Need some advice re quad vs core 2 for Photoshop

[Skypix7]

Thanks for any helpful advice you can share.

I'm laboring away with Win2kPro and it's time to upgrade. Question is do I want to pop a few extra bucks for a quad system or will a Core 2 such as E6700 or E6850 do the trick for heavy photo editing with multiple large (75MB plus) image files opened at one time in Photoshop CS3.

I'm also going to buy one of those Ebay systems that come with 4 MB, 600 watt PS and Asus P5etc. moboards. Tired of spending days getting parts in and building my own systems. Any recommendations for online budget sellers?

Thanks!
JIm

 

[zero2dash]

http://www23.tomshardware.com/...2&model2=871&chart=437

According to this, the E6850 is the chip to get over the Q6600 in Photoshop CS3.

--==BUT==--
That's at stock speeds.
I believe that if you take a Q6600 and just up the FSB (assuming you're using a P35 mobo that supports a 1333 FSB), you will get the core clock speed to 3gig per core, with no voltage bump necessary.
Then you're at equal clock speed between the two, and I think the Q6600 would benefit greatly (and end up winning over the E6850) because of the additional 2nd core.

I've mulled between the two myself, but I've gotta believe that the Q6600 is a better system, especially longterm. There's really no reason to buy a dual core over a quad at this price.

I wouldn't bother buying anything prebuilt unless it's a factory system. A) I'm sure the price won't be worth it, and B) you don't know the skill of the builder. They may save you $200 off retail, but how do you know if they put thermal paste on correctly? They could screw something rudimentary like that up, and eventually your processor will fry and then you're out more money to get a replacement.

You said "4MB", I'm assuming you meant 4 gig and were talking about ram. In that case you should probably get Vista x64 which will support a total 4 gigs of ram. 32 bit OSs do not support 4 gigs of ram; usually it'll see it as like 3.2 gigs.

 

[Skypix7]

thanks 02-, that helps a lot.

I'd build the system myself but I just don't want to spend the time...plus prebuilt systems from companies who sell hundreds per month have 1 to 3 year warranties against sloppy work, so I might just roll the dice, and it'll be covered by paypal warranty too.

Roger on the 4GB ram, and vista 64bit.

Photoshop CS3 is optimized for quad so I think it's a go for me to go quad.

thanks!

 

[zero2dash]

No prob...yeah, I know what you mean about building. Would be nice to just have 1 package show up with a nice finished custom setup than getting three deliveries and a large assortment of packing peanuts, bubble wrap and foam.

I was a little leery of going Vista x64 bit but I figure by the time I order all my parts and build later this fall...hopefully Vista SP1 will be out and fix most of the problems. I hated XP until SP1 but since then it's been great. Seems that way with EVERY Windows release...pre-SP1 fuhgeddaboutit

 

[Skypix7]

SPx, what a concept...buy it now, get it to work later...:laugh:

Good luck with your build