keep my q6600 or buy a e8600

[rampage]

first off, last thing i want to create is another dual core v's quad core thread so now on with the thread

ok, i have just got my tax back ($700) so what what should i do, keep my quad or go for a e8600 (i have the order ready to go and all i have to do is click "confirm")

currently i have a q6600 and a custom water cooling kit and due to the mobo and having 8 gig of ram i am limited to 400 fsb wich gives me 3.2 ghz on the quad, i can push higher with a lower multi but the quad needs some serious juce to get past 3.4 ghz (1.6v) the board dose have vdroop but only 0.055v at the worst)

why i am thinking of doing the upgrade ?¿? is because i have found my GTX 280 is seriously cpu limited even at 3.2 ghz, i am not using any apps/games that require a quad core and i know the e8600 will run at 4 ghz with the 8 gig of ram installed

is it worth me spending the $300 (AUS) or just suck it up and deal with what i have???

BTW i am not interested in waiting for the i7's to come out, mainly because i have 8 gig of ddr2 ram

 

[DonInKansas]

If it's mostly for gaming, the Dual-Core's a good bet.

 

[JC316]

If benchmarking, then get you a better clocking Quad like a Q9550. For gaming, get the E8600, it will tear the Q a new one.

 

[rampage]

thanks guys, looks like im ordering a e8600, i would love a q9550 but there an extra $100 and my mobo has a 400fsb wall atm so the 10X multi on the e8600 will be a dream

 

[phanbuey]

gtx 280 is cpu limited by a q6600... but not at high rez... save the money. The more graphically intense the game, the less limited you are.

basically you only become limited at 100+FPS with a 3.2 GHz kentsfield... crank your games down to the lowest resolution they go, no AA/AF and that framerate is what your cpu limits you to...

 

[erocker]

The only difference will be in benchmarks. I can run my quad at 2.4ghz (stock) for any game or application I use. I say just keep the quad and save your money.

 

[deathvirus_me]

Keep the Quad, it'll be better over a longer run .. keep it at 3.2 GHz and enjoy the show .. instead u could buy a better display to crank up the res., which should lessen the bottleneck .. but even at 1680*1050, the diff. wouldn't be drastic between the two CPU's, more like 100 to 110 , isn't anything over 60 already enough ??

 

[Pinchy]

I would personally keep the quad because I cbb buying/selling and going through the hassle...but if I had to choose between buying either the e8600 or q6600, i would go e8600.


BTW if you do go e8600 and are selling the q6600, PM me, id be very interested .


EDIT - or...save $100 and go down to the e8500 for $200.....thats gonna hit 3.8Ghz with ease (if your limited to 400FSB). There wont be much of a diff between that and 4Ghz (unless your in for bragging rights....zomg!!!! LOOK ITS 4GHZ!!!!!!!!!) Then if you sell the quad you have made at LEAST half your money back. (after postage and crap)

 

[r9]

first off, last thing i want to create is another dual core v's quad core thread so now on with the thread

ok, i have just got my tax back ($700) so what what should i do, keep my quad or go for a e8600 (i have the order ready to go and all i have to do is click "confirm")

currently i have a q6600 and a custom water cooling kit and due to the mobo and having 8 gig of ram i am limited to 400 fsb wich gives me 3.2 ghz on the quad, i can push higher with a lower multi but the quad needs some serious juce to get past 3.4 ghz (1.6v) the board dose have vdroop but only 0.055v at the worst)

why i am thinking of doing the upgrade ?¿? is because i have found my GTX 280 is seriously cpu limited even at 3.2 ghz, i am not using any apps/games that require a quad core and i know the e8600 will run at 4 ghz with the 8 gig of ram installed

is it worth me spending the $300 (AUS) or just suck it up and deal with what i have???

BTW i am not interested in waiting for the i7's to come out, mainly because i have 8 gig of ddr2 ram

You don`t use applications that need quad and in the same time they use 8 gb RAM From one article that I reed in gaming advantage of 4 over 2 gb ram is 1.6%
The advantage of 8 gb ram over 4 gb would be (this point was not in that article ) some thing like 1.60000001 %. And that extra ram that you have in your PC is limiting you OC and your performance the best upgrade you can make lose 4 gb ram it won`t cost you a dime.

 

[Pinchy]

You don`t use applications that need quad and in the same time they use 8 gb RAM From one article that I reed in gaming advantage of 4 over 2 gb ram is 1.6%
The advantage of 8 gb ram over 4 gb would be (this point was not in that article ) some thing like 1.60000001 %. And that extra ram that you have in your PC is limiting you OC and your performance the best upgrade you can make lose 4 gb ram it won`t cost you a dime.

Lol maybe he uses photoshop with no pagefile ...

I was running photoshop to simply batch compress my review images to 800x600, and it was using 85% of my 4GB RAM.

 

[rampage]

ah well the e8600 is on the way, i will find out in a few days if i have wasted my $$$

 

[lemonadesoda]

I think you will discover that you weren't CPU limited at all. You'll only get a 20% performance increase MAX, in the best, luckiest, possible situation, probably synthetic, on single threaded apps. But the machine will be less snappy due to loss of two processors.

For gaming, the same GPU with 20% more CPU single threaded power will translate to, very similar average framerate, with possibly 20% better "max" framerate, and SAME "min" framerate. I really dont think you'll notice a difference at all.

IMO, you would have done better spending the money on a SSD for your OS and pagefile partitions.

 

[Pinchy]

ah well the e8600 is on the way, i will find out in a few days if i have wasted my $$$

Sell me your q6600 ^_^

 

[Wingo101]

The core 2 duo is better for gaming, but the quad core will make your pc more future proof

 

[largon]

Keep your Q6600.
E8600 offers nothing over Q6600 for a gamer - even when OC'ed to 5GHz. Except for the gamer that plays at CPU-bound resolutions & detail levels. And for multithreaded apps the quad is the obvious choice.

 

[J-Man]

I'd just keep your quad... I don't see the point getting a different CPU if you're gonna upgrade to Nahalem in a few months. I am keeping my quad until I upgrade to Nahalem and I plan on getting the fastest Nahalem CPU.

 

[rampage]

im not planing to upgrade to nahalem any time soon, any way ive orderd the e8600 so there isnt much i can do about it, just test it and see how things work out

 

[crowbarmaster]

get the e8600, a buddy of mine made the mistake of buying a q6600. he oced it to the 3.6 he had his e6300 at and found no performance gain at all. if you get the e8600, you have a nice chance of an oc that would womp your q6600.

 

[alexp999]

If you already have a q6600, dont bother upgrading. if you didnt have one, I would say get the e8600 over it.
its not worth the amoutn its gonna cost ya, for the performance increase on games.