How does a qx9300 compare to a modern day sb/ib chip?

I'm looking to trade in my t9900 for a qx9300 into my mini-itx htpc. Looking to ultimately OC to 3.2ghz. Any thoughts? Spend <100$ upgrading or $700 and get a whole new platform (cpu, mb, ram).

 

htpc? what about power consumption and fan noise? I mean why do need more cpu power.

 

not really well given that there is 50%+ performance increase, and Im using as a basis the 2860qm, im not even in ivy territory, which adds another 5-20%, or even more if I compare to to the 3940xm, since that thing can reach up to 5ghz on OC

 

I remember seeing some benches a while ago, with a highly OC'd QX9100 barely overtaking stock 920xm. 920xm stock is raped by i7-2630qm and above.
You'd probably get the performance of an entry-level i7 nehalem.
Still, should be a major upgrade from the t9900. But keep in mind, it will run very hot.

 

You can't compare a old quad to a i7 quad. Better to compare it to a i5. Both i5 and old quads can handle 4 threads. A little more even on the playing field right!

Only if you OC to about 3.5ghz will you equal the 840qm or 920xm at stock speeds. Compare it to an i5 of the same generation and it fares much better!

 

The hardware quad > dual core + HT quad though. But with all the architecture, chipset, compatible RAM etc improvements of the IB over the old core 2 quad series, it's really no contest. A new system would do you well, but ONLY if you need the extra power right now. If what you got isn't being taxed out and you can and want to wait till later for a full upgrade, go ahead.

 

what are you guys playing on your htpc. My t9300 can play 1080p smoothly, and it's a 5 year old dual core.

 

I can confirm that old c2d's can play 1080p smoothly. p8600 played any 1080 i got my hands onto. my old t7200 in nc8430 played all of 1080p rips without issues after instaling CoreAVC to get dual core support while playing.

 

I should have noted that my HTPC is actually more my gaming.
I currently have an 800watt psu, 120 ssd and 3870x2 card. I'm looking to upgrade to a 7950 (and OC of course). I'm just wondering if it's worth my while to pickup a QX9300 and OC it to 3.3ghz vs upgrade a whole new platform ($600 for 3570k, MB, RAM). My T9900 is quick but definitely shows it's limitations and how I found out is:
Stock 3dmark06 - 13900
T9900 OC to 3.5ghz (fsb ocing) - 15500
Obviously I would leave my t9900 chip OC'd but it crashes so randomly that I cant keep it oc'd. Not even at 3.3ghz - it still randomly crashes. It's a shame the multipliers were not unlocked at the factory.

 

I'd be playing Tera and battlefield.

 

change the platform and get a z77 matx mobo, I like the SilverStone Fortress Series FT03B Black Aluminum / Steel MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case - Newegg.com or the micro tower design, they really look good on the living room and they can accommodate good gpus

 

If you wish to save some money, try getting an AMD FX8350 and corresponding motherboard. It's at least $50 cheaper than a 3570K and should outperform it in pretty much every instance, and is a hardware octocore. It's a good upgrade right now, and again depending on what you want to do you shouldn't JUST try to upgrade to an already-4 generations old hardware chip when you want to play current and possibly future CPU-heavy titles.

 

An OCed qx9300 can keep up with some of the better sandy bridge mobile i5 chips. Naturally ALOT hotter though!!

 

I don't think heat will be a big concern because this is an pc set up with lots of ventilation and a dedicated hsf. I did some more research and concluded that it is not worth it to upgrade the chip. I will likely wait and see what haswell has to offer. What I am most interested in is now it overclocks. I won't even bother upgrading to a 7970 at the moment because my CPU is just going to be bottlenecking the GPU too much to make it worthwhile.

 

I say good choice there. A flat out revamp later in the year sounds really good, and if anything you can give the old PC (well assuming you have a spare case/PSU/HDD maybe) to someone else who might need it.

 

Nope not worth to upgrade to. If you had the qx9300 then OCing would have been pretty fantastic with dedicated desktop hsf and cooling! 4ghz + would easily be attainable making it still quite a powerful chip. It wouldn't bottleneck a single 7970 at these speeds.

 

barely and hardly, and you are comparing a i5 mobile which is basically a dual core, when went saying that he would go for a i5 3570k which is an unlocked quad core cpu. Its going to be such a tremendous difference in power

 

What karama said. If OCing a quadcore makes it keep up with a later version dual core at stock, then it just really ain't worth it. It'll get outdated quite quick, especially if he gets into the previously-mentioned CPU-intensive games. Not to mention his chipset architecture isn't as efficient, his RAM is a lot slower and most likely his board can't take large amounts of it. He's just delaying the impending need as a PC gamer to upgrade hardware after 5-6 years. By that point it isn't worth it trying to make the old stuff keep up.

For example, SLI GTX 285s are still a decently strong setup and can plow through quite a few newer games... except that they're DX10 only cards and won't work for a lot of new DX11 ones (either you can't launch it, as in Crysis 3, or you get HUGE unoptimization as in BF3/Homefront DX11). If you had a single 285 and wanted some extra power and you could get another 285 for $120 or you could get a GTX 580 for $500 (when it was new) it might've been better if you went with the 580 plunge. It's a lot more power and will last far longer than the extra year or so getting the other set of older tech would have lasted. Its not always feasible to prolong the inevitable full upgrade.

 

Yep for me its time for a change:

CPU: i5 3570k - 220
GPU: Either the 7950 or the 660ti - 270
RAM: 8GB at 2133mhz - 45
HDD: Toshiba deskstar 3tb - 140
Mobo: ASRock z77m - 90
Case: Silverstone Fortress FT03 mini - 170
PSU: SILVERSTONE ST45SF-G 450W - 100

Total: 1035

off course you can go for less, using a bit fenix case and a cheaper psu, and a smaller HDD as well. And that thing on the living room really looks good, I had one of the FT02, and it certainly brought the place together

 

My overclocked QX9300 was barely able to surpass the 2430M my laptop came with.

 

Yikes. I thought the Qx9300 oc'd was a lot faster than that. I like the 3570k because of its huge overclocking potential.

 

It's not that the speeds are bad, it's just the architecture makes the speeds obsolete. Architectures and chipsets for CPUs make about as much difference as drivers can for video cards.

 

I got an oem qx9300 for my sager np8662, cinebench 11.5 scores at 3.46 Ghz reached 4.16 but my antivirus and wifi was turned off, as well as other memory resident programs. a bit lower than an i7-2630 (@4.7) and higher than an i7-940xm stock (@3.9). I'd say the qx9300 is still pretty fast, but the heat issues are there, and you're right, if you have a bottle neck in your gpu it's not worth it for gaming. But i got my proc at aliexpress for just 274 USD, i can't complain. My stock cpu was a t9600, cinebench 11.5 scores for that are at 1.59.