help me choose a CPU please

[DeadSeaSquirrels]

I was thinking about spending ~$160 for a 6000+ AMD CPU. But I was talking to somebody and they told me that for that price, I could get an Intel CPU that performs much better than the AMDs out there. Or I could even pay up $40 or so and get myself a quad core. What do you guys think.

I am going to be using the system for some financial charting software, and I would like an abundance of power, but I really don't need the cutting edge technology. I'm building a machine that has 8 GBs of RAM, 2 - 320 Harddrives in RAID, and probably 2 video cards for 4 DVI outputs. So I mean it's a high end system I guess, but it's not high-end gaming system.

What do you guys think is the best bang for the buck range right now on the high end?

 

[n7]

X2 6000+

No way.

An OCed E6550, sure.

I'd suggest a quad based on your heavy usage.

Q6600, or if you want to go cheaper on the CPU, the Phenoms would work, though not my first choice.

 

[krnmastersgt]

What socket is your motherboard? If you're buying a new mobo based on the socket then you should just get the E8400 or the E21X0 models, very nice bang for buck ratio.

 

[DeadSeaSquirrels]

yeah I haven't bought a motherboard yet. The final parts I'm still searching for, are video card, motherboard, and CPU. I'm not planning on OCing anything though. I know it's a cheap way to get more bang, but I'd rather just stick with it's retail settings and not have to worry about overheating or instability, even if that is a small possible issue.

Edit: Man I'm leaning towards getting a quad core system now, but it's like $100 more than I wanted to spend originally. And my guess is the MB is going to be more expensive now too if it's intel based.

 

[Markfw]

For what you do, Q6600. Especially with 8 gig ram, you need a decent motherboard to handle that.