Core 2 Duo Vs Core 2 Quad

[mark1984]

Hi All,

I'm planning on building myself a new PC, my old one's pretty old now and running slow with Vista Ultimate.

I'm stuck on choosing a Processor, its between Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0ghz 6mb cache or the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4ghz 8mb cache.

Which do you think I'll be better to go for? I'll be running Windows Vista Ultimate and the occassional game (but I have a PS3 for gaming) - I'll also be doing the occasional movie re-encode, nothing major. I mainly use it for downloading.

Thanks

Mark

[Goldberg]

Pricing would be a huge factor for me.

We use the latest and greatest Quads at work (the machine we have contain 4 Quad Core chips! Serious shit!) for our application, but for normal gaming a Dual Core should be suffice.

[plug1]

the twin core would have 3M cache on each core and the quad would only have 2
and can actualy make duo faster in a lot of applications.
so depends on what you want to run on it , you should find benchmarks if you google

Plug

[MajorFU]

Unless you have applications that specify quad core then the E8400 will perform better than the Q6600, nice chip too for gaming.

[mark1984]

Thanks for the replies, think I'll go for the E8400 dual core...

One other thing was I'm plannign to go for an ASUS P5KPL-AM iG31 but I'm planning on using my existing graphics card which is AGP, do the new motherboards still support these, they all seem to say PCI Express x8 & x16 with no mention on an AGP slot?

Thanks

Mark

[wakadoo]

get a pcie card m8 as agp is now gone and all new boards will support pcie.....

[broona]

You'll struggle to find a new AGP board now, PCI-E basically took over 18 months ago. What AGP card do you currently have, as you may be better off buying a cheap PCI-E equivalent?

PS, I swapped out a stock Q6600 for a stock E8400, and everything seems snappier with the dual core, that extra 600mhz seems to win out over the extra 2 cores in most instances, apart from intense encoding.

[mark1984]

Thanks, I've currently got a Ati x850... but from what you say i may as well just get a PCI-E, I've seen MSI 8600GTS Heatpipe Edition 256mb DVI HDTV Graphics card, only £44.99

[broona]

Thanks, I've currently got a Ati x850... but from what you say i may as well just get a PCI-E, I've seen MSI 8600GTS Heatpipe Edition 256mb DVI HDTV Graphics card, only £44.99

If your PSU's up to it, try and find a second hand 512mb Radeon 3850, seen them go for £40, and it will easily be twice as fast as the 8600GTS, and three times as fast as your current card. Have a look here for some comparisons - http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts...x1024,796.html

Or even a brand new one for £57.99 - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139617

[DejaVu]

If your PSU's up to it, try and find a second hand 512mb Radeon 3850, seen them go for £40, and it will easily be twice as fast as the 8600GTS, and three times as fast as your current card. Have a look here for some comparisons - http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts...x1024,796.html

Or even a brand new one for £57.99 - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139617

Thats what I got recently and the graphics on the games I play are intense!
I play Race Driver: Grid, Crysis, Quake 4 etc etc.
And they all run smooth as silk on the highest setting with my AMD 64 X2 5000+. (Thanks for the advice boona! )

--EDIT--
Just to add, I went from a Radeon X300 PCI-E that was complete pants and wouldnt even think about running these games!
Love my new setup LOADS and it all cost me less than £200 delivered fora Mobo, 2GB RAM, CPU & GPU.

[broona]

(Thanks for the advice boona! )

No worries, glad you're happy with your new setup, hopefully we can 'satisfy' mark too!

[rudey]

i have almost the same
p5b deluxe
e6600
x850xtpe
4gb ocz ram
and vista 64
haventhad a real chance to hurt it yet

[mark1984]

No worries, glad you're happy with your new setup, hopefully we can 'satisfy' mark too!

Thanks for the advice broona, I think I'll go for that graphics card; this is what i'm listed so far,

1x 134798 - EV Black Mid Tower Gaming Case with massive 14cm Front Fan
1x 61308 - Casecom Silver 500W ATX Power Supply - 20+4pin ATX12V 4x Molex
1x 148094 - Asus P5KPL-AM iG31 Socket 775 onboard VGA 8 channel audio mATX Motherboard
1x 139971 - Intel COre 2 Duo E8400 Socket 775 (3GHz) 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor
1x 142403 - Crucial 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL6 Lifetime Warranty
1x 130826 - Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm *32MB Cache* - OEM
1x 145869 - LG GH20NS15 20X SATA DVD-RW/DL/RAM - Black Bare Drive OEM
1x 139617 - PowerColor HD 3850 Pro 512MB GDDR3 256bit Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card

Total is about £358.28

What do you guys think of this spec, do you think there is anything I should change, or cheaper alternatives that are better or as good?

Thanks for you help

Mark

[rudey]

1x 61308 - Casecom Silver 500W ATX Power Supply - 20+4pin ATX12V 4x Molex DONT GET THIS
instaed get case and coolermaster psu ( special offer at ebuyer)

[broona]

.....

Looks good, apart from what rudey stated, get a quality, branded PSU instead of an unknown make, worth it in the long run.

[mark1984]

Thanks guys, can you recommened a Coolermaster PSU - I've found this one 150596 - Coolermaster 460WeXtreme Power Plus PSU - 20+4pin 4+4 ATX12V 4x SATA 6pin PCI-E @ £39.99

Is that enough powerfor the spec? especially with that graphics card...

[{{909}}]

that psu should be fine, i power a similar system with a OCZ 500watt

[mark1984]

Hi Guys, will the Coolermaster 460WeXtreme Power Plus PSU - 20+4pin 4+4 ATX12V 4x SATA 6pin PCI-E be enough to run 3 hard drives (2x SATA 1xIDE) and 2 DVD-RW (1x SATA 1xIDE)?

Just wanted to check before I placed my order

[broona]

Hi Guys, will the Coolermaster 460WeXtreme Power Plus PSU - 20+4pin 4+4 ATX12V 4x SATA 6pin PCI-E be enough to run 3 hard drives (2x SATA 1xIDE) and 2 DVD-RW (1x SATA 1xIDE)?

Just wanted to check before I placed my order

I have a 550W Corsair PSU powering 2 SATA HDD's, 2 SATA DVDR-W's, 1 Removable SATA drive, 4X1gb DDR2, Core 2 Duo E8400, Radeon 3850, 4X120mm fans, and a plethora of USB devices, so you should be fine.

If you're worried, this is an excellent 500W PSU for a couple of quid more - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135159

[mark1984]

Thanks for the reply mate, I decided to go for a CoolerMaster 600W Extreme Power PSU from dabs.com, got a unused open boxed one for £46.30 delivered...

Hopefully that should be sfficient.

I brought a couple of extra fans for the case and also an Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler, should help... The 80mm fans will go at the back then theres one in the front and one in the side as well.

Should the side fan be sucking or blowing air? The front will draw air in and the then out the back so I presume the side should help draw heat out as well...