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No OC - Q6700 or E8500

J

Juardis

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 23, 2007
Messages
310
I'm not interested in overclocking and my mobo can only accept the (max) Q6xxx or the E8xxx series processors. Given that both the Q6700 and the E8500 are both about $300 USD, and that the E8500 is 3.16 GHz while the 6700 is 2.67 GHz, I'm wondering which will serve me better for the next 2-3 years.

Uses:
1. Games
2. DVD ripping
3. (a distant 3rd at that) Converting movies from NTSC to PAL for my friend in Switzerland

I've seen E8400 vs. Q6600 comparisons, but not the subject comparisons. I'm leaning E8500 at the moment simply because it's the latest and greatest and puts out less heat than the Q6700 (and none of the games I play currently take advantage of a dual core let alone a quad core).

Games I play:
Oblivion at 1920x1200
Civ IV at 1920x1200

Suggestions, Comments, or opinions?
 
I actually just ordered a Q6700 this week after being faced with the same choice. I use mine for pretty much exactly the same things you do. I do play a wider selection of games though. While the E8500 was a bit faster in most of the reviews I read right now, a couple big factors made me go with a quadcore.

Mainly, I wanted something that would last. Games like Supreme Commander show that when programmed properly Quad-Core can destroy a Dual-Core in performance. You're basicly taking 10.64 ghz vs 6.32ghz. The only reason the numbers dont appear that way currently is most applications arent programmed for it yet. However I believe that will change within a year or two. I think as developers are pushing harder for physics and interactive gaming, they will naturally gravitate towards multi-core setups as you can get some crazy performance.

Finally, like it or not, Vista and the Vista kernel (windows 7) etc are here to stay and eventually we all will upgrade to it. From everything I've seen Vista loves multi-core cpus and there are some nice performance increases in the OS from 2 to 4 cores. Just my opinion though.
 
There is a good chance that by the time games start utilizing 4 cores, both these CPUs will be obsolete (or far from the latest and greatest). My personal choice for gaming would be E8500. That should last a good 1-2 years, maybe even longer, then it can be upgraded with another chip in the $200-300 range.
 
demingo said:
I actually just ordered a Q6700 this week after being faced with the same choice. I use mine for pretty much exactly the same things you do. I do play a wider selection of games though. While the E8500 was a bit faster in most of the reviews I read right now, a couple big factors made me go with a quadcore.

Mainly, I wanted something that would last. Games like Supreme Commander show that when programmed properly Quad-Core can destroy a Dual-Core in performance. You're basicly taking 10.64 ghz vs 6.32ghz. The only reason the numbers dont appear that way currently is most applications arent programmed for it yet. However I believe that will change within a year or two. I think as developers are pushing harder for physics and interactive gaming, they will naturally gravitate towards multi-core setups as you can get some crazy performance.

Finally, like it or not, Vista and the Vista kernel (windows 7) etc are here to stay and eventually we all will upgrade to it. From everything I've seen Vista loves multi-core cpus and there are some nice performance increases in the OS from 2 to 4 cores. Just my opinion though.
Click to expand...
What CPU did you have and could you tell a noticeable increase in heat output? I just added my 2nd 8800GTX and heat is more of a concern now.

edit: I see you ordered it, but maybe not actually have received it. When you do get it in your system, I'd be curious to know the answer. Thanks
 
According to UPS tracking it should be at my door when I get home tonight. Going to install it tonight/tomorrow. I will be doing some OC on mine but I'll definately let you know how the heat is. I'm using a Zalman 9500 cooler.

Im going to benchmark it vs my E6600 (which was never OCed) at both default (2.66) and Oced speeds. I can get you some numbers on it as well.
 
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