E8400 or q6600

How is it that we have 7 posters and only 5 votes. Sooo, me thinks if you're going to run your typewriter with an opinion, at least embrace the nonsense fully and vote. This is fair, yes?

OK. the E8400 is better for games, the Q6600 is better for Video. That really is old news. Perhaps that's better phrased as, that is really, really old news. And while I enjoy certain types of threads that go on forever, this unfortunately isn't one of them.

For that matter, 4 pages of BS about "I want to spend $30.00 for a PSU, which one should I buy", didn't exactly massage my patience either. Yeah, one thread pretty much went down like that.

So, pick the thing you want to do most with the computer, take your wallet out, and buy the appropriate CPU. Or buy one of each, and go play quietly with them. Sorry, things like that just slip out sometimes.

I don't suppose I could vote a dozen or so more times, sort of like "Dancing with the Stars"? If I could, would that turn the tide in favor of my choice? Would the winning CPU actually be purchased? I guess we'll all have to stay tuned to see if the eagle really flies, or we're still saving up. A veritable Techspot soap opera, I tell you. Let's call it, "As the Fan Turns", or "Days of Our Computing". Wait, I"ve got it, "Desperate Gamers". LOL

IMO, it depends on what you want to do with it... as said in numerous posts (including the above 3 ) if you don't do video/audio processing or a multi tasking maniac then there is no reason to buy a quad core, especially since the new Core i7's are out (though they're expensive to upgrade to) and have a different socket, so upgrading would be a no-no

if I were you I would go for the E8400

if I were to buy me a CPU today than I would buy a C2Q (probably a 45nm version) since I already have an E6600 @ 3.2GHz

price wise, you can get a Q6600 for ~$189 and an E8400 for ~$165. By picking the E8400 you would end up with a (generally) faster, cooler, cheaper CPU, with a higher FSB than the Q6600, almost as much cache (6MB vs 8MB) and better OC potential.

sincerely, I don't find comparing a new high end dual core 45nm CPU with one of the oldest quad core 65nm CPUs (that now stands at the lowest end of the C2Q table) as a fair thing
people should be comparing the 8400 with the new Q9450... sure it costs twice as much as a E8400, but that's what you're essentially getting, 4 cores instead of 2.

also, it's possible to OC the Q6600 past 3GHz (where it would definitely leave the E8400 in the dust), but not unless you have great cooling, a good mobo and have a lot of knowledge about OCing

just my 2 cents...

PS: I voted for the Q6600

q6600 FOR THE WIN =]

btw captain cranky, i was just wondering what techspot thinks =] no need to get all fussed up
[and i fail at everything so yeah, me noob]

so basically i live in canada and i see q6600 for about 219CAD, wondering if it will drop anymore

I dont see that thing dropping in price for another few months. Those things are still on order. Even over a year after release.

Well, Cpt, no it's not fair. It's an improper vote to just be saying one is better than the other in this case. He didn't specify whether he wanted the cpu for games or for video processing. He asked which was better. I can't very well vote for one that is better until I know what he's going to do with it. So, I have refrained from voting. Sorry that upsets you so much. =P

Happily though, it looks as if the winner is the q6600 as nose chose =)

Have fun with yer new cpu nose

Not likely. Supercom shows 45 in stock, and they're priced more than the E8400.. Unbelievable that you'd buy an inferior, lower performing, more expensive product with limited half life based on a silly message board vote.... Especially when all the benchmarks AND the price lean heavily to the contrary.

Oh well...... That's why it's never a good idea to waste too much time, effort and energy on people like this.

Well...

Sometimes buyers need a little push to focus their thoughts. The old, "shall I write that up for you", can help sometimes. You do have all the information you need to make a decision based on your needs. To many cooks spoil the both as they say, and so I suppose do too many opinions.

These forums are full of amateur salesman, that's whether they're aware of it or not. Sometimes, the subconscious motivation toward influencing a decision is, do as I did, not do as you need to do.

The (of the many) interesting things about polling is, that it can be very biased toward the concept that' "I bought this and I'm right". Which could also mean, "I made this choice, and in spite of the fact I'm not entirely happy with it, so should you". Misery loves company, or so they say.

From what you've said, I still believe that the E8400 is the better choice for you. I also am of the opinion that in a variety of computing situations, the "Quad Core" is more of a selling point than an advantage.

