What chip should i be getting, please help?!

[Yucca]

Ok i am behind on whats hot and whats not so need your help.

Im doing an upgrade from pc in sig and getting a intel setup. Now the core2duo's were very popular when they came out and everyone was raving on about them. Now i see the quads are out and the Q6600 is very popular.

So the questions...

1) Which Q6600 is everyone raving on about the energy efficiant one or the normal one? Whats the difference?

2) Whats the better chip to buy at the moment prices between £150-£200?

3) Seen as most things dont use 2 processors let alone 4 wouldnt i be better of buying a faster core 2 duo than a slower quad?

4) If i buy the Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 "LGA775 Conroe" 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail for example rather than the Q6600 wouldnt it be better and faster at most things as most things dont use dual or quad core technology and the E6850 has a faster bus and is a good few hundred mz faster, althought it has 4meg rather than 8meg cache?

Oh and i plan on using 2 gig of memory and running xp. Althought i want my setup to be future proof for vista and 4 gig of memory. Not sure on what memory im getting yet, as i have no clue but it'l be a 2 gig set, cant afford 4gig!

I do play games but not that much. I like my games to be fast and look good but this pc build is not for gaming only and i dont want to spend £x more or buy hardware especially for a particual game or 2 to run that extra 3fps!

I use my pc for office, internet, media, games, etc. But of everything. I just want it to be nippy around windows and be good for gaming and have the power to have torrents running, wmp showing a dvd and me typing on word without running like a snail.


SO anyone want to give me some advice. Please explain any advice so i know why you recommend what you do.

 

[easyrider]

1) Which Q6600 is everyone raving on about the energy efficiant one or the normal one? Whats the difference?.

The G0 uses less power so runs cooler and overclocks better

2) Whats the better chip to buy at the moment prices between £150-£200?.

At this price bracket the Q6600 imo

3) Seen as most things dont use 2 processors let alone 4 wouldnt i be better of buying a faster core 2 duo than a slower quad?.

Depends on what you use your PC for.

If it was me I would get the quad and clock it to 3ghz+

4) If i buy the Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 "LGA775 Conroe" 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail for example rather than the Q6600 wouldnt it be better and faster at most things as most things dont use dual or quad core technology and the E6850 has a faster bus and is a good few hundred mz faster, althought it has 4meg rather than 8meg cache?.

That CPU is overpriced for what it is.

 

[Teaf]

1) Which Q6600 is everyone raving on about the energy efficiant one or the normal one? Whats the difference?

As easyrider states, the energy efficient one is the "g0" stepping which is lower heat and lower power sumption. If you are buying one of those then spend the extra few quid and get the G0.

2) Whats the better chip to buy at the moment prices between £150-£200?

Q6600.

3) Seen as most things dont use 2 processors let alone 4 wouldnt i be better of buying a faster core 2 duo than a slower quad?

Right now? Yes... 6 months time? Maybe not. There is a lot more stuff coming out over the next 6 months that will use 4 cores of the CPU, so whilst it might be more beneficial and cheaper to get a DUO, you may find you loose out in the long run.

4) If i buy the Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 "LGA775 Conroe" 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail for example rather than the Q6600 wouldnt it be better and faster at most things as most things dont use dual or quad core technology and the E6850 has a faster bus and is a good few hundred mz faster, althought it has 4meg rather than 8meg cache?

E6850 would beat a Q6600 in dual core games / application, mainly because it's clocked higher. I know people will say "well just oc the quad!" but some people don't like overclocking and just leave it at stock. If any duo, I'd recommend the E6750 - much cheaper and only 200mhz behind, which isn't much. But really, I would get the Quad if you can afford the £180, otherwise get the E6750 which is £125.

 

[Yucca]

Ah yea the E6750 is a good buy by the looks of things. Its basically the same as the one i mentioned but about £60 cheaper and a few hundred mhz slower.

How well and how easily do all these clocks chip. For example would i be right in saying that 99% of all of these chips can be clocked to 3ghz without much messing?

I could get the Q6600 and clock it to 3000mhz hence being as fast as the 6850 and have exta 2 cores and have 4 meg more cache. Or get the E6850 and clock it to 3000mhz same as the 6850 and save about £60. But whats the chances i can do that easily?

 

[easyrider]

I could get the Q6600 and clock it to 3000mhz hence being as fast as the 6850 and have exta 2 cores and have 4 meg more cache. ?

Very easy to do.


With a G0 you will get a 3ghz clock on stock vcore and cooling.

This is the route to take.

 

[Yucca]

Very easy to do.


With a G0 you will get a 3ghz clock on stock vcore and cooling.

This is the route to take.

Can anyone else verify this?

So i should get the Q6600, and the stock cooling is fine?

What memory (2gig) and motherboard as everyone using with these puppies?

 

[easyrider]

Can anyone else verify this?

So i should get the Q6600, and the stock cooling is fine?

What memory (2gig) and motherboard as everyone using with these puppies?

They will just agree with me.

At 3 ghz a G0 Q6600 will not need any more Vcore.

It will be fine on stock cooling@ 3ghz.


Anyting above 3.2 ghz will need a after market cooler and a increase in vcore meaning more heat.

I would go for the ABIT P35 pro mobo and some 6400 DDR2

 

[jbloggs]

I had an E6850 for about 5 weeks to replace an E6600 (which is now on an gigabyte P35 DS3P mobo O/Ced to 3.5GHz), and really it was not much faster than the E6600, so I have recently sold the E6850 and bought the Q6600 (G0), which is overclocked to 3.3GHz....for programs that only use a single core, the Q6600 is not much behind the E6850, however when you have a program that uses multicores, like TMPGEnc, the Q6600 is way ahead of the E6850...

You will have no problems O/cing the Q6600 to 3.0GHz, on stock vcore and cooling, but I would be inclinded to advise against using the stock cooler and get something like the Tuniq Tower 120mm.

So i should get the Q6600

Yes, I do suggest you get the Q6600 (G0) instead of the E6750, it is certainly worth the extra few £s.

I would use the Q6600 on either the Abit IP35 Pro or if you want somethinga bit cheaper the Gigabyte P35 DS3P with Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4