What to buy ?

[Steen]

Hello

I'm not quite the hardware expert but judging from the forum you guys might be able to help me out.

Im confused about how the performance difference is on those two CPUs.

They cost the same, but which is better? The computer will be used for Gaming, Movies and some video rendering

Core 2 Duo E6850, 3.00 GHz

or

Core 2 Quad Q6600, 2.40 GHz

Also, how great is the performance difference on 667 MHz and 800 MHz RAM ? Is it worth the money?

Thank you for your tips in advance

 

[Rike]

Welcome to the forums!

A Q6600 is a better long term bet. You get four cores instead of two and if they are not fast enough for you, you can always overclock them.

With ram prices so low right now, you should just get DDR2 800. You can get 2 gigs for around $70-80 after rebates. Make sure you check out the Hot Deals forum before you buy. There always seems to be something good.

BTW, this type of thread would normally go in General Hardware. I'm not criticizing, just informing.

 

[Steen]

Great, thanks for your help.

I'll keep in mind to post in the other forum henceforth

 

[mechBgon]

Topic moved from Computer Help to General Hardware.

AnandTech Moderator
mechBgon

 

[JustaGeek]

If you want fast gaming, go for E6850 and 800MHz RAM.

Quad-core will sit unused 99-100% of the time, unless you have applications to take advantage of 4 cores. Microsoft only recently (Dec 2006) patched XP to work better with 2 cores, let alone 4.

 

[jkresh]

Video rendering will definitely benefit from the quad (as will video encoding and gaming will start to benefit later this year and early next year).

 

[Steen]

So to "future-proof" my computer, a quad core would pay off over time ?

 

[Rike]

Well, about as future proof as you can get anyway. The things is, if you have programs that are multi-threaded, that is, built from the ground up to make use of several cores, they will generally run faster if they have more cores to use. As the base of dual and multi-core CPUs continues to grow, more and more programs will and are being written to take advantage of those "extra" cores. I haven't seen it yet, but I wouldn't be surprised to see dual-core CPUs listed as a minimum recommendation for high end games in the next 2-3 years. Buying a quad now just puts you in a better position for long term trends. And, if things don't go that way that fast, having the quad core isn't going to hurt you in anyway.