need help choosing a CPU

[hodgenutts]

Ok first of all i already own a Q6700. I'm going to be building a new system. This second system will be mainly used for adobe and rendering pictures. The first system will primarily be used for gaming. That being said should I put the q6700 in system that will be used for adobe and pictures and pic up a newer cpu such as an E8400 for my gaming rig? The motherboard I'm going to be using for the Adobe rig is an ASUS P5N-MX as I already own it, and I'm going to pic pick up either an NForce 650 or 680 chipset for the gaming system. Any advice would be helpful as I don't know too much about the new CPU's. THe budget for this cpu is $200 and no I'm not going to, "spend a few dollars more" for this or that the budget for the cpu has been set. Thank you for any and all advice.

 

[Zumbador]

Rendering pictures from what program? Is this for work or play?

You may want to consider building a workstation with two quadcore xeons and 16gb of RAM.

 

[hodgenutts]

I apologaize I should have been more descriptive. It is for a friend who will be using Adobe and they said they will be using dreamweaver, but I'm not sure what that is. They will be using it for personal use.

 

[hodgenutts]

bump

 

[ShadowFlareX]

E8400 is definitely superior for gaming, and especially overclocking. So that pretty much leaves the Q6700 for the workstation, problem solved 😉

 

[VulcanX]

But lets also keep in mind that the E8xxx has higher cache and is cheaper than the E6xxx or the new E7xxx, i would look at the E7200 as others pointed out, but for over clocking, E8400 will do in my opinion

 

[hodgenutts]

Does anyone know how well the E7200 overclocks?

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: hodgenutts
Does anyone know how well the E7200 overclocks?

Easily >3GHz from everything I've read, just make sure you have adequate cooling if you're really going to push it. Otherwise spend your $200 budget and get the e8400.