Realistically... what would you prefer..?

Would you guys rather get a Wolfdale E8500 or a quad-core processor around 200 dollars? What would be different? I know the quad core's frequency would be significantly lower than the e8500s but would the four cores make up for it? What would you get?

 

In this case it would be the Kentsfield Q6600, so question is.. E8500 or Kentsfield Q6600? =D

 

What do you plan on doing with the PC? If you encode video or rip DVDs a lot, run folding at home, 3D rendering, file compression or play certain games such as Grand Theft Auto IV, then the Quad, no question. However, if all you really do is browse the web, listen to music and play lighter games, assuming you don't use dual graphics, the Dual core will work out better for now. There will eventually come a time when the Dual core has no advantages at all though - when properly utilised, even the Q6000 will be a good 40% faster than the E8500.

 

I would go with the quad if you're pitting the same price against each other. You're not going to notice firefox or itunes being any faster on a higher clocked C2D because they are both very fast chips. Might as well grab the one that will net you greater performance in the future with, at worst, par performance now. Both of those chips are great pieces of hardware though and you won't go wrong with either.

 

Well I do decrypt and shrink DVDs a lot and it's going to be primarily for watching movies and playing games.. maybe it's a better choice to be prepared for the future right? Just for kicks though, my computer that i'm using right now is an old pentium 3 computer with usb 1.1 and like 350mb of ram. What will the difference be when I build my new computer which would be 4Gb of ram and a quad core processor and a sexy graphics card?

 

I noticed the speed boost with my Q6600 in movie watching and using DVD shrink. HD 720p does not even utilize the CPU DVD Shrink was limited by my HDD read speed, so you are talking about 20 times faster than what you currently have.

 

:O Jesus.. Man I really need money to finish buying everything question though.. The motherboard that I chose is a P45 chipset which means that it fits duos and quads right? Is all hardware compatible with quad cores just like a duo would?

 

Yeah, everything would be the same. I use a P45 Motherboard as well.

 

I've read in reviews that the Q6600 is a great overclocker.
Is the motherboard that I previously had picked for a core 2 duo able to overclock the Q6600 around 3GHz or do I need to pick a better motherboard?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128345

 

I would imagine that the DS3L would overclock a Q6600 the same as my board. I have a UD3P. I suspect that the UD3P/UD3R have better northbridge cooling (they have cooling pipes and larger heatsinks), so you might be able to overclock higher, but I can't imagine needing anything special to get to 3GHz on the Q6600.

If you haven't purchased the DS3L, you can consider the UD3R which would cost $12 more:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128359

BTW, at 3GHz and 1333 FSB, the Q6600 performs identical to a stock QX6850 and probably close to a stock Q9550.

I have mine clocked at 3.2GHz and 1600MHz FSB. Performance wise at this clock, it hovers somewhere around stock QX9650 and QX9770 according to a couple of benchmarks.

 

You'll probably be able to OC the Q6600 to 3Ghz on stock cooling without even changing any voltages. In fairness though the C2D's still overclock a little better as heat is less of a problem. I'll be trying for 3.6 on my Q6600 though after I lap and throw on my tuniq tower.

 

I noticed the UD3R board has firewire ports, does that mean it runs firewire or do i need extra hardware to be able to run it? I don't really need it but it's a nice luxury and it would take advantage of the port in front of my antec 900 case So far I have only bought the case and the monitor, I haven't actually bought any hadware for it since I don't have the money yet :/ But hopefully in christmas and if I get a job i'll buy everything else in January

 

It has two rear panel connectors and one onboard. You can use the onboard one with your case's front panel firewire connector. Oh, and by January, you will probably get some nice prices on RAM and maybe the CPU prices will adjust a little lower. The i7's seem to be very strong performers and this may lower demand for C2Q by then. For example, the 4GB pair of Dominator RAM is only $40 now and last month, they were $70.

@Shamb1es,

I noticed that with Cinebench my load temps were getting pretty high when I clocked to 3.6GHz. They were approaching 55 degrees. I think with Prime95 only core0 passed 50 degrees. Maybe try Cinebench as well to test load temps and use Prime95 for both temp testing and stability. I need at least 1.36875v to boot at 3.6GHz, so you will probably be pushing near 1.5v to get stable. I'll play with Calc and maybe I'll post some charts. I didn't do anything on stock though and don't want to mess with it as I am lazy

Right now, I am back to 3.2GHz and my idle temps are record low 20/16/13/15:



The funny thing is that my fan is on the minimum speed .

 

Jesus.. the computer industry changes way too fast :/ Might as well get 8Gb of RAM on January huh =P But yeah, in like 2 years having a quad is gonna be like having a pentium 4.. sighs.. but by that time i'll have a job and it won't be much of a problem =D Getting the Tuniq tower is really tempting me to keep my CPU cool instead of the Freezer 7... hmm..

 

both are great coolers. you wont be disappointed with either one.

 

There is one downside to the Tuniq... It is HUGE!!! Make sure it fits your case before deciding. It does not fit in mine, so the case is open until I can figure something out.

 

The Tuniq usually fits in most modern cases, but only ones without side fans, or with side fans at the bottom. If there's a side fan at the top it's a no go for any tower cooler.

 

I guess the better approach would be to get the freezer 7 huh.. I have an antec 900, and it seems like a pretty spacy case but I really wouldn't wanna risk it

 

The Antec 900 will fit a tower cooler.

 

Would it be smart to put hardware that I buy on the case as I buy them bit by bit or to assemble it all once I have everything at once?