So... core 2 quad q6600 or core 2 duo e6850?

[aken909]

So, i'm buying a new cpu in 3 weeks. And I am on the fence between the core 2 duo e6850 and the core 2 quad q6600 (i'd consider getting the core 2 quad q6700 but its about 200$ more than both and this is a cpu on a budget).

Now what I mainly do in this order is game, torrent, and web surf with a lil video editing on the side. The games I play are Warcraft, NWN 2, and Oblivion type games, I have lots of other games but you can see the genre I am in.

I feel like I felt at my last cpu purchase AMD X2 4400+. Last time I was on the fence about if I wanted a dual core or the slightly faster single core AMD Athlon 64's. I'm very glad I went with the slower dual core. Now the question is faster dual core or go for the quad core.

I should mention my new system will be SLI with 4 gb ram.

Also a question, i'm pretty sure the answer is no, but does the 6850 support ddr3?

 

[Pain999]

E6850 does support ddr3, however it is more up to the motherboard.

Quad core might help on the video editing, but for everything else a fast clock dual core will do more good.

 

[aken909]

Thanks for the info, i'd like to go ddr 3, but the price jump is a lot. Either way having the option to upgrade to ddr3 when the price drops is a nice one. I'm on the new cpu every 2- 2.5 years plan with upgrades in the middle.

I'm interested also if people think quad will be better down the line. My X2 while not supported by basically anything when I got it. Now as its reached full cycle has become a lot more supported. Do people think perhaps the Quad is the better choice based on that thinking? And while the dual may be faster perhaps the quad will just perform better in day to day usage the way my dual performs noticeably better than a single core would have?

 

[Capt Caveman]

Welcome to the forums! If you do a search, you'll find about a dozen threads on the same topic. Lots of replies that will answer your questions.

 

[aken909]

Thanks, actually I tried that and went though about 6-10 pages of search links and didn't see anyone asking this question.

 

[MarcVenice]

use the advanced search and type in q6600 or e6850 If you can overclock the qaud to 3.2ghz or so, I would go qaud, if at stock, prolly e6850. That is if you do NOT video edit or use PS, because a Qaud really shines there.

Anyway, you don't need ddr3, EVEN if upcoming cpu's run at a FSB of 1600, then ddr2 800mhz still is fast enough, and if you want overclocking, you can always buy ddr2 1066.

 

[aken909]

Thanks, actually the search I did was 6600 6850 and it didn't return any results =/.

I really don't know what I could over clock it too, but even 3.0 seems like a stretch I am using air cooled case the case does have one front, two rear and a side fan. But I have never really been comfortable with over clocking on the extreme. I have at most ever gone up 10% and my over clocking skill is limited to basically what ever "auto oc" my motherboard comes with. hehe when your on the 2 year plan the risk of blowing up your cpu is a big consideration.

Hehe also if i could oc the 6600 it seems like I could also oc the 6850, so I'm still pretty much looking at the issue from a faster dual or a slower quad.

Its such a tough choice since both are basically exactly the same price...

 

[MarcVenice]

Well, a 2.4ghz to 3.0ghz on a qaud is pretty much gauranteed, and that on stock voltages. You simply up the FSB to 333mhz. Of course gotta do a few things here and there too, but you won't have to adjust any other voltages or whatever, or mess with the ram. Might be worth looking into, especially if it makes your decision easier. You can oc the e6850 as well, but you can't add 2 cores to it

 

[aken909]

I like that line of thought. Thats basically how I feel about it, 4 cores with 4 gb ram is a pretty elite set-up imho. I mean from a usability pov with 4 cores I can be doing so many things at once while still having a usable pc. I mean I could easily be frapsing while playing WoW. Or doing rendering while surfing the web. Or uploading a torrent while creating a torrent while watching video and surfing the web all while having a cpu thats not bogging down. But the flip side is of course I really think the 6850 is a lot faster cpu.

Thanks again for your input. Its hard neither option is a bad one. Four cores seems pretty nice to me though.

 

[bryanW1995]

you're probably going to end up with a 600 mhz diff whether you oc or not. OC'ing an e6850 or q6600 is not like oc'ing an x2 4400+, however. As mark said, you should get a VERY easy 600 mhz oc on the quad by jumping the fsb to 333 at stock voltages. You should spend a few extra $$ on an upgraded cooler if you're oc'ing the quad, however. You could probably get by at 3.0 on the quad with stock cooling but it won't be pretty. The e6850, on the other hand, should get a similar "free" oc by upping the fsb to 400 for 3600. You will have much better luck doing that on stock cooling, too.

 

[aken909]

I knew this would happen, lol no definitive answers... Intel needs to drop the price of one of them by like 100$ to make it easy... Or I wish AMD would get there act together because i'd really rather get another AMD chip...

 

[sgrinavi]

Originally posted by: aken909
I knew this would happen, lol no definitive answers... Intel needs to drop the price of one of them by like 100$ to make it easy... Or I wish AMD would get there act together because i'd really rather get another AMD chip...

I just went through the same thing. I ended up with a G0 quad as most of what I do utilizes the quad cores and does not rely on pure speed; 3dsMax, AutoCAD, Photoshop, Premier, etc...

If I were to build a gamer/home system I would go for "bang for the buck"

e6750 ($200)
skip the SLI and go with a single 8800 GTX ($450 used)
a gigabyte p35-ds3r board (not the combo) (150)
4 gb of a quality pc-6400 ram. (150)
520 or 620 corsair PSU, (under 100)
throw in a 7200.10 hard drive (65)
a decent DVDRW & Coolmaster case

EDIT.. needs a tuniq tower too...

