Anyone done the QX6700 to Q9550 upgrade?

Greetings Willy,

I haven't done that particular upgrade, but I have upgraded CPUs before — if you motherboard is compatible with both, then no problems.

Recently, I upgraded my motherboard/CPU/DRAM all in one simple process by purchasing a complete kit from http://www.pcboost.com — best $360 I ever spent — when I rebooted, XP asked for new drivers, rebooted again, and "Shazam!," I am running on a quad-core 2.6GHz 8GB beast.

Regards,
David

I am seriously consideing the upgrade to the i7. $$$ and the danged time to reinstall everything from scratch (I have too much stuff) is the limiting factor.

I think if I change out the MoBo, I have to do a reinstall. I am pretty sure that there are issues in the registry that are MoBo specific, but I could be wrong. Last time I did a Pent D to Core2Quad upgrade I tried to use my old system disks - no go. BSODs and all kinds of issues. When I did the reinstall, all of that went away.

B-Ho is not helping me. He is holding me hostage. He helps those who fall below the halfway mark in income at the expense of those above. He is also hurting my kids and grandkids.

But I do get $16 more a month. That will almost pay for a 12 pack of Corona.

ah very very very bad idea... the Core i7 is completely different than say going from 965 to P45.

Sorry - don't agree. From the OS's point-of-view, the cpu and all of the devices on it (i.e. chipset and on-board peripherals, like disk controllers, networking devices, etc.) are all seen as discrete plug&play items. The fact that you change a lot of them at once when you do a mobo + cpu swap doesn't really bother the OS - it just gets on and p&p's them one-by-one. The secret, though, is to disable all of the old devices on the old mobo in the OS and to reboot it before you take the PC apart. This entails forcing the OS to use its basic "vanilla" drivers for any essential stuff and simply disabling the rest. This all sounds more complicated than it is in practice, as a scan through device manager allows you to see most of what is needed.

Once the PC is running vanilla, shut it down, swap the hardware, and bring it up again. The OS will p&p basic vanilla drivers for the new hardware, after which you can install all necessary hardware-optimised stuff.

Certainly, there will still be registry entries for the old hardware, but these are dormant as long as the old hardware is not present. If this really bugs you, you can clean up the registry. Being superstitious, I have tended to do this, but there is no valid reason otherwise for doing it.

It is a lot quicker and much less tedious than re-installing from scratch and having to go through the mind-bending process of installing all apps, recreating all set-ups, etc. etc. Probably two hours versus two days.

And (although I have full confidence in this approach) if it were to fail, then you would be no worse off than before, as you would then just need to start an OS re-install.

ORIGINAL: space_cowboy

Looking at the option of upgrading the processor on my MB versus changing processors. Cheap and fast vs a whole new system. Any thoughts?

Thanks

Better look at FSB speed between the 9550 and the 6600. No sense in swapping out if your existing mobo cant match the speed. Also, if you are upgrading, look at the AMD phenom , it works great here and is/was about a hundred bucks less than the intel. (at time of build)

Good Luck !

ORIGINAL: ChristopherM

ah very very very bad idea... the Core i7 is completely different than say going from 965 to P45.

Sorry - don't agree. From the OS's point-of-view, the cpu and all of the devices on it (i.e. chipset and on-board peripherals, like disk controllers, networking devices, etc.) are all seen as discrete plug&play items. The fact that you change a lot of them at once when you do a mobo + cpu swap doesn't really bother the OS - it just gets on and p&p's them one-by-one. The secret, though, is to disable all of the old devices on the old mobo in the OS and to reboot it before you take the PC apart. This entails forcing the OS to use its basic "vanilla" drivers for any essential stuff and simply disabling the rest. This all sounds more complicated than it is in practice, as a scan through device manager allows you to see most of what is needed.

Once the PC is running vanilla, shut it down, swap the hardware, and bring it up again. The OS will p&p basic vanilla drivers for the new hardware, after which you can install all necessary hardware-optimised stuff.

Certainly, there will still be registry entries for the old hardware, but these are dormant as long as the old hardware is not present. If this really bugs you, you can clean up the registry. Being superstitious, I have tended to do this, but there is no valid reason otherwise for doing it.

It is a lot quicker and much less tedious than re-installing from scratch and having to go through the mind-bending process of installing all apps, recreating all set-ups, etc. etc. Probably two hours versus two days.

And (although I have full confidence in this approach) if it were to fail, then you would be no worse off than before, as you would then just need to start an OS re-install.

you are going to debate a system builder on this?
as well as someone who tried it? and yes i am full aware HOW to try this.

as i said from 965 to P45 should not be an issue to a core i7 it is.

lastly this recommendation is at best only good for hobbiest who can afford down time.
NOT for anyone who makes money with their DAW.

and i wont bother wasting my time
suffice it say the differences in architecture alone make it an issue.
there is no northbridge/on die memory controller jusdt to name a few

with previous gens everything was the same