How to have more fun...?

[scaryjim]

Simple question really: which of these sounds more fun?!

Keep my existing Q6600 (2.4GHz, 2x4MB cache, 1066MHz FSB x 9) which has pretty amazing performance for a chip released about 4 years ago, or "downgrade" to a Pentium E6500 (2.93GHz, 2MB cache, 1066MHz FSB x 11)?

It may look like a "keep the Q6600" no-brainer, but this computer is rarely used, and then only for gaming. I'm in the middle of a watercooling adventure, but to be honest I probably don't game enough to keep a monster gaming rig running, so I'm thinking that a little scaling back wouldn't go amiss.

I can pick up the E6500 off snootyjim second hand (assuming he doesn't sell it before I make my mind up ) then sell my Q6600 and end up slightly better off in cash terms, with a CPU with higher straight-line speed and lower power-draw weighing off against less cores and cache. And obviously with a higher multi the E6500 is likely to clock higher when I get round to OCing my rig (I believe the dual-core Wolfdale Celerons / Pentiums were famed for their clocking prowess).

So, I'm caught in 2 minds: stick with what I have and keep my monster gaming rig, or scale back slightly and potentially have a little ready cash on hand, plus lower my electricity bill, alongside a higher clocked but less awesome CPU. Anyone got any advice for me?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Stick with your Q6600 and overclock it!!

The E6500 might be based on a slightly newer architecture but has less L2 cache, so the cores might not be as fast as you think.

Edit!!

A Pentium E6300 is slower than a Q6600 in the games listed in this comparison:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/94?vs=53

A Q8200 is also faster than a Pentium E6300 too:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/I..._E6300/10.html

[jim]

I think the clear answer is to downgrade.

[scaryjim]

Stick with your Q6600 and overclock it!!

...

A Pentium E6300 is slower than a Q6600 in the games listed in this comparison ...

Hmmmm, the gaming comparison there is quite close really. Either CPU will end up heavily overclocked under water, so doing a stock comparison is the only sensible way to choose between them.

Apart from the gaming results the Q6600 is a pretty clear winner though...

I think the clear answer is to downgrade.

Really? Can't imagine what makes you say that...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The thing is more games are become multi-threaded and newer game engines are being released in the next year or so. BF3 will probably run much better on quad cores and even Crysis 2 seems to use all four cores of my lightly overclocked Q6600. If you look at the comparisons in any multi-threaded games the E6300 is much slower and even in games which are lightly threaded the extra L2 cache seems to make the Q6600 faster in most cases.The E6300 is clocked 400MHZ higher too.

Even my high VID Q6600 G0 with the Shuttle ICE cooler and an ancient 975X motherboard will hit between 3.0GHZ to 3.2GHZ(heat is the main issue with the SFF Shuttle cooler). However,the Q6600 G0 can hit between 3.5GHZ to 3.8GHZ if you have a lower VID chip,better motherboard and better cooling.

However,your motherboard has a Nvidia chipset so it might not play so nicely with an overclocked quad core.

OTH,water cooling an overclocked Q6600 seems to be a better use of expensive cooling than on a Pentium E6500. A decent air cooler would do for a Pentium E6500 IMHO.