Upgrade a 2.40 Core 2 to a Quad?? at DVinfo.net

Dan Burnap · July 26th, 2008, 12:44 PM

I use PPro and sometimes another Adpbe app at the same time. Would upgrading to a low-mid range Quad make much of a difference performance wise?

(I have 3gigs of 667mhz RAM)

Nicholas de Kock · July 27th, 2008, 09:06 AM

I upgraded from my 2.4Ghz Duo to the 2.4Ghz Q6600 Quad core about two months ago and the move was definitely worth it. I'm running 6Gb of RAM, RAID-0 for footage, render time has improved a great deal.

One thing you might not be thinking about is power, my Q6600 was not running as well as it should have and after some research I realised my entire system was grossly under powered so I had to buy a 750W power supply.

Useful link: http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Lars Siden · July 31st, 2008, 08:10 AM

See:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=119195

Since you have DDR2 667 memory I'd guess you'll have to buy:

1. New Motherboard
2. CPU, Q9450 or better
3. Possibly new memory(or go for the DQ6 DDR2 MB as I did)

The gain in render speed is huge(mpeg2/HD)

// Lazze

Robert M Wright · July 31st, 2008, 01:41 PM

I don't see any reason to toss the motherboard and memory necessarily. A lot of (most) boards that support a Core 2 Duo will support a Core 2 Quad. Q6600 and Q9300 are very viable, lower cost options too.

Lars Siden · August 1st, 2008, 05:35 AM

Robert, I don't agree

1. many modern MB's take the Q6600, but not the new 45nm penryn family
2. Q9300 isn't a good choice for video editining since it sports a cut down SSE4 set + half the cache size - and the lower price doesn't make up for it.

As I said, he CAN reuse his memory if he goes for a DDR2 based MB. 667mhz memory modules are "slow" and he may run into FSB problems when using a modern/faster CPU(that is if he doesn't choose a MB with decoupled frequencis for memory speed and FSB).

// Lazze

Seun Osewa · August 1st, 2008, 07:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nicholas de Kock

I upgraded from my 2.4Ghz Duo to the 2.4Ghz Q6600 Quad core about two months ago and the move was definitely worth it. I'm running 6Gb of RAM, RAID-0 for footage, render time has improved a great deal.

- How much is "a great deal"? 5%? 50%? 200%?
- How are you sure that the improvement is not due to your RAID-0 and RAM?
Thanks.

Robert M Wright · August 1st, 2008, 07:45 AM

I'm not sure how many boards will not support a Penryn (I haven't done anything like an extensive survey), but I sure have the impression that most being sold nowadays do. Some boards might need a BIOS update. If the OP's board will not support a Penryn, then a Q6600 or Q6700 are certainly viable options. At under $200 nowadays, the Q6600 offers a lot of bang for the buck.

Both the Q9300 and Q9450 support the same SSE4 instruction subset (4.1). The larger cache on a Q9450 doesn't do much at all for video encoding performance (it does help some games run considerably faster though).

Lars Siden · August 1st, 2008, 01:16 PM

Robert,

You're right about SSE 4.1 (I can almost swear that when I checked the docs at Intel before the Q9450 was available here in sweden they had an "*" on the Q9300 on SSE4.1 - anyway its not there now.

The Q6600 may be a more viable option in this case considering MB and "old" memory modules.

// Lz

July 26th, 2008, 12:44 PM	#1
Dan Burnap Major Player Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Rio de Janeiro Posts: 335	Upgrade a 2.40 Core 2 to a Quad?? I use PPro and sometimes another Adpbe app at the same time. Would upgrading to a low-mid range Quad make much of a difference performance wise? (I have 3gigs of 667mhz RAM)

July 31st, 2008, 08:10 AM	#3
Lars Siden Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Sweden, Stockholm Posts: 469	See: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=119195 Since you have DDR2 667 memory I'd guess you'll have to buy: 1. New Motherboard 2. CPU, Q9450 or better 3. Possibly new memory(or go for the DQ6 DDR2 MB as I did) The gain in render speed is huge(mpeg2/HD) // Lazze __________________ Sony HDR-CX130,Canon 5DMKII,i7 930@4.0, 12gb memory, 3x SSD + 2x1Tb(stripe), Geforce 480, Dual 24", Win 7 x64

August 1st, 2008, 05:35 AM	#5
Lars Siden Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Sweden, Stockholm Posts: 469	Robert, I don't agree 1. many modern MB's take the Q6600, but not the new 45nm penryn family 2. Q9300 isn't a good choice for video editining since it sports a cut down SSE4 set + half the cache size - and the lower price doesn't make up for it. As I said, he CAN reuse his memory if he goes for a DDR2 based MB. 667mhz memory modules are "slow" and he may run into FSB problems when using a modern/faster CPU(that is if he doesn't choose a MB with decoupled frequencis for memory speed and FSB). // Lazze __________________ Sony HDR-CX130,Canon 5DMKII,i7 930@4.0, 12gb memory, 3x SSD + 2x1Tb(stripe), Geforce 480, Dual 24", Win 7 x64

August 1st, 2008, 01:16 PM	#8
Lars Siden Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Sweden, Stockholm Posts: 469	Robert, You're right about SSE 4.1 (I can almost swear that when I checked the docs at Intel before the Q9450 was available here in sweden they had an "*" on the Q9300 on SSE4.1 - anyway its not there now. The Q6600 may be a more viable option in this case considering MB and "old" memory modules. // Lz __________________ Sony HDR-CX130,Canon 5DMKII,i7 930@4.0, 12gb memory, 3x SSD + 2x1Tb(stripe), Geforce 480, Dual 24", Win 7 x64

July 27th, 2008, 09:06 AM	#2
Nicholas de Kock Major Player Join Date: May 2007 Location: KLD, South Africa Posts: 983	I upgraded from my 2.4Ghz Duo to the 2.4Ghz Q6600 Quad core about two months ago and the move was definitely worth it. I'm running 6Gb of RAM, RAID-0 for footage, render time has improved a great deal. One thing you might not be thinking about is power, my Q6600 was not running as well as it should have and after some research I realised my entire system was grossly under powered so I had to buy a 750W power supply. Useful link: http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

July 31st, 2008, 01:41 PM	#4
Robert M Wright Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Minnesota (USA) Posts: 2,171	I don't see any reason to toss the motherboard and memory necessarily. A lot of (most) boards that support a Core 2 Duo will support a Core 2 Quad. Q6600 and Q9300 are very viable, lower cost options too.

August 1st, 2008, 07:45 AM	#7
Robert M Wright Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Minnesota (USA) Posts: 2,171	I'm not sure how many boards will not support a Penryn (I haven't done anything like an extensive survey), but I sure have the impression that most being sold nowadays do. Some boards might need a BIOS update. If the OP's board will not support a Penryn, then a Q6600 or Q6700 are certainly viable options. At under $200 nowadays, the Q6600 offers a lot of bang for the buck. Both the Q9300 and Q9450 support the same SSE4 instruction subset (4.1). The larger cache on a Q9450 doesn't do much at all for video encoding performance (it does help some games run considerably faster though).