That's smoking system for ~1250...

 

[cmdrdredd]

The Quad will offer you more in the longrun if you do not forsee yourself upgrading again in the near future.

 

[aken909]

Well the vid card(s) is basically the next upgrade. For now I am just re-using my old cards. I'm doing sli just cause it makes for cheap upgrades like now, I bought my first 7950 for 500$ then I got my second a few months ago used for 100$ So the plan is to use those for a few months sli'd buy what ever the best card is when I have more free cash, then go sli in the far future on the cheap.

And if I'm going to get a 6750 i'd probably rather spend 75$ more and get the 6850.

I got a real nice Antec tower for my primary cpu's (the 4200+ will be my new file server). And I got a 680w psu to power my rig. Don't need anymore hd's atm I got like 2 tb in my systems atm hehe and a dvd rw too =).

I really don't use most of the aps you listed, I am not a 3d creator or much of a photo editor, I do do a small amount of video editing however.

 

[Lnsean]

i don't know why theres such a struggle between the q6600 and the e6850...its very simple:

If you for some reason won't be able to upgrade for the next 3-5 years...then go with the q6600.

If you intend to upgrade in a year or two...i dont see why you would even consider the q6600...the e6850 wins hands down. E6850 has the faster clock....gives off less heat...overclocks better...Yes you can overclock the q6600 but not as well and then you have to spend money on a good HSF (60$)...your case will sound like a vacuum cleaner. You go with the E6850 now...you'll have the fastest processor on the market (non EE)...upgrade to a penryn next year or a year later...and you're set. If you go with the q6600, you'll have the slower processor....deal with more heat....overclocking will seem like an obligation rather than a choice...and the two extra cores will be really "extra" b/c they wont really be doing anything.

 

[NoSoup4You]

Dual core chips will be worth very little in two years, quads will still hold much of their value. Quad all the way.

 

[Lnsean]

so u think the E6850 will be worth 70-90 bucks in two years...and q6600 will be worth 120-130 bucks then? whoopi doo...40 bucks of savings...in 2 years. I think u can do better at burger king. ppl who use this logic to make their cpu decision are either really cheap or insane...how that is even logical is beyond my guess...lol

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Lnsean
so u think the E6850 will be worth 70-90 bucks in two years...and q6600 will be worth 120-130 bucks then? whoopi doo...40 bucks of savings...in 2 years. I think u can do better at burger king. ppl who use this logic to make their cpu decision are either really cheap or insane...how that is even logical is beyond my guess...lol

It's not the point. In 2 years you'd had wished you went with a Q6600 to begin with and not an E6850 at all.

That's what he ment

 

[Lnsean]

Thats why I said the E6850 is only good for 1-2 years. If you can't upgrade for 3-5 years, then you should go for the q6600. We're talking about buying a 200-300$ chip not a 30,000$ car. If resale value is what you're worried about, you shouldn't even be building a computer.

 

[Mucker]

I had the same decision this week but decided on the Q6600. Really depends on your usage. For, me I like the fact the FlightSim X and other apps take advantage of multi-core with the list growing all the time. Plus, anything C2D or Quad over 3.2 GHz will provide very good performance.

 

[firewolfsm]

Since I got my Quad I've been able to do renders in 3DStudio and Terragen on two cores while gaming on the other two.

 

[Nightmare225]

I think Quad cores will be very heavily used in gaming. Hell, even SupCom gets amazing speed increases, and that's over half a year old. Prepare for Crysis, Alan Wake, etc, to stretch Quad cores to the limit...

 

[sgrinavi]

Originally posted by: aken909
Well the vid card(s) is basically the next upgrade. For now I am just re-using my old cards. I'm doing sli just cause it makes for cheap upgrades like now, I bought my first 7950 for 500$ then I got my second a few months ago used for 100$ So the plan is to use those for a few months sli'd buy what ever the best card is when I have more free cash, then go sli in the far future on the cheap.

And if I'm going to get a 6750 i'd probably rather spend 75$ more and get the 6850.

I got a real nice Antec tower for my primary cpu's (the 4200+ will be my new file server). And I got a 680w psu to power my rig. Don't need anymore hd's atm I got like 2 tb in my systems atm hehe and a dvd rw too =).

I really don't use most of the aps you listed, I am not a 3d creator or much of a photo editor, I do do a small amount of video editing however.

Sounds like you have your answer..... but I am at a loss.. if you can justify $100 (50 % more) for a 10% increase in performance then spend another $100 and get the x6800? I have seen new ones sell for $400 on E-bay.. I paid that for my x2-4200 last year

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Nightmare225
Hell, even SupCom gets amazing speed increases, and that's over half a year old. Prepare for Crysis, Alan Wake, etc, to stretch Quad cores to the limit...

Who told you that?

At any given time, not more than 1.5 cores were used, and that was only random peaks. I am not sure what it would take to have even more usage, but the fact is, if you have at least a dual core processor, you can expect good results.

Link to the article that paragraph was quoted from.

 

[aken909]

Let me put it this way, my goal is to spend 800 or less get 4 gb ram and a good mb and a cpu.

And imho the x6 chips are over priced, and I dunno about 400$, on pricewatch which is basically as cheap as it comes there 600$.

And really, on the reviews I see the x6800 isn't 225$ better than the 6850.