Recommend me some Intel based stuff

[pontifex]

Looking at prices, I might be able to upgrade sooner than I thought. I've been an AMD guy forever.

My current system is:
AMD Opteron 175 2.2 Ghz
EVGA mobo (not sure what model)
EVGA 8800GTS 320
Creative Audigy 2 ZS
3 SATA drives
2 IDE DVD RW drives
Linksys 1 GB NIC

I'm looking at maybe going Intel Quad core. I saw one on newegg for $260, which doesn't seem too bad. Are these processors good or should I just stick with a Core2Duo?

I have no idea what mobo to get. Like I said, I've been an AMD guy.

Also, these boards take DDR2, right? I've heard this stuff is real cheap right now. holy sh!!! just looked at DDR2 and its dirt cheap! wow!

 

[jkresh]

The q6600 is a good chip and it overclocks well but if you don't overclock or use any programs that take advantage of quad (either serious multitasking or some multimedia software) it wont be significantly faster then your chip. If you do overclock you should have no problem getting it to at least 3ghz (and maybe considerably higher) so that changes things. Either way if our current system is doing everything you need then you should wait till 1st quarter 08, a penryn version of the q6600 will be out and probably will overclock better (plus sse4 has some benefits) and phenom will be out before then so you can compare the two.

If you had a single core, I would say make the jump to intel now, but for most taks at stock speed the difference wont be that much with the intel system.

 

[pontifex]

so quad core wouldn't really help all that much for gaming?

would i see any difference by going to a core2duo, like and e6600?

what about the ram? would ddr2 make much of a difference compared to ddr?

 

[theprodigalrebel]

You have a decent rig for now. If you can hold off until mid-February, you can get the new 45nm Yorkfield quad-cores (Penryn core) that can hit 4GHz on air-cooling. $316 for a Q9450 (1333FSB, 2.66GHz, 12MB L2, 45nm, 95W TDP)

If you are an overclocker, I'd say hold off until then. The 45nm chips have tremendous OC potential and your current rig should last you fine until then. Having said that, there is nothing wrong with the current quads (check CPU forum for swtethan's thread on everyone's overclocks) and I wouldn't say it's a bad time to get one of them - just a heads up on what's coming up.

Motherboards: The cheapest X38 motherboards start at around $229 and the only real advantage they offer is dual-PCIe x16 slots for Crossfire. There are great, full-featured P35 motherboards (like the $129.99 ABIT IP35) that pack almost all the features and overall goodness for half-the-price or so. You pretty much can't go wrong with ASUS/ABIT/Gigabyte's P35-offerings. Just choose what features matter to you: no. of SATA ports, eSATA, IEEE1394, expansion slots-layout etc.

 

[pontifex]

I'd still like these questions answered too, if anyone knows. Thanks.

so quad core wouldn't really help all that much for gaming?

would i see any difference by going to a core2duo? How do they compare with Opterons?

what about the ram? would ddr2 make much of a difference compared to ddr?


I'm not much of an overclocker - I'm afraid of damaging something. I've tried overclocking my current CPU but its only on stock cooling and I only did it by 200 mhz. I put it back to stock though because it didn't seem to help any. I'm also not sure I even did it properly.

 

[biostud]

I would say q6600 since it will be plenty fast for singlethreaded software, and it will blast the e6600 in multicore optimized software. Since the thrend is going for multicore supported games etc. it's the way to go IMHO. But I would also wait for the 45nm chips. Depending on your use I would consider if you're upgrading because you need it or because it's always fun to get a new rig......(I know the last feeling very well)

overclocking is quite easy specially if you follow the guides in the CPU forum, but if you don't feel overclocking is for you a fast core2duo will probably be a better option than a q6600, but then I wouldn't even consider upgrading from your current rig. Mine is quite similar's to yours and the only thing I'm considering is investing in a 8800GT or waiting a year for a full system upgrade.

 

[pontifex]

i guess i don't really need it. i was just thinking of getting up to date hardware since the stuf i have is hard to find parts for or its expensive now.

if i'm not going to see much improvement, i guess i'll wait until theres more out there that will show it. then maybe prices may be cheaper also.