Q6600 or E6600??

[Ryanzbane]

I'm waiting for the July 22nd price drops and was wondering which would be better suited for me? I mostly game on my computer, but I also do some photoshopping here and there, and plan on getting into audio editing. I figured having 4 cores as opposed to two would be better right? Well that's what I thought until I read these:

"Cons: horrible performance gain over the E6600, bottle neck of cpu bandwidth, bad planning, not worth the $

Other Thoughts: Intel caused a bottle neck with this when they doubled the cores and didnt bump up the bus speed. E6600 gives 533Mhz per core, the Q6600 only gives 266Mhz or 333Mhz depending on if you are runnign a 1066Mhz FSB or 1333Mhz FSB. The gain from this is definately not worth the cost even after the price drop will happen. Definately dont get this. Wait for the true quads or get the E6600."

"Cons: Intel pretty much just put two dual-cores in the same package. not really a True quad in my opinion. Its almost like having two dual-cores on one motherboard. you wont get the best results until the put the cores all on one die.

Other Thoughts: Well, Its a good start. but they should have done better. AMD is due to come out with a true Quad (all on one die) and that should show us the true quad capabilities. We will see."

So I was going to go for the Q6600 when the prices drop...but now I'm rethinking things. So are these guys correct? Should I just go with the E6600 (if what they are saying is true about the Q6600)? Also...do you guys think the Core 2 Duos will drop in price as well come July 22nd? Since the quads will basicly be around the price the duos are currently.

 

[illuminati11_13]

Well, you can OC the Q6600 but you can't add cores to the E6600.

For gaming I'd go with the higher FSB I think, but if you can optimize your image and audio processing for multicore and SMB the extra cores might actually be a big boon.

 

[Sam__]

id just look at some benchmarks and see which performs better...im tempted by the quad when the prices go down

 

[mgoode]

The P35 motherboards are doing alot more than 333fsb with the quad-cores.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=512537

IMHO for $266.00 the Q6600 is a good deal.

 

[Automata]

OP: I have only one thing to say "Ignore all NewEgg reviews". Most of the people who post stuff there have no idea what they are talking about.

If your going into audio editing, get the quad, it is worth it. Bottlenecking issue? Overclock it!!

 

[oakstave]

Agreed. Go Quad. I highly doubt you are going to see less performance. I would have gone quad, but they were nearly 1200 dollars when I was assembling my pc, and I got the E6700 for 270 from an intel engineer.

I may sell the E6700 and buy one myself once the price drops.

 

[Automata]

/offtopic

and I got the E6700 for 270 from an intel engineer.

Where do you guys find these people?! I need to befriend someone there or get a job there!!!

/ontopic

 

[PearlJammzz]

Comment deleted. These forums are to be PG-rated, and your comment was not only inappropriate but also completely irrelevant. -- macklin01

 

[Tyranos]

If you're only doing it here and there, a dual core would be fine. With a quad you are going to have to take HEAT output into consideration. In fact, a lot of the time, if you have to ask, then you don't really need the quad. It will be only 266 come july 22, but you can just save for a penryn, or a much higher clocked current c2d.

 

[oakstave]

If you're only doing it here and there, a dual core would be fine. With a quad you are going to have to take HEAT output into consideration. In fact, a lot of the time, if you have to ask, then you don't really need the quad. It will be only 266 come july 22, but you can just save for a penryn, or a much higher clocked current c2d.

Point well taken. The reason I would go quad is they likely will be relavant for a longer period of time than the dualies, even if they aren't necessary at the moment for most apps. I only build a new system every 4 years or so. I suppose if you're a person who buys a new proc every year or two, why bother with the quad... get a cheap and fun dual, OC it till it cries, and start saving for Penryn.

 

[oakstave]

Comment deleted by macklin01.

Dude... gross.

 

[Audioaficionado]

Get the quad. I know I'm going to.

Just make sure you have a top ranked cooler as those chips run twice the wattage of the duo.

Absolute necessity if you overclock or run heavy loading 24/7.

 

[Automata]

Comment deleted by macklin01

wtf....

 

[Michael Warren]

Those people on newegg obviously don't know what they are talking about, a q6600 and an e6600 both perform the same in single threaded games/applications (both processors are clocked at 2.4).

When it comes to multi threaded games/software like supcom the q6600 performs way better than the e6600. Also, this talk about the q6600 not being a true quad core is false. AMD has a marketing ploy set up making people believe that for a "true" quad core all four cores need to be on the same die which is false. A true quad core is just having four cores, nowhere did it say it must be on one die.

It doesn't matter anyways because it has already been proven that intels quad cores on two dies beat AMD's barcelona which is a quad core on one die.

With the price cut coming up on july 22 the q6600 would be the best option since it will only cost you $266 and DDR2 is very cheap. I wouldn't even look into Penyrn to be honest with you since DDR3 isn't supposed to be any better than DDR2 when it comes to performance and it will be a lot more expensive. If you really wanted to you could just buy a motherboard that supports DDR2/DDR3 and 45NM processing.


Another reason why I would go with the q6600 is because of all of the fully multi threaded games coming out within the next 3-6 months and beyond. Games like Crysis, BioShock, Quake Wars, UTK7, Portal, TF2, HLEP2, Alan Wake, COD4, and lets not forget about the source update thats going to introduce full multi threading support to all games using the source engine. Just make sure that you good a good motherboard and you should be able to overclock it to at least 3GHZ with decent cooling.

 

[redrumy3]

Comment deleted by macklin01

 

[ImSpartacus]

Also...do you guys think the Core 2 Duos will drop in price as well come July 22nd? Since the quads will basicly be around the price the duos are currently.

The E6600 will be retired on the 22. The E6550 (basically a 1333MHz replacement for the E6600) will sell for $163.

http://www.vr-zone.com/index.php?i=4976

for 20 dolars more u can get an e6750 running at 2.66 MHz instead of 2.33 MHz. then for the same price of the q6600 u can get an E6850 at 3.0 GHz.

 

[macklin01]

This is an interesting discussion, especially since I plan on building a new system sometime after August (upgrade from P4 Northwood!)

Thanks for the great info, guys! -- Paul

 

[nikhsub1]

wtf....

What don't you get? When you QUOTE something that needs to be removed - then not only does the original post need to be edited but so does every quote of that infraction. Get it?

 

[macklin01]

nikhsub,

That was his original text, in response to the original, vulgar post. I probably should have just deleted the replies. (Feel free to yourself, if you think it's more appropriate.) Thanks -- Paul

 

[Evilsizer]

i would ask what is your current motherboard. as if you buying a board with the cpu, i would say grab a P35based with Q6xxx. as if you doing photo/audio editing.

as well even if you are waiting for the price cuts, the new 133fsb dual core are coming out. G0 stepping ES's are currently hitting 3.8ghz on 1.37volts. Its gonna be interesting when things finally hit retail. i have plans to buy a e6850. if your worreid about having enough power for video/audio editing/encoding go with the quad. if you really dont do that much a/v stuff the stay with the dual core. the dual core will be able to hit higher cpu speeds then quads atm. mainly though the quads were having some trouble ocing on p965 and the first nv680i mobos. the new rev of 680i ocs quads much better then before and was the motherboard to get if you wanted to oc a quad. since the release of p35 thats pretty much the one to get with either a quad or dual.

here is some E6550 G0 stepping action.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=147890