Q6600 vs E6850 (Short term [12 months])

[imported_Buckfutter]

The thing is. I don't want to take any chances getting a B3-stepping Quad in the mail. If i order a E6850, i know it will be a G0. And as NicColt so nicely put it, i will most likely upgrade again in about 12 months time. By then the G0 Quads will be in stock everywhere.

/Buckfutter.

 

[dclive]

I just grabbed the Acer E700 from CompUSA - $734 for Quad 2.4 (Q6400), 2GB, 500GB, ATI 1650, a decent tool-less case, Vista Home Premium, and a nice 9-in-1 memory card adapter, Intel Viiv, and 8 USB ports.

For what I do on it (Media Center box, plus running Windows Home Server, plus running Windows Server 2003, plus another one or two VMs from time to time), I added another 2GB of RAM (total of 3.25GB RAM...sigh...32 bit OSs) and added 3 500GB drives (total 4 500GB drives) and it's all done.

For what I need it for, a dual core isn't enough - I can actually make use of the quad core.

 

[bryanW1995]

a Quad 2.4 is a Q6600, I don't think they have released a Q6400. Of course, they might have to release a Q6400 soon to give amd something to compete against...

good point, buckfutter. I can afford to wait to make sure that I get a G0. If it takes an inordinate amount of time I'll just get a c2d as a placeholder until I can get a reasonable deal on a penryn.

 

[trazom]

Originally posted by: NicColt

1 - E6850 is 3.0 Ghz where Q6600 is 2.4 if your playing games the E6850 will beat the Q in alot of tests. I lost the link where I was able to choose the E6850 and Q6600 to bench but I try to find it.

2 - Even if you get a G0 Q66 not many games are supporting 4 cores right now anyway.
so again, pure Ghz will win in games.

Well, a Q6600 can be overclocked to 3Ghz very easily with a decent air cooler, and to 3.2Ghz+ with water cooling. Once games like crysis be released Quad core makes sense, also for video encoding, ...

4 - Unless your guaranteed a Q66 with G0 you'll get a Q66 with 130W the E6850 will be 75W or less. less V = less heat.

It's true the Q6600 gets hot (specs are 105W), at full load with stock cooler it reaches 65 to 70°C, you'd better get a good cooler and well ventilled case. My Q6600 pumps 200W+ at 3.2Ghz. It's not a G0 even it's been purchased 2 weeks ago. Since many people wait for the july price drop, I'm afraid most of the Q6600 currently available on the market are old revs.

5 - You can get the E6850 to 3.6 stable very easy on air, no so with the Q66.

One point here... I wouldn't advise to go much higher than 3.2Ghz on a Q6600

 

[imported_Buckfutter]

Looks like i'm waiting for the X38 boards. They will do SLI.
Link

/Buckfutter.

 

[Tboy012]

do you really need the SLI? either way if your getting the e6050 series until you can get a good G0 stepping, why wait for the x38

just go with the p35 & e6050 series and by the time your ready for a new one, something better will be availible


thats what ill be doing....

 

[jhtrico1850]

I think $183 E6750 vs $266 Q6600 is much smarter fight. 3GHz over 2.66GHz is not worth $83 difference. But since you asked, Q6600. I'd go for E6750, then 45nm quad that don't heat too bad.

 

[covert24]

well people have been saying that they will do SLi but don't base your decisions on the inquirer.

 

[imported_Buckfutter]

If i'm gonna buy a P35 board, it need to work with the TT 120Ultra Extreme or equivalent cooler, and be a good overclocker. Any suggestions?

You're right. I don't realy need a SLI board as the G90/G92 GPU is being released soon.
I also have another question about PCI-E 1.0 vs PCI-E 2.0. I know the new Geforce cards will be PCI-E 2.0, but does it realy matter these days? If i'm not totaly mislead, I've read that the PCI-E 1.0 slots is not even being used at their fully potential yet. Will that change with the new Geforce cards? Will the PCI-E 1.0 slots be bottlenecks for the 2.0 Geforce cards?

In short: Is X38 worth waiting for cause of the PCI-E 2.0?
And is there any good P35 overclockers that fits the TT 120 Ultra Extreme or equivalent cooler?

/Buckfutter.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: JAG87

Originally posted by: aigomorla

Originally posted by: JAG87

Originally posted by: Buckfutter
Thanks for all the replies.

Yeah, the rig will be used for heavy gaming. I've read that Crysis and Alan Wake will take advantage of the quad core fully.
About the G0 stepping CPU's, there is no way i can know if i'm ordering a G0 stepping CPU or not. Its not like the web shops are advertising about them. If i knew that, i would order a Q6600 without any hesitation.

