I need to decide on buying a fast Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3GHz Socket 775 4MB Cache 1333MHz FSB or a Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping (2.4GHz 1066MHz) Socket 775 L2 8MB Cache (2x4MB (4MB per core pair).

The 3Ghz sounds a faster processor for 'one programme' use and has a faster FSB. It also costs about £30 quid more but has two processors less???

Any ideas chaps? Gonna be using it for HD video editing mostly with a flash GFX card (Nvidia 1500 Quadro).

Thanks for any advice.

D

 

Go for the Q6600 and overclock it to 3.6GHz, or at least 3.2GHz which is easy.

I went for an E8400 dual core and overclocked it to 4GHz because the only demanding stuff it does is games, most of which presently run faster on a fast dual core.

 

Interesting J - reliability is paramount for me in the middle of a job, but a little tweak sounds in order

 

I asked the same question a week or so ago, and, getting conflicting answers, went onto Google, and after a bit of searching, found a few sites doing comparisons of various chips.

Three things stood out:

1. Unless you are doing plenty of multi-tasking, don't bother with Quad-core chips yet.

2. Dual-core chips run single tasks considerably faster than all but the dearest quads.

3. Intel's SLOWEST quad core chip is still faster than AMD's FASTEST, and prices are similar!

Alcazar

 

If you are doing HD video editing, and are using something like Premiere CS3 for the job, then you will see a big boost with a Quad core. Premiere is a multi-threaded app, and when rendering to mpeg will use all 4 cores.

When running with single-threaded applications, I doubt you'd see an advantage.

p.s. I'm currently using a E6600 dual core (not overclocked), and it works just fine editing HDV in Premiere CS3 on Vista. A quad core would speed up the render times though (which can be very long).

 

Ditto with the E8400 but for the life of me I can't get the memory (6400) to sit stably above 3.6GHz - I think it's the board limiting the speed to 1:1, which is an ****.

Still a 3.6GHz dual core with an 8800GTX is nothing to complain about.

In answer to the question: dual core if you're a gamer, Quad if you want to do LOTS of things at one.

I am tempted to buy some faster RAM but really for the increase in clock speed that I don't need i can't (quite) justify it

 

I use Crucial Ballistix 6400 stuff and it will run 1:1 with an FSB of 500MHz (at 8x CPU multiplier) at 5-5-5-15 timing. I bought this and the P5K-E hoping they would do 500MHz if necessary to help me get the most out of the E8400. As it is the FSB I run is only 445 MHz (at 9x CPU multiplier) as it runs a bit cooler and is not noticeably slower. My 8800GT core and shaders won't overclock under stress much at all (5%) despite an extra 0.1Vcore, memory goes up to 1000MHz though.

Sorry Diesel I know this isn't an overclocking thread, but you could leave the CPU voltage standard and just up the FSB for a really impressive overclock with pretty good reliability. Also I wouldn't buy an E6xxx unless it is considerably cheaper than the E8xxx - which it wasn't when I last looked.

 

Thanks John, and Diesel - I agree with the sentiment about the E6xxx chip - go for the E8xxx, they are cooler running and more future proof. Plus there is always the extra OC'ing fun to be had.

 

I'd still go with a quad if you're doing HD video editing. You'll get much better render times than with a dual core

 

The advantage of buying a Q6600 is that it runs natively at 2.4Ghz with a 1066Mhz FSB.
You don't have to overclock the mobo or the ram to get it to run at 3Ghz as they will run 1333Mhz as default. So the only thing overclocking is the cpu which won't need anymore vcore to do that. Easy overclocking with no noticable temp increase.
If you want to go higher, then as the 9x multiplier is higher than most of the E8xxx chips you don't need crazy ram & fsb speeds.

 

Damit a lot of that goes over my head! I just upgraded to Avid Media Composer today (it was £4k outright a month ago, now £300 as an upgrade - rude not to!!!) and am told that the update to it in June will be programmed to use quad cores, so I think that is me sorted. Also ANYTHING that speeds up encoding and rendering has to be a bonus as I didnt get to bed till 0200 watching the render bar!!!

