Dual Core or Quad?

[Rick58]

I'm doing an upgrade for the first time in 5 years. Going with good memory, motherboard, couple of 750g SATA drives, but I'm confused on the processor.
I'm looking at either the Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3.0GHZ which has the fsb of 1333 or the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz which has fsb of 1066. I don't
want to overclock either and am not into gaming. I'd just like a nice fast cpu which would handle multitasking of normal every day programs. From what I
read the Quad is better for multitasking, but seems to only be good for newer programs that will take advantage of the multiple cores. Anyway, any suggestions
would be helpful. Would the difference between 2.4GHZ and 3.0GHZ and the difference between 1066 and 1333 FSB be significant? Thanks!

 

[wittangamo]

The quad is more future-proof and gives you the advantage of more multitasking ability now. Although you say you don't want to overclock, most people find that changing the fsb from 266 to 333 (or 1066 to 1333) easily takes the Q6600 to 3.0 ghz for a big advantage across the board and can usually be done with no voltage increase and keeping the stock cooler.

Hey, you did pose the question in an overclocking forum ...

If you want to see a performance comparison at stock and overclocked levels, look here:
http://anandtech.com/cpuchipse...el/showdoc.aspx?i=3066

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: Rick58
I'm doing an upgrade for the first time in 5 years. Going with good memory, motherboard, couple of 750g SATA drives, but I'm confused on the processor.
I'm looking at either the Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3.0GHZ which has the fsb of 1333 or the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz which has fsb of 1066. I don't
want to overclock either and am not into gaming. I'd just like a nice fast cpu which would handle multitasking of normal every day programs. From what I
read the Quad is better for multitasking, but seems to only be good for newer programs that will take advantage of the multiple cores. Anyway, any suggestions
would be helpful. Would the difference between 2.4GHZ and 3.0GHZ and the difference between 1066 and 1333 FSB be significant? Thanks!

If you just want decent multitasking of everyday programs, I'd say they're both overkill and you could save yourself a decent amount of money by going with something a little less powerful.

What exactly are the everyday programs you're running? Web browsers and word processors? Those don't take much at all, even with lots of windows open. What's the most resource-intensive program you'll run? Or, how many programs do you plan to run at once?

 

[Rick58]

Well I presently have a Pentium 4 2.4ghz, with a gig of ram right now and when I run something like an antivirus program I pretty much
can't use the computer at the same time. Also sometimes do movie encoding with the same result can't do much of anything
like web browser at the same time. I'd just basically like a system where I could do several things like this at once without the
system bogging down.

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: Rick58
Well I presently have a Pentium 4 2.4ghz, with a gig of ram right now and when I run something like an antivirus program I pretty much
can't use the computer at the same time. Also sometimes do movie encoding with the same result can't do much of anything
like web browser at the same time. I'd just basically like a system where I could do several things like this at once without the
system bogging down.

If you are encoding, I would definitely recommend the Q6600 (especially if you are using x264). Other then that, a e2150 would be more then enough power for you and a low price. Don't get me wrong, you will still see a fairly big performance jump going from a P4 2.4 to a e2150 (encoding should be in the range of 3-4 times faster) but you will see the biggest boost in encoding speed if you grab a Q6600.

If you don't encode very often, or tend to just use Xvid (How is DivX with multitasking?), I would suggest you save a few bucks and get the e2150, you should still be able to do whatever you want while encoding as well (that is true for almost all dual core processors). If you just want a nice computer and would love to have really fast encoding speeds, the Q6600 is for you.

One other reason you might choose the e2150 over the Q6600 is that intels next generation of CPU's are due to come out within the next month (Nov 14 I believe) That almost always means price cuts for everything else. The e2150 could easily tide you over, then if you want a big power boost you can get either the lastest greatest Quad or the Q6600 for a cheaper price then you could have now.

Hope this helps yah

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: Cogman
One other reason you might choose the e2150 over the Q6600 is that intels next generation of CPU's are due to come out within the next month (Nov 14 I believe) That almost always means price cuts for everything else. The e2150 could easily tide you over, then if you want a big power boost you can get either the lastest greatest Quad or the Q6600 for a cheaper price then you could have now.

Hope this helps yah

Only the top-of-the-line quad core is due in November. The rest are supposed to be coming in January.

 

[Rick58]

Yeah, thanks guys for the help. I probably won't be doing this til week of Thanksgiving or after anyway, so will probably just wait and see if the prices do come down any in November. I have money budgeted for this so cost isn't a real concern especially for the processor so may even be interested in the new quad that comes out in November depending on what it is.

 

[ahxnguyen]

I just check newegg a few minutes ago and was surprised to see listed prices.
E6850, 3.0ghz, FSB 1333, $280.00
E6700, 2.66ghz, FSB 1033, $320.00

Is that a typo on newegg's part? more expensive mobo & RAM to handle FSB 1333?

Any clarifications would be appreciated.

 

[coldpower27]

Originally posted by: ahxnguyen
I just check newegg a few minutes ago and was surprised to see listed prices.
E6850, 3.0ghz, FSB 1333, $280.00
E6700, 2.66ghz, FSB 1033, $320.00

Is that a typo on newegg's part? more expensive mobo & RAM to handle FSB 1333?

Any clarifications would be appreciated.

Intel discontinued the 1066FSB parts (in terms of price) and they received no price drops in the last round so they are more expensive then the newer 1.33GHz FSB parts.

 

[jjmIII]

Originally posted by: Rick58
I'm doing an upgrade for the first time in 5 years....

Quad !! :evil: