upgrades upgrades upgrades

cstX

Hello everyone.

I finally saved up some cash to upgrade my PC so i got a Saphire 4890 1GB Vapor-X which was my priority now when thats out of the way im looking into some CPUs and my options are Q8400 and Q9400 but i havent really been tracking the hardware development since it would only make me all over my keyboard without having the cash to buy stuff.
Im sure ill get some improvement with either of those CPUs as this card is getting seriously bottlenecked by my e4500 atm.
The question being if Q9400 is worth extra 40 euros from Q8400 and what is the difference between them other than 2MB more Cache on 9400 ?
Also i have been looking into some CPU cooling and was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on Thermaltake DuOrb for CPU ?

Cheers

isaak

Grats on the purchase

You would definately notice a huge improvement from the E4500 to the Q8/9400 although I haven't seen any benchmarks comparing them directly, I'm sure there would be some with multiple CPU tests. i am in a hurry and so can't help much with that at the moment, sorry.

I thought the DuOrb coolers were for GPUs? correct me if I'm wrong.

cstX

Thanks for he reply

There is a duorb for bouth GPUs and CPUs on the thermaltakes site they do look exactly the same tho.

simonw

A couple of benchmarking links:

E4500 vs Q8400
E4500 vs Q9400

No thoughts on the Thermaltake DuOrb. If your case can fit a tower cooler with 120mm fan, I would go with one of those. I can recommend the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 or any of their product line.

I built a PC with a E2180 overclocked to 3Ghz, cpu idles at 17/20C, full load 35C, ambient temp 20C. Cheaper than premium coolers such as Thermalright and Noctua but I think perform very similar, it is also fairly light at 600g compared to the heavy 1kg coolers.

cstX

Thanks for the links that is one very very useful site
I used the same site to compare 8400 to 9400 and they seem very much alike so i dont think 9400 is worth 40e more so im probably gonna go with Q8400
Im not sure what cooling solution my current case can hold i will have to do some research into that but i might get a new case too since im saving 40e on the CPU so im gonna wait a few days and see what cases are available here.

Anyway thank you guys very much for replying and helping me decide

BlueMak

I would jump to 64bit OS if I were you.

For most games and applications you won't see a huge difference between the two CPUs, although it would have been better if the games listed in the benchmarks were more CPU intensive.

If you are going to keep this system (with the new CPU) for a year or more, I would spend the extra now and buy the faster CPU.

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

isaak

I think all CPU tests should involve some sort of render (in a program such as AutoCAD Revit), since rendering is almost 100% CPU powered. That way the times could be compared. You probably would see more of a difference there, but the Q8400 would do everything fine.

And yes, in terms of future proofing, the Q9400 is the better option.

What case do you have?

comp_ali

Yes , you should go x64 as you have 4GB ram , in x86 windows can only handle about 3.5GB .
For the cooler , from the reviews and prices I can say the best ones to get are Xigma , great performance for the price.

For the processor , I agree with you , there negligible difference in performance between Q8400 and Q9400 . Even in some tasks like compressing Q8400 has the upper hand.

For the case , If you have enough $$ you can get Raven 2 . about 150-200 $
You can check DH review here
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews.php?reviewid=835

__________________

Bolletje

Measurements are wrong.

You can't get below ambient temp. So probaly bad sensor or your Tjmax isn't set to good value.

cstX

Hello again

As or the CPU i do plan on keeping it for at least a year since i dont have the funds and dont expect to have them for a new mobo and ram and cpu anytime soon so im again considering 9400 :\

I have just downloaded Win7 Professional x64 which i got free from MSDN Academic Alliance but i will wait for the CPU before installing it since i would have to contact my school and then have them contact MS for a new key if i wanted to reinstall which would surely take a few days.

The case i have is a very basic Frontier Aurora which i modified to hold 2 120mm fans on the side panel instead of 1 80mm fan. I am sure that it would hold Duorb but i dont know about any larger cooling solution will have to check out how much room i have when i get home tomorrow.

EDIT: As for Raven case i really wouldnt have enough cash even if i saved 40e on the CPU i was thinking of something along the lines of one of those thermaltake V9 with a 230mm side and top fans. That looks to me like a case that might make my temps drop a bit

simonw

Oh right, I didn't know, thanks and I have googled it myself to get more info (+1 rep for you).

cstX

Well in the end i decided on Q9400 and it should arrive on monday

As for the CPU cooling i have these available :

Thermaltake DuoOrb
Cooler Master Gemini II
Cooler Master Hyper TX3
Xigmatek Big Scorpion
Xigmatek Dark Night
Xigmatek Red Scorpion
OCZ Gladiator Max

They are all around 30-40e and im reasonably sure that they would all fit inside my case without a problem now its just a question of which one cools the best within that modest price range. Any suggestions are more then welcome.

BlueMak

If you are not going to overclock and you bought that Q9400 on retail packaging (includes cooling), then you don't need any of them extras.

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

cstX

Well i guess that depends.
If the CPU does not bottleneck the GPU then i see no reason to OC it. I guess i will have to wait and see how things work when the CPU gets here and i install win7 and try out some games.

Anyway i would like to thank everyone who has replyed to this thread

isaak

No problems man.

I don't thin k that CPU will bottleneck you in anyway although you'll find in synthetic benchmarks like 3DMark Vantage that the CPU score will suffer because of lack of physics support on ati cards.

Even just a small boost to the speeds of a Q9550 are nice and wouldn't require a new cooler.

cstX

Sweet ! ^^

I read something about using an nvidia card for physics in win7 fairly easy so i might give that a go with some cheap nvidia like 9400 or maybe a second hand 9600 if it comes to that.
Im not really after setting benchmarking records or anything i just want my games to run as they should

isaak

and they will run very nicely with that new gpu and cpu enjoy it dude!