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Q6600 or E6850

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Hi, sorry if this question has been asked before.
I am looking to get a new computer soon and i have a choice between a Quad Q6600 and C2D E6850, which one should i get?
 
depends what you do, and how long it needs to last.

most people will say Q6600 though, including me.

there are thousands of threads on this question anyway, just use the search tool.
 
If I were you I'd be choosing whether I want to buy the E6750 or spend an extra £40 on the Q6600. The E6850 is a big waste of cash.
 
morning star is right! lol
nah quad all the way, ive had my E6600 a lil bit now wudnt mind going Q6600 tho no funds :(
 
I'd say if cash is no problem go for the Q6600 (great overclocker, good cpu!), if you wouldn't mind saving some cash and don't use quad optimized programs then go for E2180.
 
I'd say if cash is no problem go for the Q6600 (great overclocker, good cpu!), if you wouldn't mind saving some cash and don't use quad optimized programs then go for E2180.

Very true

I know the E2180 is only 10x200 so with such a low FSB it really needs to be clocked to get serious, but it clocks like a "chip on acid".
 
If I were you I'd be choosing whether I want to buy the E6750 or spend an extra £40 on the Q6600. The E6850 is a big waste of cash.

Thats actually not true... I have seen a lot of instances in cad packages that are actually hampered by having quad core. a lot of plugins for max, solidworks, maya etc to get confused by the additional cores and actually run a lot slower and can cause problems. Some packages that do not support multiple threaded apps will be happy with the additional 25% speed increase... ;)
 
But from a price/performance ratio the E6850 is terrible... And if those apps do get confused by the extra cores then XP and vista have this handy little utility in the task manager called 'set core affinity'.
 
Actually, looking at this, it's anywhere up to £20 more than the Q6600.

Looking at it from another perspective.

We have this:

E4500 - £78
(E4600 is normally around £85 but isn't listed on OCUK)
E6550 - £110
E6750 - £120
E6850 - £173

How you can justify spending £53 on a 333mhz clock speed boost is beyond me... At least with the Q6600 you get a couple of extra cores which, in a lot of non-gaming* (excluding third-party plugins. ¬¬) scenarios do actually increase performance substantially.

*and in one gaming scenario - Supreme Commander it does get used.
 
I'd say e2180 or q6600. Nothing in between. the e2180 seems to hit 3ghz++ for just about everyone. Most seem to be at 3.2ghz (including mine). Bargain for the price/performance. Or, If you want/need/can afford the q6600 get that. As above, the e6850 isn't worth the £
 
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