My motherboard has recently given up so I am looking to get a full PC upgrade.

Should I go for the Q6600 Quad Go Steppings @ £171 or the AMD X2 6000+ @ £110 ????

I have always used AMD but some people say go Quad. I guess I would only need it for games as I dont really use my PC for encoding etc, but most games don't use multi-cores yet (correct me if I am wrong).

Is it worth the extra £60

Any suggestions?

Many thanks!

lets see air cooled quad core at 3.4ghz?? or 3.2ghz dual core? 2 extra cores wow thats tough!

specs: 1.4875v, Vcore at 100% 1.45 with asus anti vdroop

half as many cores at less speed you must be kidding? right? for $100 or less you get future system or you can buy the same amd junk they sold 2 years ago rebadged

Isn't the Quad 2.4GHz? not 3.4GHz

Overclocking wise, that's why the mentioning of air cooling, else everything has air cooling.

Anyway, even without the OC, the C2Q is a better choice. It's 2.4 GHz (per core) is similar to AMD's 3 GHz (per core), and future games, physics or not physics will use 4 cores (at this rate, maybe future before DX10 native games)

You'd say go for an Intel Dual core if AMD had the quad. It's always the same with you fanboys. Always pulling the wool over other peoples' eyes with your fanboyism. AMD Junk.... pfff, what makes you think he even needs that much power?

@abarrett: The quad will help in games like crysis and most upcoming games, but won't show massive improvements over the 6000 in most current games unless overclocked. It really comes down to how much you really want to spend and how much you intend to game, particularly with future games.

the basic question here is; Is the quad 50% better than the 6000+... I'd say yes - if you're running software that can use 4 cores (which if we believe intel will be games coming out over the next 6 months - add a pinch of salt and it's more like 1-2 years before you really need it)

Now, the other problem with the 6000+ route is that AM2 is pretty much a dead platform, where as if you get a decent 775 mobo now, you can still upgrade for close to another year, plus that quad core is so far above "average" that it'll last the test of time far longer than the 6000+.

The quad gets my vote... put my money where my mouth is? I'm moving country in a month's time and the PC I have lined up when I get there is a Q6600 based machine.

The other option would be... buy a decent 775 mobo and get a cheap dual core intel right now, then get one of the last 775 quad cores next year when they are cheaper and faster.

I'm not a fanboy, I've used AMD processors my whole computing life until now but right now Intel has it on performance and overclockability. AMD only makes sense if you're doing a budget build with no overclocking wanted.

With over clocking on air you can easily get a BO Q6600 up to qx6850 speeds no problem. G0 will get you there also just at cooler temperatures. Randomizer pretending that this is even a contest is the one with the blinders on.

Yes you will want to over clock but that's par for the course when it comes to Core processors, no one would leave a nitrous oxide tank closed when it came stock with their new car.

It comes down to choice, if you want to close every program you have open before gaming(x2 6000) or game when you want to(q6600).

This forum is full of rich idiots.

OK - I have decided:

I will go for the Quad G0 Stepping with an Asus P5W DH Deluxe

I know its fairly expensive but, what the hell.

What does everyone think?

Um, I don't know that many people that are "rich" that are also actually idiots. Usually people with money have had to do something to get that money in the first place.

This forum is full of people with half decent jobs and an interest in computers would be more accurate.

Or stuburn no argument go down with the ship AMD supporters like yourself. Which AMD chip can be purchased for 1/4 of the cost of the highest end AMD chip but can succeed in equaling performance after a few seconds in the bios?

Continue to give horrible advice to people telling them to buy dead end hardware, I'm sure they appreciate it.

If I lived in the past, I would agree with you.

Even if u dont OC a Q6600 (or even E6600) it beats X2 6000 in %90 of cases due to its larger cache

If you dont plan on OCing dont waste money on an OCing mobo. Either way I would suggest ASUS P5K LGA 775 Intel P35 that can OC the Q6600 to over 3.2GB's. Why buy a future proof CPU if not a future proof mobo? This mobo due to the P35 is more future proof than the 975X and costs much less. The P35 is more likely to work with Penry and maybe even an octal core next year. Its only $134.99 at newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131180