This is how my new rig will look like. (I'm open for suggestions)

Case: Antec P182
PSU: NorthQ NQ-4775-1000 Giant Reactor 1000W
Motherboard: EVGA nForce 680i SLI, nForce-680i SLI, Socket-775, 2xGbLAN, DDR2, 2xPCI-Ex16 (Unsure about this one)
Memory: Crucial DDR2 BallistiX PC6400 2048MB CL4 ,Kit w/two BallistiX 1024MB's, E.P.P (Unsure about these too)
Soundcard: Creative XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro Series
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (Unsure here too)
CPU-cooler: Thermalright ULTRA120 Extreme + Scythe S-FLEX FDB 120mm 1600rpm 28dB Quiet FAN (SFF21F) (If it fits)
System/Games: Western Digital Raptor X (I have a unused laying around)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500 GB SATA
Graphics: XFX GeForce 8800 Ultra XXX (Either this or 2x 8800gtx unless i go for a P35 board)
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 245B (I'm not sure about this one after i read about it on this forum)

As you can see, i'm unsure about a lot of components. I am leaning towards the P35 boards though, as they are more future oriented.
I'm not sure if PC2-6400 is fast enough for overclocking. There is also the question about 2x2gb vs 4x1gb. Which one is the best overclocker?

/Buckfutter

ok here are my thoughts.

case: fine

psu: what in gods name are you buying? that psu is shitty. if you don't have the budget for a proper 1000W psu, just get a quality 750W or 850W psu (PC P&C, Silverstone -not the strider series-, Enermax, Tagan, do your homework).

mb: fine if you need SLI, otherwise get P35. IMHO, if you are buying now you might as well wait until August to see what X38 brings to the plate, because there are rumors that X38 will support SLI, and that would be a wiser choice over 680i.

Memory: fine, i don't think you will be going over 400 FSB with an E6850, never mind with a Q6600 (unless you get G0 steppings in which case if you over clock beyond 3.6 ghz your ram should still be able to handle clock speeds up to 450 mhz)

Soundcard: get an Auzentech Prelude please, its coming out in 2 weeks, and its miles better than any Creative X-Fi card. And it should cost the same as the card you picked. plus you dont have to deal with creative drivers, which is just a bonus.

CPU: I would get a Q6600. that feeling gets even stronger if you can get your hands on a G0 (maybe buy one from a local store where they are willing to show you the boxes? read the IHS and look for SLACR. SL9UM represents B3 steps)

cpu cooler: if it fits, you cant get any better.

sysHD: lovely

stoHD: wonderful

graphics: 1 GTX will do just as good. if you SLI then 2 GTXs

monitor: dell 2407. and don't look back.



that is all.

:thumbsup:

Id ditch the sound card. There used to be tons of issue with people and sound cards if i remember correctly. The onboard sound wouldnt cost you more then 1-2FPS in games, and as jab pointed out to me in another thread, you wont see the difference running 65FPS -> 60FPS.


JAb i heard the dell's have tons of issues with dead pixels expecially on the 2407. If you google it, people are returning the living hell out of it. I was actually in this market. I chose the gateway 2485 after reading all the good reviews on the monitor. It was also the highest raited 24 inch LCD when i was researching on it 2 weeks ago.


Thats my 2 cents. If you can get a NEW revision of the 2407, id say go for it, however check out the gateway 2485 before you hit that send button on the order.


If you want a nice heafty PSU, antec makes a new quadro 850, which jonnyguru gave 9.5 in perfromance.

The only 10 i saw on his reviews would be the thermaltake 1000W series. I was actually quite suprised about this, because the last great PSU TT made was the 500W TWV. This was about 2 yrs ago.

oh no! its not about fps, its about sound quality. any sound card will sound better than onboard. there is massive interference with onboard sound. dont make this mistake, you will be using onboard thinking it sounds great, and you will not know how much you are really missing! going from onboard to creative x-fi is like a 75% improvement, and getting the Auzentech or performing the LM4562NA op-amp mod yourself on a creative card is another 25% improvement. its like night and day.

about the 2407, I cant disagree with the dead pixel reports, but so far I personally know 2 people that own one. The first guy got a mint one. The second one got one with a thing hairline scratch across the panel. So yea, Dell's QA could be a bit better, but you dont pay for RMA they do.

Jab, does this apply to the new boards with the Realtek Hi-Def onboard?

I used to have a X-Fi until the drivers gave me so much headache on my 680i, that i skipped it all together. Would crash my windows left and right until i got rid of it. Thats why i was recomending him skipping it all together.

I thought they werent much of an improvement on the newer boards, and it only applied to the old boards. :\

 

[JAG87]

There is still a huge difference in signal clarity and quality. and lets not forget the biggest difference is seen in games with EAX 5.0. games like call of duty and bf2 are completely different with an x-fi.

and why do you keep calling me jab, lmao.

