Best CPU for me?!

I'm still trying to decide on a CPU I'm going to use my rig for gaming, movies and some CAD and Audio Recording/mixing (I'm a Audio/video tech in Vegas). I was first thinking about the q6600 as 4 cores would come in handy in the future. Then I was thinking about the E8600 because I was told I can get better OC scores and reach 4.0ghz easy. I know most (95%) of games only use 2 cores. I can get them around $150 E $200 Q. Is there a program or some way to use all 4 cores on a game?
Mobo will be a Asus P5E3 Deluxe BTW.

If I understand this correctly, the game has to be written differently for it to use multiple cores. And quad cores run hotter and can't reach as high of a frequency, so for most gaming a high clocked dual core runs faster than a medium clocked quad core.

I use the dual core E7200 and have it running at 4.0 Ghz, and it feels remarkably fast. It cost 130 at newegg.

A quad core would be nice in the future, when developers code for quad cores, but for me I figured I'd enjoy my cheap high clocked dual until that happens.

How does your E7200 compare with the E8400? Is the 1333MHZ worth getting the E8400?
I might get the E7200 and OC same as you and just upgrade it to a quad when its more usable in the future.
If you could would you mind sharing your OC setup on the E7200?

I'm not an expert, so if I'm wrong hopefully someone will jump in and tell us.

I think that the 1333 or 1066 difference won't be a problem as long as you have a decent board that can get high FSB's. The e7200 has a multiplier of 9.5, and i'm running my fsb @ 420. This MB hit that no sweat. The e7200 does have half the cache of the 8400, which isn't a big deal in gaming, but I don't know about the other programs you listed. And does CAD utilize quad cores?

I use the AC freezer pro 7. It's cheap and decent. This chip runs hot, so I wouldn't suggest using the stock cooler.

Oc'ing this processor was soooo easy. Usually I do the time consuming but proper way of OCing: small increase in FSB, stability testing for 10 minutes, if it doesn't pass add voltage until it will pass, increase in FSB, stability testing.......
This time I had just finished modding my case and was dying to game, so I just pumped up the voltage like 3 notches and ran it at 3.8 Ghz. No sweat.

My chip starts hitting diminishing returns at about 3.8, and 4.0 is about as far on that end of the curve as I want to go. For my setup and chip, anything above like 1.35V is just too hot for my acfp7 to handle. From what I've read most can expect to hit between 3.8-4 Ghz, with quite a few people @ 3.8. I think hazaro's is running at 3.8 as well. I put a link to his review below.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=558372&highlight=hazaro's+e7200

as long as clock speeds are equal for E7200 vs E8400 the difference is about 5% in very few apps. at most in other apps like A/V encoding is much smaller difference like 2% or less.

You would better off getting a Q6600 and oced even to 3.4ghz. will be better then a faster clocked dualie for what you plan to do.

For games while games are/have been coded for 4cores, crysis/lost planet/ a few others. the main problem is that when gaming and your playing high res with aa/af on the bottleneck will be the video card. if you play with low res and no aa/af then the faster clocked dualie will yield a higher fps but not by much. depending on the game in low res could be as much at 15% difference in fps. i dought you will miss the lost fps for faster a/v processing with a quad core.

As evil said a quad will be a life saver in encoding. I went from a E8400 at 4.0 to a quad at 3.2-3.4 depending on ambients and the difference is amazing. There just simply is no contest, and, as mentioned, the amount you will lose in games in minimal at best. For you I would highly suggest a quad.

salsa88 said:

How does your E7200 compare with the E8400? Is the 1333MHZ worth getting the E8400?
I might get the E7200 and OC same as you and just upgrade it to a quad when its more usable in the future.
If you could would you mind sharing your OC setup on the E7200?

Click to expand...

I don't think you really understand the concept of FSB/multiplier. You can increase the FSB. Burning CPU increased his FSB on his E7200 from 1066 to 1680. Increasing it to 1333 is about nothing. You could probably get at least 400x9.5 (1600 FSB) out of any given E7200.

But it all depends on what you do. I think if you don't mind upgrading in a year or so and don't want to go to nehalem, get an E7200 now and then snag a Q9650 (not QX9650) later when they're dirt cheap.

If you're new to overclocking, you could experiment on the E7200 and then by the time you would want to go to something like the Q9650.

Or, you may want to get something like a Q6600 right now, and work with that if the programs you use would take advantage of a quad.