Given the choice of these 2 processors, which would you go with:

Intel Core 2 Quad Core - 8MB L2 2.4Ghz 1066FSB
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor - 6MB L2 3.16Ghz 1333FSB

Assume mostly normal use, some gaming, etc.
Back in the day, I always heard FSB emphasized.... but cache is nice too.

Just curious what your opinions are.

For normal use and "some" gaming those 2 CPU would be both great, i'd go with the quad core given the choice and then i'd overclock it.

Now if you are putting a new PC together then go with the New Core i7 line of course... Need one of the new motherboards tho.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115202

Skip them both and pick up an i7. If you absolutely MUST buy one of those two, pick up the Q6600 (I assume that's what you're looking at) for the 8mb cache.

Can't wait to get my hands on a new i7 and X58 mobo.

I get wood just thinking about it...

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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken
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VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

I haven't done much reading about it - but what is the big deal about i7?

As far as cooling goes for that, am I OK doing an i7 as long as I have a good case and fan?

The best cooler on the market was the Zalman 9700 in my opinion. Not sure if they're selling mounting brackets yet for this slot, but if they do, or release a similar product, pick it up. As far as heat goes for the cpu itself? You're fine with stock but your processor management will be limited (the i7's have the ability to reduce other cores and focus on single or even dual-threaded use to reduce heat).

Here's a link to the Zalman cooler I'm a fan of for the Core2:

http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=164

Tuniq Tower 120 is also good
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835154001

On both of these, the TT120 and Zalman, make sure your case has enough room they are pretty big.

Lol IRL. Those remind me of those HUGE fucking annoying ass spoilers on little rice burner Honda CRXs.

Uh, whether you're in love with it cosmetically or not, it's a very good heatsink.

shrug, performance gain is negligible

Incorrect.

nope

It would be negligible for the low end, below average user such as yourself. Seeing as you aren't capable of keeping the lowest of quality parts clean and maintained, it's no surprise you would be ignorant about CPU performance and what it really means.



The kit Elessar linked is amazing. The only drawback to it that you need to be aware of is fairly large/wide and will completely block back case fans in some cases. I would recommend a case with some sort of secondary air circulation system, either out the top or through the side panel you remove to get inside. Antec had a great one I looked at the other day.

Really if you went with that Q6600, you probably wont even want to bother with tweaking it, and a regular stock fan, or water cooling with a case with proper air flow will be just fine.

Also if you are putting a Nvidia 260/280, make sure you will have enough room. Those cards are long bossy beasts. A name brand 850w PS should be more than enough to power it. I don't see a need to move up to the 1kers yet. Soon, but not yet.

i dunno i have a q6600 quad core cpu. that's not "low-end" really is it? the vid cards suck, to be sure.

couldnt you just spend the 75$ for that crazy cooler on a better cpu that you dont have to OC?

Your video cards don't suck, your practice of keeping them maintained do.

Couldn't you just spend the $1 for a toothbrush and 5 mins of your time on something that will work just fine for what you do as opposed of throwing $200 for a very very marginal upgrade?

Seriously. If you don't want to do it, I'll do it for you. It wont degrade or humiliate me one bit. I'm not being a smartass but seriously, it was suggested to you as a solution and you simply scoff at it. These are not Packard Bell, Wal Mart specials anymore.

I didn't think it was that important either, years ago. I had an old AMD 1.3ghz system that would keep rebooting and locking up. After a while, video would slow down, I would get lag and stutter and shit was almost unplayable. I played Final Fantasy XI with a puckered asshole in fear that my shit would crash in the middle of something important. For over a year this happened on and off. I updated the bios, I checked, double checked and triple checked drivers. One day, just on a hunch I cleaned the shit out of my case, and not with just a can of air. Video card, which I think was a 9800 pro at the time and ran molten hot, I took the sync off, and cleaned it down to the berrings. Same with all case fans, CPU fans and reapplied arctic silver. It never gave another problem again until I finally replaced it.

Heat is the #1 problem with newly built systems these days. And there is nothing more frustrating than getting a brand new system assembled, powered up and watching it blue screen 5 mins later because your CPU or Video Card is overheating due to shitty heat shielding or improper airflow to push the shit out. I went into buying my latest PC completely ignorant, and researched every step. I looked at every little thing possible because I didn't want this problem to ever happen again. It is damn frustrating. I would much rather have shitty bad parts I could throw back at Neweggs face as opposed to working parts that just ran too hot for what I wanted to do. Sure, if all you're doing is standard gaming, you might not need a huge brick of a sync. But if it is even the slightest concern that you have, it's worth it in the end to prepare for it, on top of keeping the case clean.

And if it turns out not to fix the problem, you have a clean case. Not just a case you stick a can of compressed air in and jiggle the dust bunnies around just for them to get sucked back up by case fans.

Do you have a personal preference for oil for your car? Have you ever put off brand gas, or shit you usually don't get in the tank and swear to god you hear knocks and notice shitty mileage or performance? Same shit, same principal.

So, a Q6600 isn't a low-end processor in terms of value performance. That said, do you know your stepping? There's a SIGNIFICANT heat difference between G0 and B3 and that "crazy cooler" would see quite a benefit from it. Next, overclocking nowadays is not the insane voltage-fest it used to be. You can get away with light memory/cpu voltage increases and see a good 400-600mhz overclock on today's boards. Not exactly rocket science and that cooler makes all the difference, even at stock speeds. On the i7? Even more of a difference since Intel introduced the core profiles.



Yup, and if you're feeling adventurous, you can also do some lapping (sanding the cpu surface) on the processor, which works ESPECIALLY well on the Core2's in reducing heat. I haven't heard much yet on the i7. I guess that really depends on the fab plant.

In the end, Givin's right. You're paying for the piece of mind of knowing heat will NEVER be an issue, and gives you some slack on overall airflow. With the massive size of recent video cards lately, that's a real concern.