Quad Core Vs Dual Core

[inonefly]

I'd get the E0 E8600 for a gaming machine

[Webby]

Come on people read the thread before posting!

The opening poster asked which would be better a duel or quad to go in his dell motherboard which only supports 65nm up to 1066MHz FSB processors, in addition to this they also state that due to the bios they can not overclock the processor.

So every one rambling on about E8*** CPU's or overclocking things stop he can't do it so your not being helpful.

As the opening poster has already determined the options are limited to,

Q6600 2.4GHz Quad 8MB Cache ~£130
Q6700 2.66GHz Quad 8MB Cache ~£175 or ~£148 OEM
E4700 2.6GHz Duel 2MB Cache ~£99
E2220 2.4GHz Duel 1MB Cache ~£60

All the available E6 chips are too expensive to compete as they are clocked to low or have a 1333MHz FSB.

From that selection I would probably go for the E2220 or the Q6600, the duel as it is cheap or the quad for a measure of future proofing although I would wait for a deal to get it a bit cheaper.

The other option (as already mentioned) is potentially to replace the motherboard (assuming Dell have not put in a funny PSU with power pins in the wrong order...) a £50 motherboard and a decent cooler should enable then OP to overclock the E4300. If possible this would be my choice as 2.4GHz should be easily achievable, and would cost less money than buying the E2220 and should provide better performance with the higher level of cache.

[handscombmp]

Thanks Webby for pointing out again that it has to be a max 1066fsb and 65nm. I've looked into changing by mobo but dell have got a cross between a atx and btx board so thats that out. I may pin mod by e4300 as its cheap and i'll see how i feel after that (perhaps by a q6600 when the core i7 comes out second hand). Just from here how would i go about min modding. anything i should look out for

[Rob_B]

Sorry why can't you change the mobo?
You could get a cheap case, cheapish mobo & OC the 4300 if not?

[handscombmp]

Sorry why can't you change the mobo?
You could get a cheap case, cheapish mobo & OC the 4300 if not?

I can't change the mobo becausce the motherboard is on the BTX way round (facing the right if looked at from the front) but the slots for PCI are at the bottom like a ATX. Getting a cheap case may be possible but if i'm overlcoking i'd like a better one and perhaps one that i could put by next build in so it all starts adding up.

[Pob255]

Here's another idea for you, I don't know what that dell mother board bios is like, but if it's got a max of 1066 cpu (ie a fsb of 266) and as the e4300 runs at fsb 200 at default, it should be possible to overclock your e4300.
This all depends on the bios, if it only has 200 and 266 settings then that's probably too big a jump for that e4300 but you never know and that would get it running at 2.4ghz.

Other options would be check around for a 2nd hand e6xxx (e6600 or e6700 for preference) or maybe if you're very lucky a sale

Or new case and motherboard, or even modding the case and a new motherboard

[Webby]

Yeah if you don't mind using ebay then over the last month a number of E6600s have been sold ranging in price from £45-£70 and E6700 £60-£100.

If you could get an E6600 at the lower end of the scale then it would probably make sense but personally I wouldn't be spending £100 on a second hand CPU. Especially not when I could buy a new motherboard, case and cpu cooler to overclock the current CPU for less.

[Pob255]

If you could get an E6600 at the lower end of the scale then it would probably make sense but personally I wouldn't be spending £100 on a second hand CPU. Especially not when I could buy a new motherboard, case and cpu cooler to overclock the current CPU for less.

Heck yeah, I picked mine up new for £108
£50ish would be good 2nd hand.

[Kerotan]

I got a Q6600, and they are now more expensive than when I purhcased at the beginning of August. SCAN no longer have the OEM one listed, which might point to them winding up selling them in favour of the newer chips? If you can pick one up I'd thoroughly recommend them, you won't notice the difference between a quad and a dual [apart from when games become truly multi-threaded and duals are left in the dust].