 

[JAG87]

Originally posted by: Buckfutter
If i'm gonna buy a P35 board, it need to work with the TT 120Ultra Extreme or equivalent cooler, and be a good overclocker. Any suggestions?

You're right. I don't realy need a SLI board as the G90/G92 GPU is being released soon.
I also have another question about PCI-E 1.0 vs PCI-E 2.0. I know the new Geforce cards will be PCI-E 2.0, but does it realy matter these days? If i'm not totaly mislead, I've read that the PCI-E 1.0 slots is not even being used at their fully potential yet. Will that change with the new Geforce cards? Will the PCI-E 1.0 slots be bottlenecks for the 2.0 Geforce cards?

In short: Is X38 worth waiting for cause of the PCI-E 2.0?
And is there any good P35 overclockers that fits the TT 120 Ultra Extreme or equivalent cooler?

/Buckfutter.

no, X38 is worth waiting for other reasons. it will be designed specifically for overclockers, it will have 2x 16x PCI-e and there is a good chance it will run SLI. you can hit 2 birds with 1 stone.

 

[rise]

Originally posted by: PCTC2
yeah. listen to Aigo. his and my 680i have s**t the bed, so to speak. a cap probably blew and there are huge vdroops and stability problems. (yeah, mine is up to ~0.1v vdroop in BIOS). I'm getting my Q6600 on Monday but if I were you, I'd wait for the G0 stepping of the quad if you get it. The only reason i have a 680i is because I'm running 2x 7950GT in SLI.

if thats still the AR board you have in your sig, evga will swap it for an A1 at their expense.

 

[imported_Buckfutter]

I've been waiting this long, i guess i can wait 1-2 more months. I really appreciate all the help and pointers you've given me over the last 2 days. I think i'm gonna wait for the X38 boards. It's not like i need a new computer right now (22 july).

I got the following hardware right now:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2.2GHz @ 2.6GHz Socket 939 1MB, BOXED "Manchester"

Mainboard: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe S939 PCI-E nForce4 SLI, 4xSATA2, Dual-GbLAN, ATX

Soundcard: Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS, Bulk PCI, THX,7.1,24-bit/192KHz

PSU: OCZ PowerStream 520W 20/24pin ATX, 23 dBA @ 60% load

System/Games Raid-0: Western Digital Raptor 74GB S-ATA 8MB cache 10000RPM x 2

Storage: Western Digital Caviar 200GB S-ATA 8MB cache 7200RPM

Memory: OCZ 2048MB Dual Channel Platinum Edition PC-3200 2x1024MB (2-3-2-5) 400Mhz E.L.

Graphics: XFX GeForce 7900GTX 512MB GDDR3 eXtreme, PCI-Express, 2xDVI/HDTV, 675/1700Mhz @ 700/1800Mhz

Case: Thermaltake Xaser Tsunami Black Aluminium

/Buckfutter.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: JAG87
There is still a huge difference in signal clarity and quality. and lets not forget the biggest difference is seen in games with EAX 5.0. games like call of duty and bf2 are completely different with an x-fi.

and why do you keep calling me jab, lmao.

ack... my appologies.. fingers move faster then my brain most of the times.


hmmmm... i may have to look into getting a sound card then. But i have like almost no space to install one thanks to my Full cover blocks, on SLI.

 

[AkumaX]

sorry man but your name is awesome XD

 

[JAG87]

Originally posted by: aigomorla

Originally posted by: JAG87
There is still a huge difference in signal clarity and quality. and lets not forget the biggest difference is seen in games with EAX 5.0. games like call of duty and bf2 are completely different with an x-fi.

and why do you keep calling me jab, lmao.

ack... my appologies.. fingers move faster then my brain most of the times.


hmmmm... i may have to look into getting a sound card then. But i have like almost no space to install one thanks to my Full cover blocks, on SLI.

rest assured aigo, creative is coming you with pci-e 1x cards which would fit nice and snug just above your first video card on a 680i board. let me dig the article up... here you go

its too bad though that Auzentech is not planning a pci-e version of their Prelude. that card is going to kick so much ass. but still, going from on board to any sound card is a huge difference, and going from on board to x-fi for gaming is like day and night.

 

[RussianSensation]

With the system you have, the only upgrade you really need is 8800GTX. A64 2.6 wont really bottleneck your gaming performance once you enable 4AA/16AF at 1600x1200 + I dont see a reason of wasting $ unnecessarily.

 

[imported_Buckfutter]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
With the system you have, the only upgrade you really need is 8800GTX. A64 2.6 wont really bottleneck your gaming performance once you enable 4AA/16AF at 1600x1200 + I dont see a reason of wasting $ unnecessarily.

Maybe I'll just buy a 8800 GTX now. I'm going to buy one anyways. Thanks for the tip.

/Buckfutter.

