To Quad or not to Quad

[DSF]

Originally posted by: WaTaGuMp
Well I cant say for sure but the street price according to Intel is suppose to be 183, I expect maybe 20-40 bucks higher from the big etailers. This is a pure estimate though so we shall see.

Also, you have to keep in mind that the prices Intel releases are for quantities of 1000 processors. Some of the so-called "price gouging" by etailers is simply that they need to make some money on the chips they're selling.

 

[Chunkee]

I may be able to get a GO q6600 for a decent price, would I be able to OC it with my memory like the e6750? Will I see any real world differences? 245 shipped? vs a e6750 for around 170? what do you think? is the extra 2 cores with 70 bux?

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Originally posted by: Chunkee
I may be able to get a GO q6600 for a decent price, would I be able to OC it with my memory like the e6750? Will I see any real world differences? 245 shipped? vs a e6750 for around 170? what do you think? is the extra 2 cores with 70 bux?

Overclocking is always luck of the draw some chips do well some dont, the plus side is most of the new Intel chips seem to OC very well, its one of the reasons people like them so much. They are almost the perfect CPU right now, they are fast, cheap OC well and run cool, what more can you ask for heh. As for real world difference I never had a quad so I cant answer that part. I built mine for gaming so I didnt even look into a quad, you can always buy a mobo that takes both and if later you find you need a quad sells yours and buy one.

 

[tallman45]

Originally posted by: Chunkee
I may be able to get a GO q6600 for a decent price, would I be able to OC it with my memory like the e6750? Will I see any real world differences? 245 shipped? vs a e6750 for around 170? what do you think? is the extra 2 cores with 70 bux?

100% positive real world observance on Day one will be

1) Quad will use more electricity
2) Quad will generate more heat
3) Cost to buy will be higher
4) Each CPU in the Quad will be slower than the Dual Core

BUT,,,,,Depending on how intensive you use the system a Quad core may be a huge benefit in performance power, BUT you must be willing and able to "Tune" your system so that specific processes only run on each set of cores See "Set Processor Affinty"

The reason is that the L2 Caches are not shared between each set of 2 cores in a Quad so duplicate, obsolete data resides in each cache if you just allow apps to run on whicherver set of processors they find the performance may be worse than a Dual Core

It takes a bit more work, better components and some luck to get a Quad core to run at the Ghz as a Dual Core

So a 2.40ghz Quad may never actually reach the stock speed of a 3ghz Dual Core

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: Chunkee

Originally posted by: WaTaGuMp

Originally posted by: Zenoth
I'd see no reasons whatsoever to get any of the 65nm models when the 45nm Duals will be there within this very month. Maybe if you're not patient and you whant to go with Quads then yes perhaps it'd be worth it, because Intel delayed their Yorkfield models. But if you want to go Dual then I'd highly recommend to just play the waiting game and get yourself a shiny E8400 or E8500.

And unless you do lots of video/audio encoding/decoding, photoshoping, 3-D modeling, benchmarking and perhaps a few other activities on your PC then I'd see no reasons to go with a Quad. However I must admit that the Q9300 is extremely tempting due to its extreme low price for a 45nm Quad, with perhaps the only downside of having only 6MB of L2 Cache. But as far as over-clocking goes I've seen it reach 3.7Ghz on air, and considering it only has a Multiplier of 7.5 (maximum) then it can't be negligible. With a good motherboard the low Multiplier shouldn't be too stressful on it.

I do agree if you are able to wait it out a bit the Wolfdale seems to be a better choice. I do wonder though how much price gouging will be going on and if there will be any supply issues. Early testings though do show the E8400 hitting 4.0 on air.


http://en.expreview.com/?p=68

Your price gouging comment is something that does concern me. Anytime there is a new chip out...these online retailers reem you, AKA, 8800gt. I am in no real hurry here as my opty 165 is working fine. What pricing are we looking at for the e8400? over 250? I like to keep my CPUs less than 200. As you all no, this stuff can get really out of hand

JC

Even if the E8XXX series is "price gouged", the old E6750 should go down in price when they are released. So it may still be a good idea to wait until they are released.