Is it just me, or is now the time to buy the best processor money can afford?

[soccerballtux]

It seems the CPU horsepower available now is much, much greater than what is currently, and what will be needed in the upcoming gaming front (and far beyond what we need for home computing)

So Crysis will be graphically taxing of course, but I don't see it, and can't imagine many games coming up, having a huge problem running on dual 3Ghz cores. One for anything system related to the game, and the second for any and all physics calculations. Math is taxing on CPUs, but not 3 cores x 3Ghz taxing.

So my thinking is now would be the time to get a the highest end quad core processor you can afford. In 2 years simply get another top of the line graphics card (or two for SLI) and you're good for as long as that card can hold up (when it comes to replacement everybody's on PCI-E2 anyways).

 

[Operandi]

I'm holding out for 3GHZ quad cores.

Till than my Athlon XP 2800+ will do just fine .

 

[jonmcc33]

Originally posted by: Operandi
I'm holding out for 3GHZ quad cores.

Till than my Athlon XP 2800+ will do just fine .

The Q6600 can reach 3GHz through overclocking already. What's holding you back?

 

[jkresh]

3ghz is pretty easy with the q6600, and with a good board and good cooling 3.6 or higher is not that hard. Also if you have the budget 3ghz quad core is available now (penryn).

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: jonmcc33

Originally posted by: Operandi
I'm holding out for 3GHZ quad cores.

Till than my Athlon XP 2800+ will do just fine .

The Q6600 can reach 3GHz through overclocking already. What's holding you back?

I've gotten back into high-end audio, at the moment I'm working out the details on a DIY 2.1 PC speaker system so that takes most of my free time as well as a good portion of my expendable income.

 

[soccerballtux]

Originally posted by: jonmcc33

Originally posted by: Operandi
I'm holding out for 3GHZ quad cores.

Till than my Athlon XP 2800+ will do just fine .

The Q6600 can reach 3GHz through overclocking already. What's holding you back?

Exactly; I'd put it at 3Ghz since they seem to "slow down" if you push them too far. Peoples' e6600's going to 3.4, then having to back them down to 3.2, then 3.0, and finally to 2.8 or 9. Imo start and stick with 3Ghz on the quad; get an SLI board and 8GB of ram and you're set for 5 years with only one graphics card upgrade. Seems to me in 3 years Intel/AMD will have quite a pickle on their hands; as broadband becomes more ubiquitous people will keep their computer up to date and fewer will "need" to buy a new computer because "this one is slow". Anything out now is fine for internet surfing and emailing and will be until 2013 when XP is no longer supported.

 

[Old Hippie]

I've gotten back into high-end audio,

Oh no, another addicting hobby. I had to give that one up to feed this computer addiction. Computers are a lot cheaper.