E8400 or Q6600?

[dadi_oh]

Well after some playing around with overclocking my ASUS P5K-E with both an E2160 and E2180 I am considering something more. I do have a watercooled setup so power shouldn't be an issue.

I found an E8400 on EBay for $200+$15 shipping and a Q6600 (SLACR Version GO Stepping) for $208+$12 shipping. So basically they are about the same price.

I do mostly gaming but also do video editing so the quadcore might come in handy. I also want to OC and I know the Q6600 can be tricky.

So what are your thoughts?

[Darknova]

E8400.

4Ghz should be easy, do that on a Q6600 without a TEC :P

[Tatty_One]

E8400.

4Ghz should be easy, do that on a Q6600 without a TEC :P

:D How about on a Thermalright Ultra extreme 120.......................this question seems to crop up a lot these days....my answer.....depends what you do with your PC mostly, if it's gaming or straightforward everyday tasks....the E8400 no question. If it's ripping CD's/DVD's, analogue to digital conversion etc etc then probably a Q6600.

[Jelle Mees]

I do a lot of video editing and I couldn't be more happy with my Q6600.
Sony Vegas has 100% CPU usage. My PC also converts to DIVX at 55-75fps.

PURE for gaming I would say for E8400, but if video editing is a hobby of yours, go for Q6600.

Becides, you have water cooling, you can get the Q6600 to 4Ghz.
My Q6600 is on 3.6Ghz on air and I play my games on 2048x1536...

[dadi_oh]

:D How about on a Thermalright Ultra extreme 120.......................this question seems to crop up a lot these days....my answer.....depends what you do with your PC mostly, if it's gaming or straightforward everyday tasks....the E8400 no question. If it's ripping CD's/DVD's, analogue to digital conversion etc etc then probably a Q6600.

Yeah. I feel guilty for even bringing this up since it has been covered 4 billion times on the forums.

My thoughts...

Some people choose the E8400 since it is 45nm and therefore lower power. This allows them to get further in OC on air (even on stock cooler). The Q6600 is a lot hotter and therefore you may not get very far on air. Therefore the E8400 may be more economical for someone who wants to use stock cooler or maybe pick up something for $30.

In my situation I am on water so the power issue mostly disappears (I think). The question then becomes, for my purposes which would be a better choice? To be absolutley honest I should just be happy with my E2160 at 3.33GHz since it is probably more than I need 95% of the time. But like any tweaker I am always looking at what more I can get out of my setup. The idea of 4 processors at 3.4GHz vs. 2 processors at 4.0GHz just "sounds" nice :) Even though I know there is very little out there that will use the 4 processors to their potential. But planning for future potential has always been a low percentage bet from my experience in the computing world.

In thinking it through I might be better of spending the $230 on a video card upgrade...

Someone stop me... I'm sick :laugh:

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

Q6600

[Jelle Mees]

Yeah. I feel guilty for even bringing this up since it has been covered 4 billion times on the forums.

My thoughts...

Some people choose the E8400 since it is 45nm and therefore lower power. This allows them to get further in OC on air (even on stock cooler). The Q6600 is a lot hotter and therefore you may not get very far on air. Therefore the E8400 may be more economical for someone who wants to use stock cooler or maybe pick up something for $30.

In my situation I am on water so the power issue mostly disappears (I think). The question then becomes, for my purposes which would be a better choice? To be absolutley honest I should just be happy with my E2160 at 3.33GHz since it is probably more than I need 95% of the time. But like any tweaker I am always looking at what more I can get out of my setup. The idea of 4 processors at 3.4GHz vs. 2 processors at 4.0GHz just "sounds" nice :) Even though I know there is very little out there that will use the 4 processors to their potential. But planning for future potential has always been a low percentage bet from my experience in the computing world.

In thinking it through I might be better of spending the $230 on a video card upgrade...