 

[lopri]

Agree with RussianSensation. It of course depends on what OP plans to do with his computer, but if it's for gaming (i.e. most system-stressful app = games) all he needs is a G80/R600.

 

[btdvox]

This is funny because im in the same place, Buckfutter lol.

I have a set of components set out but reading this thread and doing alot of research might save me some money and help me out

Here is my original set of components :

Case: CoolerMaster CM Stacker 832
PSU: Enermax Galaxy 1000 W
Motherboard: Asus Striker Extreme (Now thinking of P35)
Memory: 2GB OCZ-SLI Dual Channel 2GB OCZ2N1066SR2GK 1066mhz
onboard sound ( was thinking of x-fi gamer card if it really improved games performance, heard mixed reviews)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (now thinking of E6850)
CPU-cooler: Thermalright ULTRA120 Extreme + fan
Harddrive: Western Digital Raptor 120 Gig 10K rpm.
Graphics: eVGA 8800 Ultra
Monitor: I have a Samunsg 226 BW


So my reasons for getting the SLI board was I was under the impression it was the best for games and overclocking tho looking at benches there either equal or the P35 is slightly better. But moreover I was interested in EPP and the sli functions with memory.
I dont plan on going SLI really. It wouldve been a + for sure but I also dont want to wait , Id like to build my system in August.

But Do the P35 boards have EPP function as i was never good at Memory Overclocking if not is it pretty easy to OC memory with good memory? I really like Asus boards and was thinking of getting the ASUS P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP. I saw gigabyte stuff but I dont know if it supports thermalrights ultra 120. And Ive always heard good stuff about Asus boards.

1) Do you have a recommendation for the best Motherboard to get or am i getting a good one? Do gigabyte boards have any advantages??----
2) Is there different/better ram i should be buying? like the Reaper series or Corsair series for Overclocking and fast performance?
3) Lastly I know most people have said people should buy Quads for gaming, but The systems ive been companies use for alan wake are a CPU thats overclocked over 1GHZ of specs@ 3.7 GHZ which is crazy ridicoulus. Also I dont use Photoshop or video edit and I heard multitasking is only helpful if the programs support Quadcore which many dont.

In this sense I think its a better buy to get the E6850 dont you?

Thanks for the good info looking forward to some answers!!

 

[Cookie Monster]

To the Op, how about a QX6850 (3.0ghz 1333fsb quad core)?

note - its weird how QX6850 actually exists and being sold right now here in New Zealand.

 

[PCTC2]

@btdvox

Yeah, the 680i is really only good for memory bandwidth/overclocking and SLI. not CPU overclocking.

@ Cookie Monster.

Sure, the QX6850 has an unlocked multiplier, but you can't beat $266 for the Q6600 after July 22nd.

 

[Genison]

I'm trying to build a new PC as well and stuck on the Q6600 vs. E6850 dilemma. Now after reading this thread my dilemma extends to whether I go with a P35 board or do the 680i. I have a Sound Blaster X-Fi Gamer and I wasn't planning on changing that. When in August is the X38 due?

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Originally posted by: btdvox
Lastly I know most people have said people should buy Quads for gaming, but The systems ive been companies use for alan wake are a CPU thats overclocked over 1GHZ of specs@ 3.7 GHZ which is crazy ridicoulus. Also I dont use Photoshop or video edit and I heard multitasking is only helpful if the programs support Quadcore which many dont.

In this sense I think its a better buy to get the E6850 dont you?

For gaming, it's going to mainly come down to the specific games you play and the resolution/settings at which you play them. You use a 22" monitor that has a resolution of 1680x1050. A couple of observations about that--

1) the 8800 ultra is overkill for that resolution, though one could argue the speed bump over the non-ultra might help in future games. But, again, the other side could argue back that even the ultra might not be adequate for future games such as Crysis. No telling at this point. But my gut tells me that, if building right now, get a GTS 320/640 only and then upgrade to the refresh that will be out later this year.

2) your 16x10 resolution is in an area where CPU *speed* bumps aren't going to show much benefit. I can link you to benches at 16x12 (I know, not the exact same) where a 2.4ghz C2D equals a 3.9ghz C2D with the same video card. Granted, some exceptions exist (namely in RTS and online games).

So, I see no real reason *not* to choose the quad over the 6850. At your resolution, you'll likely not notice any speed bumps the 6850 might get over the quad, and, in the future, if what the game developers have promised (full use of quads) gets delivered, your quad will be ready with all 4 cores, whereas the 6850 will still only have 2.

IMO, drop the GPU down and save some money to get a 320/640 that will retain most of its resale value once the new cards arrive. And your choice of CPU should be either a quad for $266 or a cheaper C2D like the 4300 for $115. It doesn't appear you have much use for a quad at the moment, so an argument could be made either way. But if you're willing to spend $266 on a CPU, it should *not* be the e6850. There is better value elsewhere.