E6600 vs. Q6600

J

john8msu

n00b
Joined
Dec 9, 2003
Messages
53
I have a feeling this a question that's been asked a ton of time, so I appologize for that in advance. I was all set to buy a new rig this past Christmas, and I passed on the opportunity. I am tired of waiting for the next big price drop...if I keep thinking that way I'll never upgrade.

Anyways, I am just looking for some advice on which processor I should go for, the E6600 or the quad6600? I feel like the dual core would be enough for my needs. However, I'm wondering how much future proof the quad would have over the dual?

The rest of my build is going to be something like: GeForce 8800GTX, 2GB RAM, eVGA mobo, tj09 case, and overclocking it on air, running Windows Vista.
My target application that i want great performace for is UT3 (a FPS game) sometime later this year. I ususally run a game, play music, and tab out to irc, the internet or outlook pretty often. Running that many things at once, would I be better off with the quad?

Thanks in advance for any replies.
 
Maybe you should look at it this way...

You can buy a e6600 today for about $266 (maybe more or less, I'm not clear on US pricing right now). The Q6600 is double that, $530(?).

Now, the Q6600 will be $266 in a few months.

So you could buy the E6600 now, and the Q6600 in a few months, for the same price you would pay for a single Q6600. You might even be able to make a few pesos back on the E6600 by selling it.

Anyways, that's how I look at, but it does require more work.
 
If I had the cash I would go with the Quad. Can always overclock the Quad, can't add cores to the Dual.
 
In response to Jcon, will the same mobo work with both? If so, that's a good idea.

JustinSane, I did some reading about overclocking the Q6600 and it seems like most people are getting it around 3.1GHz. From what I remember about the E6600 OC a while back, you can get those up to 3.4GHz on air if you get a good chip. Right?
 
jcon said:
Maybe you should look at it this way...

You can buy a e6600 today for about $266 (maybe more or less, I'm not clear on US pricing right now). The Q6600 is double that, $530(?).

Now, the Q6600 will be $266 in a few months.

So you could buy the E6600 now, and the Q6600 in a few months, for the same price you would pay for a single Q6600. You might even be able to make a few pesos back on the E6600 by selling it.

Anyways, that's how I look at, but it does require more work.
Click to expand...

Or you could save ~$230 and just wait a few months to buy anything...

I'd hold off untill Penryn comes out, then everything will drop a good bit.
 
WhiteZero said:
Or you could save ~$230 and just wait a few months to buy anything...

I'd hold off untill Penryn comes out, then everything will drop a good bit.
Click to expand...

Or wait two years and get a 8 core processor for half the price.

My solution addresses an immediate need.
 
jcon said:
Or wait two years and get a 8 core processor for half the price.

My solution addresses an immediate need.
Click to expand...

Or wait still 2011 when 22nm processors are out.
o_O

But yeah, I do see your point with the immadiate solution. However, unless he can find a way to reuse/resell that E6600, it's a huge waste of money.
 
WhiteZero said:
But yeah, I do see your point with the immadiate solution. However, unless he can find a way to reuse/resell that E6600, it's a huge waste of money.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily... I mean for the same price he can have both CPUs, he'll just have to wait for price drops in Q3 to get the Q6600. Even if he never sells the E6600 and uses it for a key chain (oh the humanity!) then he is still no worse off (financially).
 
It may not be any worse off financially. I will end up spending the same amount of cash either way. However, the next few months I will be using the E6600 when I could already have the Q6600 and not have to be burdened with swapping them out and overclocking again and I can enjoy the few months of extra speed.

When are the 45nm chips planned to be released? That seems to me like the only logical reason to do this sort of strategy. That would benefit from a new motherboard though right? So I'd end up spending more money in the long run.
 
45nm chips SHOULD be available Q4 this year. We'll see, but that's following the road map.

As far as your E6600 vs Q6600 problem... Like I said, it's up to you. I doubt you'll see a performance bump from the E6600 to the Q6600, but I don't know what you're using this for.

Good luck!

Edit: We don't know if you will be able to use the 45nm chip with the current mobos. My instinct says, "Yes", but my instinct does not do the purchasing around here!
 
it sort of depends on the machine's application. If the quad will be useful to you, just get it now.
Here are a few conditionals for you. Just stop at the first conditional that applies to you and get the proc I recommend at the end of the conditional.