Thanks for the input.

D

PS boy can you beat DELL up on their internet prices - but they still insisted I take an OS (which I already have) so told em to shove it! Good to know though if you want an off the shelf...

 

I was trying to PM you about this, but you dont accept PMS ...

Wondering if you fancie making a step by step for me

 

No PM's John - shame on you! I have a CPU in the car that needs a tweak too

D

 

There are loads of guides to overclocking so litle point in me rewriting one and doing a worse job of it.

Custom PC magazine often has guides to it as well.

Google "Q6600 overclock" as well.

You need to dig out the instructions to your motherboard/BIOS as well.

Many recent Intel CPUs overclock a fair bit simply by increasing the FSB, play with that before thinking about increasing voltages. Check the temperatures and do a stress test (I do about an hour at 100% CPU activity). Depending on your motherboard, look into the RAM speed and the PCI bus speed you get when overclocking. Keep the PCI bus at 100MHz if you can, and set the RAM conservatively to slack timings to start with if you run into problems so that you can see how far the CPU will overclock first.

My E8400 overclocks from 3 to 4GHz by changing the FSB from 333 to 445 MHz with no other changes except increasing the CPU voltage a few clicks to get it stable under load. IIRC, it ran 3.6GHz without changing the voltage at all. Many people manage to double the speed of the E2140/E2160!

 

Nice, I've just bought a Dell XPS420 E8400, 8800GT rig for £480, so looking to overclock it as soon as its turned on

 

Watch those temps with the OEM cooler

 

With what would you recommend? The Wolfdales esp 8400 are notoriously bad for being able to get accurate temp readings from either mobo monitor or 3rd party tools. My Asusprobe never moved off 25c cpu temp even though mobo teamp was 36c. Coretemp states 37 on one core and 43 on the other.

Simon

 

Coretemp is generally the most accurate. Mobo monitors are usually way off.
The temps between cores will differ under varied loads and even at idle, especially with quads, as the heatspreader is slightly convex to accomodate the multiple cores so you never get a perfect seat without lapping.

 

Under heavy load at 4GHz I get 60-63C on coretemp. Arctic Freezer Pro 7.

 

A bargain at £15 too.

 

Now in my basket Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler - Ebuyer

 

I have this beasty lurking over my CPU - Never see above 50C



The fan is in the middle of all that

 

mmmm I've always used MBM5, Coretemp is reporting idle temp 10c higher than that in MBM5! Surely MBM5 isn't that inacurrate? And MBM5 is one of the better ones I thought to?

 

Kieran as fan of Dr Who, what in heavens name is that called???!!!

 

The clue is in the name of picture

It's the Tuniq Tower 120, and it is foofing huge. You have to check you have room for the thing. If I didn't have an upside down case (PSU at the bottom) I'd be stuffed. Mind you... then the mobo would be further down.... ah whatever, it's stil frapping mahoosive.

If you want to see it in situ I can take a photo.

 

how do you clean the fluff out from it?

assume it comes apart?

 

God no - A hoover is your friend

Oh and to hold it onto the mobo you need a backplate. None of this wishy-washy clip stuff. You have to screw the bugger onto the p.c.

 

Kieran, you need my RAM and I need your cooler LOL. I reckon I could do a stable 4.2-4.3GHz with that.

 

I'll tell you one thing they didn't mention in the manual - it's bloody sharp!

Take a look at the edges on the fins... the back 3 on each side. One of them has the contents of one of my fingers embedded.

The damn thing is lethal.

Oh, I had NO problems with the CPU running at 4GHz - no temperature problems whatsoever.. it was just the damn RAM. If I could work out the timings or know I could push it nearer to 1000MHz I'd be happy.

Oh, about the dust? Very little in my set up - laminate floor and the base unit is off the floor anyway.

 

Me too

MBM5 takes its reading from the motherboard sensor, which are far from accurate.
Coretemp takes it's readings from the Digital Thermal Sensor located in each individual core (very very accurate).

CoreTemp