The Q9650

[Lindline]

Guess who has one now?

Installation is going down within the next week.

[EaTCarbS]

exactly 1 step above mine I believe.

[Lindline]

The LL doesnt dick around. Its the best CPU my motherboard can possibly support.

[pinki104]

mines Q9450 so how many above mine is this

[xunil76]

nice....i'd think about upgrading my system to a quad core (have the E8400 3Ghz dual core now), but i want something that will simply annihilate my current setup when encoding x264 video files (ripped from my DVD's and stored on my home file server), and the i7 seems to be the way to go for that.

will probably end up with the following:

MSI X58 Pro-E Motherboard
i7 920 CPU
G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 RAM

the rest of my current computer will simply be recycled

not bad for $628.97

[ollee]

/me is a i7 920 fan boy officially...

[Tim]

The Q9650 is an awesome CPU, I have 2 of them, and I've 10boxed on it before (w/8G RAM).

It gets really hot, but I already know you have a gigantic heatsink, so thats all good

[Lindline]

I just need to go out and get the thermal compound for the heatsink. But its been cold and wet and ive been under-the-weather this week. Im going to suck it up and head out tomorrow and get it, then install it.

Quick question. When do I set the CPU clock speeds for the new processor? Before or after I install the new CPU? Or does it happen automatically (which Im 99% sure isnt the case.

[xunil76]

Originally Posted by Lindline

Quick question. When do I set the CPU clock speeds for the new processor? Before or after I install the new CPU? Or does it happen automatically (which Im 99% sure isnt the case.

unless you've manually set your current CPU's settings and/or are overclocking it, it should detect the CPU clock settings automatically.

if you have manually set the current clock speed, just be sure to set it back to "automatic" detection before you remove your current CPU, otherwise you may have to reset your whole BIOS and set it all up again from scratch. by setting it to "auto" before removing your current CPU, all you should need to change is the settings for the new CPU once it's installed....but setting it to "auto" should at least allow the PC to boot up properly upon powering on for the first time, thereby allowing you into BIOS in the first place.

i would also make note of any RAM settings/timings that you have manually selected, and set them to "auto" also, just to avoid any RAM timing issues with the new CPU....then once the computer is booted with the new CPU and verified to at least work at stock settings, you can go back in and try those settings again to see if they work.

oh, and one more thing: depending on the version of your current BIOS, you may need to get a BIOS update in order for your motherboard to work properly with a quad-core CPU....so just keep that in mind. i'd go ahead and check the manufacturer's website to see if they have a newer version, and check the release notes to see what the update fixes.