Been thinking about going with Intel for the past few weeks (and also nVidia when I have the funds) as AMD/ATi just don't cut the mustard. I play games on the rig in my sig and I like it. The thing is, however much I upgrade, I know there is better hardware out there. I'm asking if I should go for the Q6600 G0 SLACR or a Core2Duo (and if so, which one) I use my PC for gaming mainly, a bit of Photoshop and general useage. I have my eye on a motherboard for when I make the upgrade but will most certainly ask your opinion. Thanks in adavnce.
Get yourself a Q6600 G0 stepping (as you said) and a 8800GT if you want good performance without breaking the bank.
I've been wondering about the same thing. (Q6600 2,4GHz vs E6850 3,0GHz) I've heard that a quad core is better at running more programs at ones, but i'm no expert so I don't konw
just as I thought. Time to get me a job! Whats the performance difference between the 8800GT and the 8800GTS. Theyre on the same chip with relatively similar clock speeds and not a large amount of difference of price between them. The difference I can see is stream processes. and on paper my card should be better but isn't. Damn ATi
In almost all consumers PCs quad-core will be largely wasted as 2-3 cores will be sitting idle for the vast majority of the time. However they are cheap now so if you want a little overkill (or tend to run multiple demanding apps) then go for it. Intel Core2 based CPUs o/c like mad so cache is the main factor, 1333FSB gives little boost and may even hold back your o/c too. For most people a faster clocked dual-core is easily preferable to a slower clocked quad-core, should run a fair bit cooler too. As for the 8800GT_512MB vs 8800GTS_512MB the GTS is a smidge faster but costs a fair bit more, but with 8800GT is short supply and bloated prices it may not cost you much extra. Just make sure if you get a GTS that it's the 512MB version.
thanks Austin! Looks like I will be investing in a Q6600 sometime soon, probably with the AC Freezer 7 Pro. I have the AMD version at the moment and it works well, I think I need better airflow within my case though, been looking at the Antec P182 as a replacement although I would have to cut me a side window. Thanks for the responses guys, anyone wanna lend me a couple of hundred quid?
