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E6700 or q6700?

R

Regk

Senior member
I am trying to decide on a processor for my "new" used HTPC. It is a dell optiplex 745 SFF PC that came with a pentium D 820 standard. after doing some research I found that I am limited to these 2 chips, an E6700 or Q6700 (65NM, 1066fsb) my concern is being able to keep the stock power supply. (280watt) I have replaced the stock 80gb hdd with a WD 1.5TB green drive and will be adding in a radeon 5570 slim card to handle the htpc/video duties. Resolutions will be limited to 720P as that is all the TV supports, I would like to be able to use it for movies, music, browsing, and light gaming. Ideally I would like to be able to play Starcraft 2 with this PC but I realize that may be a challenge with the 5570 but as far as I am aware it is the fastest low profile card out there. as far as CPU choices are concerned, what would you choose?
 
1280x720/1366x768 resolution, and HTPC duty, along with 5570 on a weak PSU?

E6600 or E6700 for sure, not much difference between the two in performance for your uses. Q6700 is a better CPU for sure, but it'll only really come out in encoding with that video card as a pretty significant bottleneck in gaming. If a game is too slow to run at your resolution with the 5570 and E6700, then a Q6700 isn't gonna help you much there.

FWIW, I think it's a 35-55w average TDP variance between the two CPUs, which is quite a % difference with a HTPC and a 280W PSU. The Q is gonna be pushing a lot more used energy in the form of heat into the interior of your case vs the E.
 
That must be a beefy 280W PSU, to have survived powering a Pentium D for some time. I'm not sure, but I think perhaps the Q6600 might take more power. Pretty sure it doesn't take less. But if you are also planning on upgrading the graphics card, then perhaps you should consider a dual-core CPU instead.

Personally, I would probably just sell the whole thing on Craigslist and start over with something a tad more modern. But that's up to you.

Is the PSU a standard ATX power-supply, or does it have Dell-specific connectors, and/or a custom size?
 
That SFF case would be a furnace with that quad in it, especially if left on all the time. I'd go with an E6xx0 because of the small case and low output power supply.
 
Your be fine either way early beta stuff on starcraft 2 looks like it runs well on older hardware cpu either will be great with 720p stuff as that depends more on your condecs and setup more than power.
 
I think i am leaning toward the E6700. do you think the stock cooler would be fine? wondering if anyone wants to get rid of their e6700 lol 🙂
 
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