Late to the party, you'll find the QX6700 substancialy outperforms the E8400 by some margin, even though its a slightly lower FSB, the 8MB of Cache and 4 cores do the needful. Its true that it wont make much of a difference in FS9 (But it wont be any slower), but certainly with FSX and any addon programs (such as weather engines etc) the Extreem will markedly quicker. Also Direct X benchmarks will show a higher score with the QX CPU
and saw these MSI 560 TI's with 2GB and BF3 and on todays Special!
Blimey.. I can get one by Thursday if I order now. That leaves me just enough time to change my name and leave the country
Rgr that Ben
EDIT: The great thing about benchmarks is that I don't know what most of them are On that test, the E8400 beats the QX6700 on 19 out of 42 tests and is within a gnats do-dar in some 4 or 5 others. Put another way, the QX outperforms the E on 23 out of 42 tests and the E is perilously close on 4 or 5 others.. or something like that
The great thing about benchmarks is that I don't know what most of them are
I had a look at those after Ben posted them and thought it depended very much on the PC's use. Speed or number of cores
Hence I would not have replaced the Q6600 in my wife's PC with any of the more recent dual cores because of the intensive graphics/3d work she does where 4 cores can make a difference, whereas I ran a faster E6850. Eventually the replacement CPU for both of us was an i5-2500k so not a problem in either case.
I did get to a point where I added a new Asus mobo and i5-2500k to basket then looked at it long and hard.. long enough for me to talk myself out of it again I'm fickle enough that had I had some DDR3 ram, I'd probably have left the mobo and i5 in the basket and proceeded to checkout. That's how close I was. Sadly.. I don't have any DDR3 lying around (other than on redundant graphics cards which is of no use at all!) so that little expedition was not to be Never mind.. I'm up and running again which is the important thing. The E8400 is currently in this pc so I know it works as does the E6600. Next adventure will be to take the mobo out again and try the QX6700. I could leave the mobo in place but I don't like how 'easy' those intel heatsinks fit. They never seem to go in first time for me and I don't want to risk busting the P5Q.. or do I
Those i5-2500k haven't come down in price over the last 6 months. I bought the Asrock Z68 mobo to go with it - I' don't need dual graphics but thought the other expansion slots might be useful - and a reasonable price. The Asus was another option but not for the extra cost. Neither of my i5s are overclocked (yet!) but the cost difference to the locked versions meant it made no sense to buy anything else.
DDR3 RAM is cheap at the moment - for instance 2 x 4Gb at £21-99.
As for the QX6700, am I right in thinking both Ben's mobo and the CPU heatsink are knackered so you can't try it out without dismantling the working system?
I find the most fragile part of the whole CPU/heatsink combination is those the two bits of each white plastic foot that after several removal/insertion can stay apart (oo er) and hence don't both go into the mobo. Then the heatsink isn't anchored properly so potential for no contact with CPU.
I'm not 100% sure if the mobo is knackered yet.. only that I tried it in the case with a new PSU.. my current HD's and GTX560Ti and it wouldn't start. Therefore, I'm presuming the mobo didn't make the trip south.
2 of the 4 2g sticks of ram work perfectly well by the looks of things so I have no reason to doubt the QX is still working fine. The heatsink/fan Ben fitted and sent is not intel (it screws onto the mobo rather than 4 feet with an 'opening' pin to secure it). No reason to doubt the fan works though it didn't pwr up when the ASRock board was in the case. This of course could be because the mobo is knackered.. it's not the PSU, case, graphics card, ram or HD's. I've tried straightening the feet on the intel heatsink/fan and they look useable. How easy they'll fit into the holes on the mobo remain to be seen.. hence my caution at attempting this evolution with the Asus board in situ. If I choose to use the heatsink/fan Ben sent attached to the mobo, the Asus board will have to come out in order to fit the non-intel fitment.
it was a dim dimm!!! I got those cards yesterday, but im waiting on my new Antec 1200 to turn up today to replace my Antec 900, so fiting tonight the new cards...
Ive been tempted at the combo's, but i havent got the spare cash so thats next year, but im looking at the i7 2011 socket series, I wasnt sure which case to get TBH as i was also looking at the Antec 1100 which is able to take the new XL-ATX boards which use more expansion slots. However the combo's im looking at currently are not the XL board's so i decided on the 1200 case...
Ive had my fair share of mishaps with those intec coolers, i found it damn bloody hard to get right, living and trying in fear of pushing too hard may break the board or the pins... Luckly i think the fan that came with my quad seemed easier to push the pins in... I just have got the fun of transfering to a new case and hoping i have things connected right...
Dave, if you going to try the QX I'd stick with the stock intel cooler. The plastic feet are a bit fiddly but they do go in. You might need some new thermal paste though
I've gone this far down the line and feel I must give the QX a go.. even though it has to be said the E84 system is running like a good'un.. a combination of the GTX, more ram and de-restricting the HD from it's defaulted Sata1 setting. I certainly can't play CoD on it anymore. I got shot easy enough before but the enemy is far faster now and I'm not.. where the hell did that come from syndrome! There was enough thermal paste on the intel heatsink to last for a couple more installations.. you do play it safe don't you
Right.. my 1TB external turned up today so I can now plan and start moving stuff off the C/E drives on this pc. I need to reattach the upper case USB leads but can't remember which way round they went (it's not a solid block but two thin blocks). It took me ages to work out the pin assignments last time and when I removed the Asus board out, I forgot to note how I'd put them in
Hi Dave, take the Asus board didnt have the Q connectors with it? They are sometimes really the best thing!
I got my 2x cards on Tuesday and my new Antec 1200 case yesterday! 3 hours to transfer from one to the other, cable management is better on the new case but still a pig! Now i have my very own portable (not very) jet engine! 6 fans full speed sounds like one then add 4 GFX card fans to top that!
Deffinatly like the new cards, using about 600mb of ram each in FSX and getting smoother frames than before.
Never mind.. I'm up and running again which is the important thing. The E8400 is currently in this pc so I know it works as does the E6600. Next adventure will be to take the mobo out again and try the QX6700. I could leave the mobo in place but I don't like how 'easy' those intel heatsinks fit. They never seem to go in first time for me and I don't want to risk busting the P5Q.. or do I 
I got those cards yesterday, but im waiting on my new Antec 1200 to turn up today to replace my Antec 900, so fiting tonight the new cards...