Potentially really stupid question!

[rockstoneballs]

Hi guys, new to the forum so Hello!

I just had a quick question that's been niggling at me and now that I have to buy a new processor I was hoping you could enlighten me.

I'm building my computer at home and require a 775 socket chip to get up and go. However I'm torn between a 3.0 GHZ Dual Core, and 2.4 GHZ Quad Core. My machine will be predominantly used for gaming and I don't trust my abiliy enough for overclocking so I was wondering if you could recommend one or the other?

They're the same price and compatible with the motherboard but I guess it really boils down to me not being 100% on the exact definition of "Quad vs Dual" cores.

Any help is much appreciated guys.

Thanks,

Brian

[Apoptosis]

what is the model number on the dual-core

[rockstoneballs]

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850

Is that what you want?

[rockstoneballs]

Anything?

[DMB2000uk]

I take it that the other quad core is a Q6600 then.

I'd personally go for the E6850, as currently apps and games do not see a huge benefit from going from 2 cores to 4 cores. So in this case the extra .6Ghz of raw speed will give you the better performance in games.

Unless you are doing a lot of multi-threaded video encoding (or something similar) the extra 2 cores will not bring you much benefit in general use either. Others might recommend getting the quad core for future proofing your system, but the extra power it will use and the extra heat it kicks out are not worth it in my opinion.

So like I said, E6850 for me, and it is what I recommend you to go for.

Dan

[stopthekilling77]

yeah if youre not going to be doing photo/video/music editing then stick with the dual core

quads pump out a lot of heat, too!

[ibleet]

Another vote for the E6850.

[kenc51]

E6850 here too. The run very cool and are fast!

[Bio-Hazard]

DITTO...............