too many upgrade options

[stopthekilling77]

Ever since the moment I found out I was getting a decent tax return, I've been in upgrade mode. My first reaction was to think of upgrading to a quad-core system by means of upgrading to an AM2+ board with a Phenom II x4 940BE for about $375, but my money-saving side keeps saying "but you could just get a Q6600 and call it a day" The key thing here is knowing that my board only takes 65nm quad cores, so no Q8xxx or Q9xxx goodness for me.

This being the case, I'm trying to weigh out my options, and it is a painful process.
From what I understand, the 680i boards just do not lend themselves to overclocking quad-cores very well, and I've known that the northbridge on my ASUS P5N32-E SLI runs hot for ages. This is a big deterrent from buying a brand new Q6600 because of the negative feedback I've been hearing, and I don't want to upgrade to a slower-clocked quad and not be able to overclock it.

Knowing my boards chipset stands a good chance to not overclock the Q6600 well, I think of cost-effective quads, and that leads me to the well-priced Phenom II X4 series, whose top dog is only $229 right now. Found a good price on a good 790X chipset board for $115 and that puts me at my $375 mark factoring in shipping and a 1 year extended warranty on the motherboard.

Now if all this isn't annoying enough, I found a good price on a full watercooling kit that I've been eyeballing - Swiftech's H2O-220 Apex Ultima kit can be found for $250 + s/h. I don't know what to do!

Options:
1. Go Phenom II - $375
2. Take my chances with the Q6600 - $200
3. Make my chances better with the Q6600 with the watercooling kit - $480
4. Go Phenom II with watercooling by spending almost all my return - $650

I've been wanting to upgrade badly, and now that I have the money coming my way (tax return should be here within the week) I'm near-paralyzed as to what exactly I should do. Splurge away almost all my return or listen to my responsible side and try to minimize the damage...

I'm not going to rest very well tonight

[The Flying Pig]

2. Take my chances with the Q6600 - $200

Sorry, I'm not too keen on AMD's latest offerings.
How extreme do you want to go with your overclocking? Any goals?
The Q6600 is supposed to OC from 2.4 to 3.0 easily. and 3.6 with some work. If you want to push it past the 4.0 mark, that's where investing in water cooling might be worth the money.

If you wanted to spend all of your tax return, then I'd suggest just going for the i7/x58 and a solid aftermarket air cooler.
A mild OC on the i7 should dwarf any huge OC obtained on the Q6600 (and probably the Phenom too).

Just my two cents :]

[DMB2000uk]

The Q6600's might overclock pretty easily, but the 680i won't with quads (It was in his post, and it's true).

I wouldn't advise spending your whole tax return on goodies, as you might need some money not too long down the road.

So in that regards, maybe you shouldn't watercool at this time.

The phenom II seems like the best bet I think.

Dan

[stopthekilling77]

2. Take my chances with the Q6600 - $200

Sorry, I'm not too keen on AMD's latest offerings.
How extreme do you want to go with your overclocking? Any goals?
The Q6600 is supposed to OC from 2.4 to 3.0 easily. and 3.6 with some work. If you want to push it past the 4.0 mark, that's where investing in water cooling might be worth the money.

If you wanted to spend all of your tax return, then I'd suggest just going for the i7/x58 and a solid aftermarket air cooler.
A mild OC on the i7 should dwarf any huge OC obtained on the Q6600 (and probably the Phenom too).

Just my two cents :]

The Phenom IIs are performing at or better than intel's non-i7 quads, at a better price point. Even if I went i7 with the cheapest motherboard/cpu combo deal on newegg + a cheap 2x2 DDR3 1333 set, i'm still sitting at $554.89 just for non-watercooled parts.

I wouldn't advise spending your whole tax return on goodies, as you might need some money not too long down the road.

That's the entire state of mind I'm in right now. I want to upgrade, can afford to upgrade SOME, but I've got other expenses like a plane ticket to buy soon as well. I found a combo deal on the 940BE with a slightly different Gigabyte motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128384 that will bring my cost down to $317. Also the 810 chip has a deal with the same motherboard for $269.98 so going either route PLUS watercooling brings me to $597 or $550 respectively.

Makes me feel slightly better... but I'm still iffy about my options.

[DaddyRabbit]

The Q6600's might overclock pretty easily, but the 680i won't with quads (It was in his post, and it's true).

I wouldn't advise spending your whole tax return on goodies, as you might need some money not too long down the road.

So in that regards, maybe you shouldn't watercool at this time.

The phenom II seems like the best bet I think.

Dan

Dan has good Kung Fu I don't think I've EVER seen a better laid out P180

I agree that the best bet is to not spend all of the return by including water now. Out of your three choices I would just go with the Phenom II on air and see what happens.

If you must spend close to the max these will fit the bill for an i7 upgrade:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115202
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128375
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820231229

Total is 3 cents shy of $568 (not counting shipping or MIRs)