Currently, I have the e6600 running at 3.15 gHz and am considering an upgrade.

What's the best CPU I can put in the 680i SLI board?  What kind of performance / overclocking increases would I see?

Should I stick with what I have?  Or move on?

I'm concerned that the games I'm playing (GTA4, Stalker CS, Oblivion) are wanting more CPU power.  I'm running an 8800GTX but am also considering upgrading to a HD 4890.

Thoughts?  And, what is the best CPU for the board, of course. 

I would opt for the e8400 (bios flash needed) which most can get to 3.6-4.0 easily and go for the dx11 5770 instead.  If you want a quad, a used q6600 is the way to go since most can easily reach 3.2-3.4.

lascivious1

killerrig

I would opt for the e8400 (bios flash needed) which most can get to 3.6-4.0 easily and go for the dx11 5770 instead.  If you want a quad, a used q6600 is the way to go since most can easily reach 3.2-3.4.

+1
i have a 680I mobo and just installed a E8400 and jumped it to 4ghz no problem. i even had it stable at 4.5 on air but dropped it back. dont really need 4.5 at the moment so i saw no reason for it jyst wanted to test and see if i could crank it like that 
 
BTW update bios to P33 before installing E8400 if you decide

 
+2
Go for the E8400 and overclock it to 4ghz. Most game dont use 4 cores and like it was mention update your bios first.

E8400 all the way     the q6600 is junk         E8400 can easily get to 4ghz on air and they are inexpensive

So, I guess I missed the boat because I have had the setup in my picture for the last year or so. Is there something I'm missing or is my CPU not supposed to be working?

Hi everyone. I'm actually wondering about this exact issue. I have this board with a Geforce 8600 GTS and am thinking about upgrade choices on a budget, which don't include ditching the board and buying a X58 right away (I live in Venezuela and we're limited on the amount of dollars we can spend each year. It sucks, I know.)

I use FSX which is very processor intensive rather than GPU, but I really don't know whether to choose a quad core (and take the risk with a Q9xx) without really knowing if FSX and other games will take advantage of it, or choose an E8x00 (is the top one -E8600- worth it?), overclock the living daylights out of it and keep this PC for as long as I can manage to keep it running ok.
I could really use some suggestions, please (although I'm not trying to hijack diznanl's thread, really.)

kenshin23

Hi everyone. I'm actually wondering about this exact issue. I have this board with a Geforce 8600 GTS and am thinking about upgrade choices on a budget, which don't include ditching the board and buying a X58 right away (I live in Venezuela and we're limited on the amount of dollars we can spend each year. It sucks, I know.)

I use FSX which is very processor intensive rather than GPU, but I really don't know whether to choose a quad core (and take the risk with a Q9xx) without really knowing if FSX and other games will take advantage of it, or choose an E8x00 (is the top one -E8600- worth it?), overclock the living daylights out of it and keep this PC for as long as I can manage to keep it running ok.
I could really use some suggestions, please (although I'm not trying to hijack diznanl's thread, really.)

I too love FSX and am looking into upgrading to the 1366s/Gulftown CPUs...when better hardware comes out and prices come down. To answer your question, The flight sim crew have said that FSX will scale to something like 256 cores (Scroll about 2/3rds down the page to the section labeled 'Multi-core Performance Work', and read the end of the last paragraph).
 
Tom's Hardware did a write-up on the new ATI 5xxx cards and FSX was one of the games used. Here is the link for your reading pleasure.
 
Hope that helps.

cschaffer, if I understand, you have the  680i?
 
the 680i does not support the Q9xxx quads core at all........ so you would have to get a E8xxx 

Hey Guys, 
 
I'm looking to do exactly the same...  My system is getting on for 3 years old now and I can't really afford to go the way if the i7 just yet.   I've had my  E4500 clocked at 3.2GHz since day one and it's done the job nicely.  I've had to replace the GPU's (one of my SLI 8800 GTX cooked it's self) so I now have a GTX285 as primary and the 2nd 8800GTX as a physics card.
 
I did try a Q6600 for a day or two last year and it was just so unstable - even running at it's native clock speeds! - Something to do with the revision of my main board!?  So I'm guessing I'll drop in a better Dual Core processor, something with a 1333 FSB.
 
eBuyer have the CPU's listed at;
E8400  £135
E8500  £158
E8600  £221
 
The most popular CPU seems to be the E8400 by far.  Bearing in mind that I'm mainly playing CoD: Black Ops, is the jump from my current E4500 to the E8400 really worth £135 or should I just hold on to the money and use it to upgrade my rig in 12 months?
 
Much appreciate peoples view and experiences on this, Thanks!

HI i have the Evga 122-ck-nf68 t1 mobo / Nvida 680i sli chipset with intel E6850 cpu stock settings dual evga Geforce 8800gts vga cards and dual 320 gb hdd striped and a 750 wt psu  8 gb pc6400 ddr3 memory running Vista Home Prem. 32 bit. I would like to buy the E8600 cpu for the upgrade purpose but after reading the post here im confused to what cpu to buy (money is not a factor in this upgrade ) I just want the best cpu i can buy for the speed with my current rig.

can i put cpu-z specs on here
 

What exactly are you looking to do Rage?
Are you just gaming or doing things such as video encoding or photoshop sometimes as well.
Don't personally think the E8600 would be that much of a performance boost over your E6850 unless you overclock the E8600 quite a bit (3.8GHz or above)
I'd go with a E8400 myself if I really had to as that is $100 cheaper then the E8600 and can usually overclock to 3.8GHz or above.
 
Your best bet would be to wait a couple months and upgrade to socket 1155, that would probably be only around $350 more over the price of a E8400 and 100 to 200 more then a E8600.
All you'd really need is the CPU, motherboard and memory. Oh and a new CPU cooler if your going to be overclocking. Those three main things will be a big performance gain over your current 680i, E6850 and DDR2.
 
P.S. Yes you can upload a snapshot/pic of your CPU-z if you feel the need.  If your using Win 7 you can use the Snipping tool to easily get the pic needed and then upload/attach it to your post.

Does these settings look ok for my rig.

no i dont guess noob at oc' ing .  used fbs little at a time i have it linked with the ram timmings in  (AUTO) im going to try to move timmings in bios to 1 to 1 and see if i can go higher with fbs i had it at 3.3 ghz for a bit but when i raised the fbs by 50 more it crashed it went back to 3.2 ghz . i think because of the type ram pc2 6400 ddr2  last i ssaw when it crashed was at  1200 mhz for the ram.
 

It was probably your ram being overclocked too much on auto that was giving you the problems before.
 
Cpu multi @ 8, fsb speed @ 400, ram 1:1 at stock voltage and timings.  Will give you your 3.2ghz, with your ram at stock settings.   
 
Then you can try lowering your cpu core voltage.