confused about pc specs

[Josh Bear]

Dear All,

I have a PC with an Intel core 2 6600 2.40GHz with 4 GB of ram and 512mb video card. I currently do heavy photoediting. I have noticed the PC geting slower and slower when editing large RAW files.

I am considering buying a

Intel® Core™ i7 processor 920 with 1024 MB dedicated video memory and 4gb of DDR3-SDRAM.

Obviously can't find a comparison on the internet so came here to ask. Will I notice a jump in speed if I upgrade?

Thanks

Josh

 

[EarthRod]

Hi Josh

A jump in speed? No. There will be a slight increase in speed - noticeable but not a jump.

Jumping from a 6600 to i7 IMO is not worth the large expenditure of cash. I recommend carrying out mods to the existing system to make it go faster. New cooling and overclocking is a good way to go.

There are a few on this forum who can help you with modding!

Alan

 

[Josh Bear]

thanks for the info.

Is the fact there won't be a "Jump" because the core 2 was so good?

BTW.

this is the PC I was looking at.

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/ho/WF06b/12454-12454-3329738-214846-214846-3880335-3934596.html

I have an hp 7775 at the moment and have been happy with HP. I also have the removable media drive in my currrent PC so made sense to go HP again so I could just plug it in.

Josh

 

[EarthRod]

Hi Josh

That is £1,000 for a upgrade from 6600 to i7. I shall state the case a little more strongly: IMO you are throwing your money away.

HP make good business PCs - I am typing this on a HP NX6110 laptop. So, OK there if you're happy with HP. The PC you have linked to is a bit basic though. 4GB of RAM - that's what you have now.

The PC you have is quite capable of carrying out photo editing. Maybe it needs a backup, reformat, then a re-install to clean the system up.

Alan

 

[Josh Bear]

thanks.

I think you may be right. Do a complete factory restore and see what happens.

Best Regards

Josh

 

[EndlessWaves]

There are two intel processors that you might have, the E6600 and the Q6600. Which one do you have?

 

[Josh Bear]

There are two intel processors that you might have, the E6600 and the Q6600. Which one do you have?

Hi

I have the e6600

Best regards

Josh

 

[RobM]

Hi

I have the e6600

Best regards

Josh

In that case, you'll definitely notice a difference. I believe Alan CD's opinions were based on him thinking you had the Q6600 which is a superb, quad-core processor.

Going from the E6600 to an i7 based system will be a noticeable jump. Whether the benefits justify the cost is something only you can decide. Is £1000 money well spent to be able to process things faster?

 

[EarthRod]

Hi

Learn something new every day!

I did'nt know an E6600 existed, checked the list of Intel processors I've got and it goes from E6550 to E6750. E6600 is not listed. Oh well!

I know about the Core 2 Quad Q6600 and, as Rob says, thought that was the one Josh was referring to.

Sorry about that Josh - my bad.

All the best
Alan

 

[EndlessWaves]

Hi

Learn something new every day!

I did'nt know an E6600 existed, checked the list of Intel processors I've got and it goes from E6550 to E6750. E6600 is not listed. Oh well!

I know about the Core 2 Quad Q6600 and, as Rob says, thought that was the one Josh was referring to.

Sorry about that Josh - my bad.

All the best
Alan

It was pretty popular at one time, I'm surprised your list doesn't cover it.

 

[ShirleyG]

The E6600 came out about 3 years ago and was pretty high end then. The E6x50 range (with 1333 FSB) came out later, and were discontinued later, so would feature on more recent lists of CPUs still in production. Given that a Q6600 is 2 E6600s bolted together to give 4 cores instead of 2 and double an already sizeable L2 cache, I think it would depend a lot on whether the applications the OP uses are highly multithreaded or benefitted from a big L2 cache as to whether an E6600 was much quicker than a Q6600.

The PC will never be as fast as it was originally. Applications usually get more resource hungry as updates and features are added. But I think it's worth trying out backing up, formatting the drive and reinstalling everthing first. Also, see if there's room for a RAM upgrade. Is the Windows 7 Release Candidate still available for a free trial? Some people have found it faster than Vista, if you're using Windows. Plus you would be in a better position to decide on which OS to get if or when you get a new PC, there's rumours that Windows 7 will be released later this year.