Processor choice

[Professor Penguin]

First of all I'd better introduce myself seeing as this is my first post. Hi *waves*

Righty then... my trusty 4200+ 939 rig blew up at the weekend so I'm in need of a new system. I've just ordered 2 HD3870's because 1) they were really cheap and 2) I've got a 24" on the way and I didn't think anything less than dual gpu's would cope and I wasn't willing to fork out for gtx's.

My predicament is which processor to go with. Logical choice would be the q6600 which, at £150 is good value, clocks like a beast and wipes the floor with pretty much all competition. BUT... I can get a Phenom 9500 for ~£120 and the 9600 for ~£150 and with the Black Editions due in on Monday I'm very tempted. I've heard that Spider makes the Phenoms and HD38's add up to more than the sum of their parts but can it make up for the Phenom being so pants against the C2Q?

I'll be using it almost exclusively for gaming and I've already got a tr 120A Ultra to keep temps down so that shouldn't be a problem.

What would you guys suggest?

Cheers,

Danny

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Originally posted by: Professor Penguin
First of all I'd better introduce myself seeing as this is my first post. Hi *waves*

Righty then... my trusty 4200+ 939 rig blew up at the weekend so I'm in need of a new system. I've just ordered 2 HD3870's because 1) they were really cheap and 2) I've got a 24" on the way and I didn't think anything less than dual gpu's would cope and I wasn't willing to fork out for gtx's.

My predicament is which processor to go with. Logical choice would be the q6600 which, at £150 is good value, clocks like a beast and wipes the floor with pretty much all competition. BUT... I can get a Phenom 9500 for ~£120 and the 9600 for ~£150 and with the Black Editions due in on Monday I'm very tempted. I've heard that Spider makes the Phenoms and HD38's add up to more than the sum of their parts but can it make up for the Phenom being so pants against the C2Q?

I'll be using it almost exclusively for gaming and I've already got a tr 120A Ultra to keep temps down so that shouldn't be a problem.

What would you guys suggest?

Cheers,

Danny

New 45nm Intel CPU' comes out real soon, if you dont need to build right this minute you might wanna wait. E8400 looks like the sweet spot stock is 3.0 with overclocks seen at 4.0 on air.

 

[palladium]

Well if you game mostly I don't see a point in getting a quad core since most games are not yet optimised for 4 cores. I'd say go for a E6850 ( or as suggested by watagump, E8400 if you can wait) if you want to get the best fps out of your games. I've read the Phenoms are inferior to Q6600 in rendering/video task, but I'm not sure about games.

 

[Professor Penguin]

Originally posted by: WaTaGuMp

New 45nm Intel CPU' comes out real soon, if you dont need to build right this minute you might wanna wait. E8400 looks like the sweet spot stock is 3.0 with overclocks seen at 4.0 on air.

I need it by next week really,as my last rig blew up I'm stuck on my gf's laptop at the moment and it's driving me insane

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Originally posted by: Professor Penguin

Originally posted by: WaTaGuMp

New 45nm Intel CPU' comes out real soon, if you dont need to build right this minute you might wanna wait. E8400 looks like the sweet spot stock is 3.0 with overclocks seen at 4.0 on air.

I need it by next week really,as my last rig blew up I'm stuck on my gf's laptop at the moment and it's driving me insane

Well if you wanna build now you can pretty much build what I have in my sig, its the best system I have built ever. The new chips come out this month, there is one already over at ebay for 500+ bucks heh.

 

[Vipeax]

I bought an E6750 on 2-12-2007 (or 12-2-2007 in US way, so last month). Switched to a Q6600 yesterday and it DOES own for games. Even old games play the same or even better, because I can run whatever on the background and still play my maxium FPS.

 

[Professor Penguin]

I figured the general consensus would be to go with some form of Intel and I am swaying that way at the moment but I'm still really curious to see what happens when you combine a Phenom, 790FX and a pair of HD3870's. They're all out and readily available but it seems no one's tested it yet.

 

[j0j081]

Originally posted by: palladium
Well if you game mostly I don't see a point in getting a quad core since most games are not yet optimised for 4 cores. I'd say go for a E6850 ( or as suggested by watagump, E8400 if you can wait) if you want to get the best fps out of your games. I've read the Phenoms are inferior to Q6600 in rendering/video task, but I'm not sure about games.

def don't get the e6850. that would be way too much to pay with the new processors coming out so soon. the e6850 wasn't really a good deal in the first place with the e6750 overclocking so well.

 

[j0j081]

Originally posted by: Vipeax
I bought an E6750 on 2-12-2007 (or 12-2-2007 in US way, so last month). Switched to a Q6600 yesterday and it DOES own for games. Even old games play the same or even better, because I can run whatever on the background and still play my maxium FPS.

I thought the e6750 and q6600 were very similar in games considering most are not taking advantage of quad core at all yet.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by: Professor Penguin
I figured the general consensus would be to go with some form of Intel and I am swaying that way at the moment but I'm still really curious to see what happens when you combine a Phenom, 790FX and a pair of HD3870's. They're all out and readily available but it seems no one's tested it yet.

Your talking about the spider platform? well its just a marketing gimmick like SLi certified memory or case etc.

Id say grabbing a X38 or P35 (crossfire compatible) with an intel cpu is the better choice here.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster

Originally posted by: Professor Penguin
I figured the general consensus would be to go with some form of Intel and I am swaying that way at the moment but I'm still really curious to see what happens when you combine a Phenom, 790FX and a pair of HD3870's. They're all out and readily available but it seems no one's tested it yet.

Your talking about the spider platform? well its just a marketing gimmick like SLi certified memory or case etc.

Id say grabbing a X38 or P35 (crossfire compatible) with an intel cpu is the better choice here.

WTF SLI memory and cases are REAL, just ask Nvidia. :roll:

 

[j0j081]

Originally posted by: WaTaGuMp

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster

Originally posted by: Professor Penguin
I figured the general consensus would be to go with some form of Intel and I am swaying that way at the moment but I'm still really curious to see what happens when you combine a Phenom, 790FX and a pair of HD3870's. They're all out and readily available but it seems no one's tested it yet.

Your talking about the spider platform? well its just a marketing gimmick like SLi certified memory or case etc.

Id say grabbing a X38 or P35 (crossfire compatible) with an intel cpu is the better choice here.

WTF SLI memory and cases are REAL, just ask Nvidia. :roll:

yeah same thing with SLI PSUs!

 

[n7]

Q6600. Phenom is cheap, but it doesn't perform nearly as well, & won't OC even remotely close to as well as a C2Q.

A number of newer games ARE utilizing all four cores; don't go dual unless it's for short term. (As in for now, & then sell when the Yorkfields show up.)

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: j0j081

Originally posted by: Vipeax
I bought an E6750 on 2-12-2007 (or 12-2-2007 in US way, so last month). Switched to a Q6600 yesterday and it DOES own for games. Even old games play the same or even better, because I can run whatever on the background and still play my maxium FPS.

I thought the e6750 and q6600 were very similar in games considering most are not taking advantage of quad core at all yet.

What you heard is correct. He's just saying that with four cores, he can run several apps in the background and still play games without a hitch.