Which CPU?

[Tavyn]

For gaming, listening to music, and surfing the web. This one

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/....jsp?ProductCode=80864

or this one

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819115028

 

[ultra laser]

dualcore

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: ultra laser
dualcore

Agreed...quad won't get you much for those apps, but a faster DC will.

 

[asdftt123]

Quad core, change FSB to 333...and you have basically 2 E6850's.

 

[XeNO6696]

Dual-core. Quad core apps don't exist yet, unless you plan on having an audio or editing workstation, then by all means fire away, but most games that are optimized for multithreading are only optimized for two cores. Just as its totally useless to run a 64 bit OS with 32 bit apps, it's totally useless to run apps optimized for two cores on four. The rest of the system performance will be a bit smoother, but not enough to justify the weaker core speed. Also consider that most programmers don't fully understand multithreading as well--you see how the issue compounds.

The E6850 also has alot of OC potential.

 

[bailw]

Although non of the games take advantage of all four cores, but in some benchmarks quad core show an significant increase over than core 2 duo.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articl...y/core2quad-q6600.html

 

[Tavyn]

AHHHHHHHH okay you guys are all driving me nuts. This is only the second computer I have ever built so I barely know what I am doing. The last one was about 5 years ago. I think I have a pretty good machine going so far see this thread for whats up.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2096737&enterthread=y

I had chosen for myself the 3g dual core, Bamacre then recommended the quad core. Take a look at everything and let me know what you think. Gaming will be the primary use for the system. I hope to get 5 years out of this system before I have to buy a new one. My last system I bought some more ram and a new video card and that was all I needed to to do get 5 years out of it. If I can do the same with this one I would be thrilled.

The only other question I have is I have seen some threads on overclocking the q6600. I have never done it but am more than willing to try if it is a possibility with the system I am getting. Getting a 2.4 and cranking it up to 3.0 just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, so as long as it can be done without a degree from MIT I would love to.

Oh and a sound card, do I need one? and if so which one?

 

[shabby]

Tri-core ftw! Oh wait...

 

[Markfw]

Get the quad core, since you want to last 5 years, and yes, if you get all good quality parts, and a good aftermarket cooler, 3 ghz is easy to do. They do run hotter, so a good HSF is mandatory. And since they draw so much power, a good motherboard and PSU are mandatory.

 

[cputeq]

Most, if not all, motherboards come with onboard sound, so you don't need an addin card, though you may be able to tell the difference in quality.

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Either way you go, you can't go wrong, whether dual core or quad.

Personally, I went quad with a guaranteed G0 stepping (revision of the CPU generally easier to overclock). Even if I don't overclock, i'll be happy with the purchase.

That's because I do more than just game. I do a lot of video conversion to my PSP and home movie encoding, etc, so the more cores the better (for the most part).

And on the horizon, I think games are going to become quad-core aware, especially since they're getting cheap now. I know Crysis can take advantage of 4core, and I think Supreme Commander also has a great scaling with cores.

I seriously hate referring to the Xbit labs article on the Quad vs Dual because of the total mismatching of the cores...Why the hell didn't they compare it vs. a E6600 I have no idea, see as they are the same clock speeds.


For a more thorough comparison, check out Tom's Hardware CPU charts.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html

Select the 2 CPUs to compare and the application and it highlights those 2 you selected

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Either CPU you get is certainly not a bad choice, and for right now your dual core will be better for gaming, but quad core is also an excellent choice.

 

[Tavyn]

Okay so I think I am going to go quad core since that seems to be the direction games are going. Although nobody really uses it yet, it seems that its going to become more and more common in the future and hopefully I can get a longer life from the quad. After I get it all set up I might be back to bug you guys about overclocking. 2cores at 3ghz is good then quad core at 3ghz is better. mwhahahahahahah

 

[MyLeftNut]

For that price, I would definitely recommend the quad core even though you can overclock the dual core higher, the quad core shouldn't be much behind in overclockability with good cooling. Since you're also going to keep it for a while, another reason I would recommend a quad core.

 

[Cogman]

Quad core for sure, They are at a good price, they overclock very well, and they will be used more in the future (trust me). I'm pretty sure that you'll get the best results and millage with a quad core overclocked to 3 ghz, there is really not much reason to avoid it.

 

[jeffw2767602]

quad core hands down