IF your budget includes room for less than 4 GB of ram, get the E6600
Explanation: A rule of thumb for RAM is 1gig /core is minimum. You won't see much benefit from the extra processors if you can't keep them loaded with instructions. Besides, if you were planning on getting less than 4 gigs of ram, that would indicate that the system you are speccing out is budget-minded enough to warrant getting the E6600.

IF you do anything more than slight dabbling in graphics design or A/V editing: get the Q6600
Explanation: don't hesitate, just get the Q6600, it will be the single cheapest place to significantly lower your times (rendering, encoding, etc).

IF you're just doing FPS gaming: get the E6600
Explanation: the quad might actually be less effective because E6600's generally have a higher max OC than the Q6600s. Games rarely take advantage of more than two cores (with Supreme Commander as the standout exception). By the time you start playing games that would benefit from the Q6600, Q6600's will be much cheaper and you won't lose any money by upgrading. You will also have the option of doing something else at that time, such as holding out for Penryn.

IF you want a system that "does it all": get the Q6600
Explanation: it'll do everything the E6600 does and perform significantly better in certain tasks.
 
I'm considering getting the QX6700 (still haven't decided on the board), but I have a question about what you just said.

I thought Windows can only handle 3.5 gigs of ram...why would 4 be good for a quad-core machine? Or is your example 64-bit only?
 
Providence said:
I'm considering getting the QX6700 (still haven't decided on the board), but I have a question about what you just said.

I thought Windows can only handle 3.5 gigs of ram...why would 4 be good for a quad-core machine? Or is your example 64-bit only?
Click to expand...

Ya 64 bit can handle 4GB and more but if you are building a new computer odds are all your hardware has driver support for 64 bit so why not get it?
 
jcon said:
Maybe you should look at it this way...

You can buy a e6600 today for about $266 (maybe more or less, I'm not clear on US pricing right now). The Q6600 is double that, $530(?).

Now, the Q6600 will be $266 in a few months.

So you could buy the E6600 now, and the Q6600 in a few months, for the same price you would pay for a single Q6600. You might even be able to make a few pesos back on the E6600 by selling it.

Anyways, that's how I look at, but it does require more work.
Click to expand...

That's exactly how I looked at it. I ordered and paid for another E6600 this morning to fold 24/7 That means I get to keep the best one and sell the other one when Q3 comes around.Then I get a quad for about the same thing I paid for the E6600.(either a x3210, a x3220 or a Q6600) IMO that's one good post. :D To me it made more sense to have an extra E6600 to play with for $232 USD (NewEgg) and then hopefully the Q3 quads will be around the same price. (give or take a few bucks USD) :p
 
Unless you are encoding audio or video data (which will chew up as many cores as you throw at it), then stick with the dual core. Especially if you are only gaming.
 
Looks like penryn may be out sooner than expected. Which is my guess as to why the q6600 is going to be $266 in q3.

I say go with the e6600 now, then in 3-5 months see how things stack up with penryn/q6600.
 
ironically for games the quad core is slower so I'd just got with the e6600. I have and and overclock it and its still ridiculously fast and equally cheap.
 
I'm actually in the same boat with the need to upgrade, and debated to get the Quad core or the C2D.

Decided just like a few people said to grab the E6600 for now, as it should do better games and will really only get beat in audio/video encodes. I hear the E6600's OC better too. :cool:

I'm going to wait till the 45nm cores come out, or maybe even head back to AMD's new Barcelona quad core when it comes out. Guess only time will tell. :D
 
I have read through this post in its entirety and here is my 2 cents, hopefully on topic.

1. Nothing is future-proof-2 years MAX
2, Always buy the most that you can afford-once again, 2 years MAX
3. Buy components that you will not have to change, i.e. PSU-the heart of the rig

I just upgraded from an E6600 to a QX6700 and I can see the difference. It will take some time to see the full effect due to drivers and software, but I believe the upgrade was worth it. I truly believe that this rig will last me for 1.5 - 2 years. We will see. Just my 2 cents.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top