mark bencmark results:

http://www.computerforum.com/129170-official-3dmark06-rank-thread.html

I hope this helps and goodluck!


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## Candy

Thanks very much for that mate. Looks like a great CPU and overclocks really well. Im tempted to go out and buy one now cos obviously I'm not going to be disappointed but I'd also like to wait till the end of the year and see what happens to prices on the i7 range.

Good work on getting top three! Excellent rig you got there.


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## Kornowski

Well, if you're holding off for a while, I'm too late. haha.

If you're still after an upgrade, I'd say Quad. Not because I'm biased though, lol.

An i7 would require you to blow more money on a new board and RAM. Going for another Dual won't really see much of an improvement, and probably wouldn't be a justified upgrade. Going for one of the later Quads (like the Q9550) would probably be the best idea. Like mentioned, they held up very well against the i7's and you won't need to replace anything else. It'll do everything you need and more.


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## Candy

Yeah I'll just think about it for a bit, chances are prices will just stay the same. Also depends if I'm patient enough lol. Thanks for the input though.


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## Domain_Man

Thanks for the comment Candy. Take your time and when you've decided, enjoy!


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## Alejandro

Hello
I am running some programs that use only one core.
What do you think is better: E8600 3.33GHZ or  I7 920 2.66GHZ ?
Thanks


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