New Build -- E6750 vs Q6600 vs Wait for Penryn

[Skooter]

I'm currently putting together a new general/home/gaming rig...budget is roughly 1200 not including monitor.

My current rig is an overclocked P4 2.6c @ 3.2 that has lasted me over 4 years. Still runs like a dream, although newer games are definitely at their limit on low settings at this point. It's time to upgrade. I will be overclocking again.

I'm not worried about running games on max settings...FPS are important to me so long as it looks halfway decent.

I like to get the most time out of my purchases, and I'm curious as to what everyone thinks is the better buy at this point given where things are going in the next year or two. I probably won't upgrade again for another 2-3 years at least.

All input is welcome...let the debate begin

 

[Blain]

The Penryn is due out soon. But given your usage, I don't know that I'd wait around for it.
If you're going to OC, you might try out cranking up a cheapie E2160.
1. It's a crazy OC'r
2. It's cheap
3. The smaller L2 cache won't make much difference (cost/performance)
Did I mention it's CHEAP! :laugh:

 

[Skooter]

What's the performance loss versus the e6750?

 

[Billy Idol]

If you're looking to spend in the area of $1200 I'd suggest a Q6600 personally. The low cache of the 2160 has started to make itself evident in gaming benchmarks and it doesn't sound like you're trying to pinch every penny.

I'd go quad since you're willing to overclock. You can't go wrong with either the E6750 or a Q6600, but as far as I've read each have a similar overclocking headroom. The gains the 6750 makes in slight clock advantage are negated or surpassed by the additional cores of the Kentsfield and the gap should only widen as applications make better use of the multiple cores. A Penryn would be nice but I don't think you're missing much by pulling the trigger now.. unless you foresee yourself taking advantage of a few optimized SSE4 apps.

 

[DSF]

I'm in much the same place that you are, with a P4 2.6. Since I want to wait until at least the end of November for all of the upcoming video cards to hit the market, I'll probably end up waiting for the 45nm parts as well. It'd just be one more month.

I can definitely understand wanting to pull the trigger now though.

 

[BehindEnemyLines]

I recall reading somewhere only the Xeon and Extreme version of Penryn will be launched November 12. The "consumer" and cheaper versions will launch in Q1 2008. I am waiting for the Penryn to be released to upgrade my aging laptop. The lower power consumption, SSE4.1, and improved virtualization support should be the selling points. Better performance is extra.

 

[soccerballtux]

Originally posted by: Billy Idol
The low cache of the 2160 has started to make itself evident in gaming benchmarks

Lies

Please provide linkage when making claims like this.

 

[Denithor]

Practically no difference in performance from e6750 in games.

Linky

Actually that whole article is a good read. Once your chip is up to 3GHz you won't miss the higher cache at all.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Denithor
Practically no difference in performance from e6750 in games.

Linky

Actually that whole article is a good read. Once your chip is up to 3GHz you won't miss the higher cache at all.

Umm, those benchmarks show that having 4x as much L2 cache is worth well over 500 Mhz worth of E21x0 processor speed.

edit: It seems to make a hell of a difference in UT3, also.

 

[lilbabimac]

Q6600 ftw!

 

[Roguestar]

I really can't understand people spending MEGA$$$ on a processor when they even say they're not running the most cutting-edge of games. Price placebo effect, I reckon.