Q6600 or E8400 with Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R?

M

Magma

Weaksauce
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Feb 1, 2003
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Note: Before I get started, yes I have used the Search feature and have read for 2+ hours on specs for each. Some of it is old, though, and I'm hoping for more of a direct comparison with this thread...

As the title says, I'm putting together a budget gaming/work machine. About 75% of the time I'll be using the system for work that involves standard Office/web browsing, as well as writing server admin scripts and running test virtual servers. The other 25% will be gaming. The motherboard will be a GA-EP45-UD3R with 4x2GB RAM to have the RAM for hosting virtual machines. I'm really torn between the E8400 and Q6600 procs. I can evaluate the usefulness for all of the work stuff, but I don't know which would be better for gaming. Which is more likely to perform better with a mild, not crazy, overclock? I won't be overclocking to the point that there's any stability impact. This will be my work machine, after all.

Anyone got experience with both and want to share their experiences or just throw out an opinion?

Thanks in advance!
 
I'm curious to see thoughts on this as well, especially from people who have tried both. I just picked up a GA-EP45-UD3P. I have a Q6600 G0 and a E8500 (and an E8400!) that I can throw in it, and I'm torn which to do. Aside from things that don't matter for the CPU (like reading [H], e-mail and stuff), mainly gaming and photo processing. I know the Quad is better for photo processing, since my RAW converter utilizes all 4 cores. As for games, I figure any Core 2 over 3.0ghz isn't gonna limit me at 1680x1050 resolution. I guess I've answered my question, but I would love to hear opinions from others on this topic that's been discussed many times but never gets old.

My leanings right now are that the Q6600 should do 3.3 to 3.6ghz on a P45 board, guess the e8400/e8500 will do 4.0+ ghz -- I think the Q6600 will be the better choice for me, not much slower than the e8x00 on clock speed, more cache and 4 cores. For your case with VMs, you'll want the quad core. ;)

I find this site hilarious, though.
 
Hmm.. think I might just wait for i7 procs and supporting hardware to come down in price a bit. On the surface, it seems that the Q6600 is the best at that price point for my current needs. I just can't make myself buy a proc/system that's two generations old, though. I guess I'll just make do with my slow A64 X2 4200+ a little longer.
 
I should be slapping my Q6600 into a EP45 UD3R this week, looking forward to it. :D
 
Dang, nice looking overclock there. Doubt my q6600 would go as high (1.325 vid) - but your results are tempting me to try...
 
Magma said:
Hmm.. think I might just wait for i7 procs and supporting hardware to come down in price a bit. On the surface, it seems that the Q6600 is the best at that price point for my current needs. I just can't make myself buy a proc/system that's two generations old, though. I guess I'll just make do with my slow A64 X2 4200+ a little longer.
Click to expand...

I just got a new q6600 and GA-EP45-UD3P board and slapped my old GA-M57SLI-S4 and Athlon X2 6000+ in a norco 4020u and im gonna buy a copy of WHS today.
 
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