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Q6600 vs Q9550 vs E8500 Help! :)

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psyclist

Gawd
Joined
Jan 25, 2005
Messages
844
Hey All, its time make a processor swap! Right now I have a E2160 sittin at 3.3 under a TRUE120 and am wondering what way i should go for a rig to last me 2 years or so. I dont do any rendering, but use it mainly for HD playback and Gaming... I have a 8800GTS 512 right now but will be upgrading in the next year or so... My question is, will a lower clocked Quad 3.3-3.8 gonna have more longevity than a higher clocked 3.8-4.5 Dualcore within the next couple of years or will it be the other way 'round? ...thanks for the input guys!
 
I think you should get the E8500 for what you do. You'll get a few more FPS out of the dual. As for longevity, it's probably comparable at those overclocks but of course it just depends on the individual cpu.
 
actually, I think what the OP means by "longevity" is "time to next upgrade."

I have a hunch that a quad might buy you more time. Am I sure? No. Is anyone? Certainly not. Don't let someone give you a definite answer- because nobody has one yet.
 
yeah sorry should have made that clear...im guessing as the programs become more threaded the quad will keep catching the higher clocked dual...but like ya say no one knows! but opinions are always good:)
 
yeah i know its gonna be effin sweet but i built this comp at xmas and try and squeeze 3 years out of them, so something to hold me off till Q4 2010...im thinking a highly clocked Dual might be good enough, then go Quad next build?
 
until 2010 Q4 .. +1 for the Q9550.. you still have to go trough the rest of 2008,then full 2009 then full 2010 ..

as stated before ... Dual Core for gaming and Quad Core for anything else including gaming.

I doubt that a Dual Core will give you 50 FPS more over a Quad Core..

my 2cents
 
Danny Bui said:
Forget the Q9550 and get the Q9450 for $50 cheaper:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 CPU - $280

The Q9450 is only 133Mhz slower than the Q9550 but is significantly cheaper.
Click to expand...

I concur. The Q9550 is still a bit overpriced IMO, but the 9450 at under $300 is a much better deal and will last just as long, especially if overclocked. The Q9550 hasn't started using the E0 core yet, so there's no benefit to getting it aside from the 0.5x greater multiplier (which isn't that big of a deal).
 
Yeah the Q9450 at 280 would be a sweet deal but prices are still hovering in canada at $319 for oem while i can get the E8500 for 185 right now...maybe i should just wait till prices stabilize, and do a little more reading on the Quad vs Dual debate...
 
psyclist said:
Yeah the Q9450 at 280 would be a sweet deal but prices are still hovering in canada at $319 for oem while i can get the E8500 for 185 right now...maybe i should just wait till prices stabilize, and do a little more reading on the Quad vs Dual debate...
Click to expand...

Ah, you're in Canada. I feel your pain :(. I'm going with a quad system soon and I've decided on the 9550 since it's only a few bucks more than an OEM 9450. If you're okay with waiting a bit though, I would definitely suggest you do so until prices get a little better (hopefully the Q9450 will come down so I don't have to put down $350 on a bloody CPU).
 
Also being in Canada, I felt that the 9450 was a real sweet spot in price/performance (big cache, 133MHz from a much more expensive chip, 45nm, SSE4.1). I was waiting for a healthy price drop before Christmas and then found it would be discontinued. Very disappointing. Instead they lowered the price of the 9550 to the current 9450 price I decided I wasn't going to pay :(
 
It's still only been a few days since the discontinuation. I'm holding out hope that prices will drop here too in the near future.
 
Salavat23 said:
You should wait for Nehalem.;)
Click to expand...

-1 (see the minus sign)

Nehalem will be cost prohibitive at the start and IMO way too early. Very few games anyways benefit from a very powerfull CPU so I don't see the point right now unless you do other high cpu intensive stuff and have a fat wallet. I will wait at least a year for the prices to settle.
 
i swapped my x3210 quad @ 3.4 for a e8400 duel @ 4.05 and i really hated it. even with the extra speed those 2 extra cores really seemed to help. more and more programs are getting multi core support so i would go with the quad. i just sold me e8400... waiting for my q9550 E0 to get here. (tomarrow hopefully!)
 
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