what's better for rendering

[MR_MU53NDO]

which would be better for rendering, particularly in 3ds max and adobe premiere (bear in mind i haven't got mcuh money, hence the choices of processor below);

> Core 2 Quad Q9450 processor, 2.66Ghz, 12MB L2, 1333Mhz FSB
> Core 2 Extreme 2.66 GHz Quad-Core QX6700 8MB 1066MHz

or...

> Intel® Xeon® Processor X3230, 8M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB

Also, can anyone find somewhere where i could actually find a Xeon X3230, because i haven't seen any on ebay uk, and it's an old-ish processor, so it won't be sold new anymore...

 

[Rroff]

Core 2 Quad Q9450 processor, 2.66Ghz, 12MB L2, 1333Mhz FSB would be the best bet.

 

[joeyjojo]

The prices of these socket 775 chips are insane when you consider how much faster a more modern system would be for not that much more money. If you're on a tight budget I would recommend saving up a bit more and getting a used 2500K system or similar.

If you're determined, the Q9xx range are the ones to get, but even these are now 5 years old. The X3350-X3380 are the Xeon equivalents but they are rare as hen's teeth.

 

[MagicBoy]

Q9450. FSB and the cache will make an appreciable difference.

I've got the Xeon equivalent of the Q9550 which I picked up of the MM here before the prices went a bit insane. Unless you can find a cheap one you may be better going for an i5 upgrade.

 

[Rroff]

The prices of these socket 775 chips are insane when you consider how much faster a more modern system would be for not that much more money. If you're on a tight budget I would recommend saving up a bit more and getting a used 2500K system or similar.

If you're determined, the Q9xx range are the ones to get, but even these are now 5 years old. The X3350-X3380 are the Xeon equivalents but they are rare as hen's teeth.

Depends on useage tho, while the newer CPUs are extremely fast at some tasks at other tasks they aren't that much if any faster than a decently clocked LGA775 quad.

i.e. pretty much any 3D/game benchmark my Q9550 @ 4GHz GTX470 SLI setup posts the same scores as someone with similiarly clocked GTX470 SLI using an overclocked i7 setup while some games run a lot faster on an i7 they are the minority.

I'm not still using an LGA775 system because I can't afford an upgrade, it still does the job for most stuff. (tho to be fair I did buy a fairly high end i7 laptop recently that gets some stuff dumped on it that runs faster than the Q9550).

 

[smilertoo]

If you can find one try to get an i7 920, its a very fast cpu considering its age and can allow massive overclocks.