But, that said, I just had my kid buy me an E7300 for Christmas. Know what? Even that's more than I need, the purchase is done and over, I'm going to be happy with it, and I could give a rat's a** how it benchmarks. I guess I'm not really an "computer enthusiast" after all, my bad.

What I won't do however, is try and convince you to buy an E7300.

Yeah.. Always happens.. The "e-peen" factor fails on them when their expensive purchase never delivers and in very short order gets absolutely blown away by a superior, cheaper product.

People, though, especially in forums, don't think about others. Unconsciously, if nothing else, they're looking to convince others to be as foolish as they were so they don't look like as much of a dummy as they feel.

It's particularly obvious when one product is clearly superior in every way, but the ones saying "go this old piece of crap" are the ones that are thinking "darn, I bought this old clunker and that one is so much better for less money.. I got jipped".

Meh.. Whatever.. Young kids understand "e-peen", not "return on investment". Add another 20 years to them and they'll get it. At this point it's all selfish (whether they're consciously aware of that or not is something entirely different, for a different thread). Few are interested in the best interests of the guy asking the question, and few base recommendations based on knowledge and facts, rather their emotions that are tearing them in every direction.

To Buy or Not to Buy, That is the Congestion.. Er Question

My prior experience has been that in many cases the OPs don't even have the money to make the purchase, and these threads go on and on for the personal attention they generate. After a participating in a few of them, you do become jaded. I think hope that this time it will be different, causes us to stick our hands back into the fire, as it were. This type of thread does seem to elicit some wonderful old school cliches from me, Take for example this one, "s*** or get off the pot". Hmmm, that's always been thought provoking for me.

Am I the only one who thinks polls shouldn't be treated as threads?

Whoops, there I go again...

Here We Are at Page Two.......

A milestone to be sure.:rolleyes:

Nobody's going to take the bait on the idea to buy one of each?:evil:

I don't suppose you could mix and match one of each in one of the new Skull Trail boards?

Keep in mind some people are missing a golden opportunity to diss my new Christmas build. http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic118151.html Maybe I should have played stupid and said I didn't know which CPU to buy for it. Actually I didn't have to, someone joined in with the E8400 vs Q6600 argument for their own build.

The moral here seems to be, just jump into the discussion, poll, or whatever you choose to call it, since it's not likely that you'll be successful at avoiding it anyway!

Buy the cheaper one. Need I say more?

Maybe other hardware should be taken into consideration as well, like what mobo he's using. His power needs and general consumptions

here is my build if you guys wanna know:

asusp5q pro 137.99

q6600 cpu 219.99

OCZ PSU 600w 61.99

hd 500gb 57.99

ram 4gb 49.99

9800gt 122.99

DVD 27.98

nzxt blackline case 94.99

cpu cooler 38.88

** keep in mind these are all in Canadian currency, so if its over priced yeah...

I guess you can't complain about the prices. Canadian Currency still seems to be worth something.

Here in the states our government is busy printing more to give away at no charge to "investment" bankers.

Enjoy your system

Total is $793.37

because the mail in rebates come in american =]

Sounds good, I just built my friend a damn near identical gaming computer, Q6700 CPU instead and a P5N-D. The CPU came with a bare bones and then I canceled the mobo. I currently have a Q6600 at 3.0 and it does everything I need without problem, I am constantly folding unless benching. I can game while transcoding HD video with little to no drop in frame rate (maybe 10% but nothing noticeable) When I built my system last May i was considering the dual core path but the thought of quad was just too appealing. Benchmarks show it to have less potential but for the extra 30$ it was impossible to pass up. And you have the bonus of bragging to friends that you have a four cores running at 3.5 GHz given a theoretical potential of 14 GHz of computing power. Not that that's really how it adds up but it impresses people who know less about computers than you do.

P.S. Take that adweston, you and your fancy newish E8400, just because something is aged doesn't mean its less of a competitor. I'll still take a McLaren F1 over a Bugatti Veyron anyday, however I would probably take a Koenigsegg CCX instead.

Either would be fine IMO. I suggested the core 2 because of his uses for it. I dont think he'll be doing encoding while gaming.

FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!

That, ladies and gentlemen, was an IT Crowd moment...

if i get a better heatsink, how high do you think i can get this q6600 to