- Joined
- Nov 29, 2002
- Location
- USA
Okay, I'm trying to decide on which of the following two CPUs to get to upgrade my old Conroe C2D 2.66Gz in my HTPC. Your choices are:
45nm 65w Wolfdale E8400 Core 2 Duo
45nm 95w Q9400 Core 2 Quad
In its current configuration, it scores 5.9 on drive performance, 6.8 for Video performance, 6.3 on Processor and RAM performance
What I figure is, "if" I can upgrade the "gaming" performance of the HTPC enough, I will not have to build a new, dedicated gaming system this winter. It has more than enough performance for HTPC duties currently.
This system will currently run games like GRID and Fallout 3 pretty darned good now. The C2D Conroe I have runs at 3GHz all day long with temps in the ~25°C range at idle and lower to mid 40s under load.
I'm using a Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer cooler on it currently and have no plans to replace this heatsink.
The system, in its old configuration, is listed in my Signature but has changed somewhat.
Platform now consists of:
Asus P5Q Pro Turbo Motherboard
8GB Kingston HyperX DDR2 (1066MHz)
(2) Vision Tek Radeon HD4870s in Xfire (Both are using Scythe Musashi coolers (silent, and MUCH lower temps)
Hauppaugh HVR-1800 NTSC QAM FM Tuner
(4) Western Digital Caviar Black (Matrix RAID 0 (120GB) & Matrix RAID 10 (1.8TB) )
(1) Seagate Barracuda 400GB SATA3 HDD
(1) Lite On PATA DVD+-RW
ABS Black Pearl case
24" Dell 2408FPW
I do not "rip" a lot of stuff. I do not transcode a lot of stuff. I mainly record TV shows, surf, and play games on it.
I see they're both the same price at the egg, and I know that there is no real substitute for 2 extra cores, but I am not aware of all that many programs that I would use that take advantage of 4 cores...
65w would be cheaper from a power consumption standpoint too so I am leaning that way right now. Are there any apps/games coming out soon that will really take advantage of the extra 2 cores that a Quad gives me?
45nm 65w Wolfdale E8400 Core 2 Duo
45nm 95w Q9400 Core 2 Quad
In its current configuration, it scores 5.9 on drive performance, 6.8 for Video performance, 6.3 on Processor and RAM performance
What I figure is, "if" I can upgrade the "gaming" performance of the HTPC enough, I will not have to build a new, dedicated gaming system this winter. It has more than enough performance for HTPC duties currently.
This system will currently run games like GRID and Fallout 3 pretty darned good now. The C2D Conroe I have runs at 3GHz all day long with temps in the ~25°C range at idle and lower to mid 40s under load.
I'm using a Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer cooler on it currently and have no plans to replace this heatsink.
The system, in its old configuration, is listed in my Signature but has changed somewhat.
Platform now consists of:
Asus P5Q Pro Turbo Motherboard
8GB Kingston HyperX DDR2 (1066MHz)
(2) Vision Tek Radeon HD4870s in Xfire (Both are using Scythe Musashi coolers (silent, and MUCH lower temps)
Hauppaugh HVR-1800 NTSC QAM FM Tuner
(4) Western Digital Caviar Black (Matrix RAID 0 (120GB) & Matrix RAID 10 (1.8TB) )
(1) Seagate Barracuda 400GB SATA3 HDD
(1) Lite On PATA DVD+-RW
ABS Black Pearl case
24" Dell 2408FPW
I do not "rip" a lot of stuff. I do not transcode a lot of stuff. I mainly record TV shows, surf, and play games on it.
I see they're both the same price at the egg, and I know that there is no real substitute for 2 extra cores, but I am not aware of all that many programs that I would use that take advantage of 4 cores...
65w would be cheaper from a power consumption standpoint too so I am leaning that way right now. Are there any apps/games coming out soon that will really take advantage of the extra 2 cores that a Quad gives me?