Someone stop me... I'm sick :laugh:

Well, like you already sad yourself. An E2160 at 3.33Ghz is really not that bad, not bad at all. Your 7900GT on the other hand...

Look, you've been gaming with the 7900GT for so long, I would say, keep on playing with it and save more money and buy the the first REAL decent next-gen single-GPU card that comes out.

[newconroer]

But planning for future potential has always been a low percentage bet from my experience in the computing world.




Plan for the future, by curbing your obssession and waiting for Nehalem.

[asb2106]

i say go with the q6600. For the price it is by far the best deal out there

You can get a solid 3.6 at pretty low voltage, I can run 3.6 @ 1.37 volts.

If you want to run higher it will take more voltage, and it does up exponentially then, but right now Im testing a 24/7 clock of 3.85 @ 1.58 volts. It stayed up all last night, and today Im gonna try to drop the voltages some.

But if you do more than gaming, anything like video editing, or converting, or even just for folding/seti, the q6600 is definitly worth it.

It any of those arent a concern, then get the e8400 and take the few extra Mhz.

[dadi_oh]

Well, like you already sad yourself. An E2160 at 3.33Ghz is really not that bad, not bad at all. Your 7900GT on the other hand...

Look, you've been gaming with the 7900GT for so long, I would say, keep on playing with it and save more money and buy the the first REAL decent next-gen single-GPU card that comes out.

Yeah. I had a pair of 7900GT's (OC to 7900GTX speeds) in SLI but then changed to a non-SLI motherboard. I just bought a 9600GT off someone on this board and am just waiting for it to arrive. Will probably watercool the 9600GT and see what I can do on OC.

I tend to be on the trailing edge of gaming as well. Just got COD4 last week. The 7900GT(X) is staying over 30fps at 1440X900 with a few settings dialed back but it would be nice to set everything to high. Quite impressed with the graphics even at my reduced settings.

[asb2106]

Yeah. I had a pair of 7900GT's (OC to 7900GTX speeds) in SLI but then changed to a non-SLI motherboard. I just bought a 9600GT off someone on this board and am just waiting for it to arrive. Will probably watercool the 9600GT and see what I can do on OC.

I tend to be on the trailing edge of gaming as well. Just got COD4 last week. The 7900GT(X) is staying over 30fps at 1440X900 with a few settings dialed back but it would be nice to set everything to high. Quite impressed with the graphics even at my reduced settings.

youll be very happy with the 9600gt.

I had one for a few weeks, and you can check some figures on it in my sig. With a quad core I was able to score 13k in 3dmark. I was able to clock to ~740 on the core.

this is my score in Vista, I didnt screen the XP run
http://img.techpowerup.org/080315/12620.jpg

[dadi_oh]

youll be very happy with the 9600gt.

I had one for a few weeks, and you can check some figures on it in my sig. With a quad core I was able to score 13k in 3dmark. I was able to clock to ~740 on the core.

this is my score in Vista, I didnt screen the XP run


Awesome. I am hoping to OC even higher on the 9600GT on water. The guy I am buying from had it to 810/1902/2200 on the stock cooler.

My 7900GT(X) is scoring about 6700 in 3dMark06 with my E2160 @ 3.3GHz. Doubling that would be awesome but more importantly I hope to play COD4 with all settings on high with my crappy 1440X900 display. Better display might also be a better spend than a processor right now... hmmmm...

[asb2106]

Awesome. I am hoping to OC even higher on the 9600GT on water. The guy I am buying from had it to 810/1902/2200 on the stock cooler.

My 7900GT(X) is scoring about 6700 in 3dMark06 with my E2160 @ 3.3GHz. Doubling that would be awesome but more importantly I hope to play COD4 with all settings on high with my crappy 1440X900 display. Better display might also be a better spend than a processor right now... hmmmm...

that was one hell of a card! And with water youll be able to keep those temps under control! With a quad running 3.6 or higher in XP you could probably score 14k