Dual Core or P4?

[scca325is]

I have a two year old gaming rig. I am throwing it out and starting new. I have figured out much of what I need and want but I am still at ends with the CPU. These new Intel Dual Cores are suppose to be very fast but I have read that they are not better than the P4's in terms of heat radiation. So, which is better for gaming? A P4 3.0 or a Dual-Core 3.0? Also, I know there are similar AMD's but for my own purposes I like Intel. So which Intel is better? Pros, Cons?

 

[MechaSheeba]

The single core P4 will consume less power and run slightly cooler. The only game out at the moment that gets a significant boost from a dual core patch is Quake 4. If future games start to take advantage of dual core CPUs as much, or more, than Q4 does, they're excellent values.

But since there's really no telling, I suggest you just get a 775 board which supports Pentium Ds, and grab a Pentium 4 for the time being, and wait until more games supporting SMP are released. By the time that happens the current lineup of Pentium Ds will be much cheaper than they are now, especially once Conroe is released.

 

[dBTelos]

Wait for Conroe and pick up one of those.

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

lol how much cheaper do u expect the P D to become? the 805 is only 120,- rite now. Guess Intel will just stop selling them when Conroe arives.

To the op: Dump ur preferation for Intel. If u want a gaming system go for an A64 3700+ or better. Cuz if u sum up all the features (price, performance, heat, overclockability, power consumption) AMD is still the best choice.

This might easily change in July when Conroe will be released. So waiting two months might be an option aswell.

 

[stevty2889]

If you do go with a P4 or a Pentium-D, make sure you get a 9xx series dual core, or a 6x1 series pentium-4. Those are the 65nm parts, and they run much cooler than the prescott based POS flamethrowers. You can see in my sig, I have a P4, a couple of Pentium-d's, an X2, and a Dothan. Really for a budget dual core I would go with an X2 3800+, at stock speeds it's = to a 3.4ghz pentium-d in most cases, and if you overclock, you'll have to spend a good bit more to overclock the pentium-d's as the only motherboars I have seen get good enough overclocks to match an overclocked X2 are the $200+ P5WD2 premium and P5WD2-E premium.

As for gaming concerns..the video card is the main limiter, any modern CPU will be plenty.