q6600 or e6850

[wuyanxu]

ok, i need good some advice on which CPU to get. the 2 CPU will be of similar price, so for me, it's very hard to decide which one to get.

what i plan to do with my computer:
-Gaming!
-and a few Uni projects with PSPICE or MatLab etc.

other system spec:
-Intel X38 motherboard (system will be built in September, when this PCI-e 2.0 mobo is out)
-2GB DDR2 800Mhz RAM
-8800GTS 320MB (may go for BFG OC or XFX *** if have spare money)
-500GB Weston Digital SE16 HDD
-and that LG 22" monitor

i will be do minor overclocking. so im hoping to get a G0 q6600 to 3Ghz, which is similar to 6850's stock speed.

do keep in mind that i hope to use this motherboard/CPU setup for at least 3 years, may be more. i hope to be able to play all games fluently in 3 years without changing CPU. (will upgrade GPU regularly)

so which CPU shall i get?

[djgandy]

do keep in mind that i hope to use this motherboard/CPU setup for at least 3 years, may be more. i hope to be able to play all games fluently in 3 years without changing cpu ('http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/products/a561x1y0z1p0s0n0m0'). (will upgrade GPU regularly)

so which cpu ('http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/products/a561x1y0z1p0s0n0m0') shall i get?

Well, no one can really say what will happen in 3 years. A quad will be better for sure. Personally I'd go for the quad, but if I couldn't upgrade for 3 years i'd stick a cheapo one in oc it save the £100 and buy a quad in a years time ;)

I can't tell you what to do at the moment, we'll have to see how the G0 steppings pan out.
I can say you'll probably hit near 4ghz with a E6850 G0 with a good heatsink and fan.
Not seen any Q6600 G0 overclocks yet though, so can't say. I'd imagine a comfortable OC to 3.2ghz though with a good heatsink fan.

[teknokid]

id go with the q6600, and a better vid card, the vid cards 320mb will bottleneck u 4 sure.

[wuyanxu]

good advices. thanks very much.


but if I couldn't upgrade for 3 years i'd stick a cheapo one in oc it save the £100 and buy a quad in a years time
yes, if i were to install a cheap CPU, i may never stop upgrading. which costs too much money and i cannot stop myself looking at hardware sites, so it's also too time consuming.
therefore i don't plan to go with upgrading CPU/Mobo every year. i would, however, change graphics card, and add more RAM. as those are very basic, and only takes 10mins for upgrading each.

because seeing q6600 G0's are cheap and may reach 3Ghz on air cooling. i am very tempted to just go for q6600, but im worried that i may not reach 3Ghz. thus getting worse performance than the 3Ghz e6850 in this year's games.


id go with the q6600, and a better vid card, the vid cards 320mb will bottleneck u 4 sure.
true, 320MB will be bottleneck, but with Geforce 9x00 next year (which i will upgrade to, 100% sure about that, being a gamer) i'd rather have a cheap Dx10 card to work with my Vista. IF i had a PCI-e card, i would have just plugged that in and saved £180. (current home computer: 2 year old Sempron, cheapest bundle from Novatech)

[Jonny2Bad]

The 320mb will not bottleneck you yet unless your gonna game on 24"+ monitor it'll see you into crysis on max settings so i wouldnt worry too much and tbh if you put another 320 next to that 1 it works nearly as well as 2 gtx's so go for the 320 it will last you!! I would go for the q6600 no games so far use the 4 cores and crysis will play on max settings with the e6600 so the q6600 is gonna be overkill for a good while yet!

[wuyanxu]

so the q6600 is gonna be overkill for a good while yet!
in that case, is it worth getting a q6600?

[Ben]

With the recent price drops, it's definitely worth getting one. Try and get one with "GO" stepping (aka energy efficient). It uses less power and creates less heat. Nova's price seems a little high at the moment, so as with most things it's worth a shop around. :wink:

[wuyanxu]

With the recent price drops, it's definitely worth getting one. Try and get one with "GO" stepping (aka energy efficient). It uses less power and creates less heat. Nova's price seems a little high at the moment, so as with most things it's worth a shop around. :wink:
q6600 it is.

because i will be buying in September, im not too worried that it may not be G0, since by then, B3's will be all gone. and price should be around £150-£160.