Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Or ...?

[manowar]

Hi guys,

Current rig:

Intel E6600 Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz CPU
Nvidia 680i SLI Mobo
Geforce 8800 GTS (640MB)
4Gb OCZ Reaper PC2-6400 RAM
OZC 700w PSU

I've recently just thought about upgrading my processor. So, here is the current dilemma.

My current CPU is the humble E6600 Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz. Now, I'm currently undecided between purchasing either a Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, or going for something like the Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3GHz.

Now, I do a fair bit of Photoshopping, Illustrator and Flash, plus I play games like Crysis. So I ask, which would be the best choice for me? A Quad Core (E6600 is my current choice) or...the E6850 clocking at 3Ghz with 1333FSB...

Any suggestions would be great, thanks.

 

[Fat.Clown]

Quad for sure
OR
you can Overclock your E6600 and get extra performance for no extra charge

 

[gurusan]

Neither. Overclock your e6600...it will do 3.2+ghz guaranteed.

 

[manowar]

Quad for sure

Cheers, Fat.clown. So you reckon the E6600 Quad would be best? Is there any other Quad's on the market that are reasonably priced? Or are we talking a major leap to £500+ for the Quad Extremes after the Quad E6600?

 

[Fat.Clown]

Overclocking the E6600 would give you close performance to the E6850 you were thinking about.

but if you aren't comfortable about OCing, and rather buy one of the two... it'd have to be Q6600

the Q6700 costs about 100% more than Q6600
and anything above that... the "EXTREME"s costs are just outrageous

 

[gurusan]

overclocking wouldn't get him "close performance to the e6850", it would surpass it as 3.2+ghz is easily achieved even on the worst stepping e6600s.

 

[manowar]

I'm not 100% comfortable with OC'ing, I can do it, but I don't really have enough experience.

So, it sounds like its a Q6600 for me. Would it improve games like Crysis?

 

[gurusan]

Trust me, it's extremly easy, and you have all the right hardware for it.

If you get a quad you won't see much of an improvement in Crysis because:
-It's GPU limited
-At the moment it's optimized for dual cores, not quad cores

Overclocking is as easy as changing a few values in your BIOS....it's free and despite many people think, it's virtually impossible to damage anything.

The only thing you might have to do is upgrade your cooler if you don't already have an aftermarket one.

 

[manowar]

Trust me, it's extremly easy, and you have all the right hardware for it.

If you get a quad you won't see much of an improvement in Crysis because:
-It's GPU limited
-At the moment it's optimized for dual cores, not quad cores

Overclocking is as easy as changing a few values in your BIOS....it's free and despite many people think, it's virtually impossible to damage anything.

The only thing you might have to do is upgrade your cooler if you don't already have an aftermarket one.

Gurusan, I have a good Zalman cooler, I think its the CNP7500 (sic)? With Arctic Silver 5 compound.

I have overclocked in the past. Basically, went into the BIOS and "unlinked" the CPU speeds from the RAM speeds.. I set the CPU speed from 2400 (2.4GHZ) to 3000 (or something like that)....

...What figures should I enter into the BIOS to overclock my system?

 

[krazyq]

I'm not 100% comfortable with OC'ing, I can do it, but I don't really have enough experience.

So, it sounds like its a Q6600 for me. Would it improve games like Crysis?

oc isnt hard to do and it will increase performance, especially if you get over 3ghz.
If you wanna upgarde, why would you wanna get an e6850? you could just oc your processor and get the exact same performance.

I just upgraded and got a q6600, so thats what you should get if your looking to upgrade.
Just post up in the overclocking if you need help in overclocking.
First read the guides and make sure you understand what your doing...its not hard, trust me.