E8500 or Q9450?

[crusoe74]

Hi there

I'm looking to get a new computer within the next month or two and am wondering whether an Intel E8500 or Q9450 will be better for me. I'll be matching it with a nforce 650i mobo and a GF8800GT with a possible second at a later date. The chances are I won't be overclocking it as I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to overclocking.

I will use it mainly for gaming but it won't be a stop gap until Nehalem; this machine will have to last me until 2011.

I've deliberately left out AMD as the benchies I've seen haven't been kind to Phenom's.

So what should I go with? E8500 or Q9450?

 

[Mandrake_]

If you want the system to last that long then I'd go with the quad. You'll be better off for the future games and applications that are multithreaded.

You might want to check your choice of motherboard though. None of the nforce 6xx support the quad core 45nm CPUs, you'd need an nforce 780i board for that. My advice would be to forget using an Nvidia chipset and go with an Intel board. A Gigabyte or ASUS board with an Intel P35 chipset would offer great performance with an affordable price.

 

[crusoe74]

Oh forgot to mention my current set up:

Athlon 64 3400+
MSI mobo (socket 754)
GF6800GT (AGP)

Can't really do much with what I've got hence brand new build.

 

[crusoe74]

Mandrake, my choice of mobo isn't set in stone but I've seen the 650i advertised as 'Penryn 45nm ready' and will support 1333FSB, maybe 750i will be ready in a couple of months. I think 780i will be out of my price range and be overkill.

 

[hewlettpucktard]

OP, five years is an extraordinary life expectancy for a PC system.

 

[crusoe74]

It won't be 5 years, nearer 3 and a half.

 

[Loser777]

Still pretty much insane. Reminds me of running a PII in 2002.
I would say the Q9450 if you can afford it. I don't see any difference between an overclocked sub $200 E6700 and the E8500.

 

[winkgood]

Why, may I ask, does it have to last five years? Do you have a wife that only lets you build a computer once every five years? Do you plan on not making money for five years or what?

TBH, a computer will easily last five years as long as you aren't expecting much from it. If all I did was surf the internet, send email and write word documents, then I could still be cruising along on a PIII 1 Ghz.

A hardcore gaming machine is another story. I don't usually expect more than a year or so out of a gaming machine before I have to make at least a couple substantial upgrades to it. I built my machine about 1 1/2 years ago and since then I've changed memory, video card twice, and overclocked the cpu. Later this month I'm gonna grab an E8500 and get some better memory.

 

[cnumartyr]

Still pretty much insane. Reminds me of running a PII in 2002.
I would say the Q9450 if you can afford it. I don't see any difference between an overclocked sub $200 E6700 and the E8500.

If you don't see a difference between an E6700 and E8500 then why the Q9450 over the Q6600?

To the OP: If it has to last 2+ years I would go quad.

I would either go 400x8 on a Q9450 or 333x9 on a Q6600.

Either one will last you a while.

 

[crusoe74]

Why, may I ask, does it have to last five years?

I'm not sure where this '5 years' idea has come from. It's January 2008. I plan to buy about March and it will last until summer 2011. I bought my current computer in October 2004 hence the 3 and a half year life cycle.

A hardcore gaming machine is another story. I don't usually expect more than a year or so out of a gaming machine before I have to make at least a couple substantial upgrades to it. I built my machine about 1 1/2 years ago and since then I've changed memory, video card twice, and overclocked the cpu

I only game at 1280 x 1024 as I have a 19" monitor. I'll probrbly upgrade from a 8800GT at about half life of my computer, say about Xmas 2009
My current set up plays games Ok but COD4 and crysis run at a pitiful framerate at 800 x 600. On the other hand Oblivion, Half Life 2, Company of Heroes and AoE3 play fine. I prefer RTS to FPS so for that reason FPS doesn't have to be blistering.

Do you have a wife that only lets you build a computer once every five years? Do you plan on not making money for five years or what?

Hmmmm

Thanks for your responses so far, keep them coming!

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

My next processor purchase will be a quad core. My next video card will be the 9800gx2 - assuming i like it heh.

Reason? I think the future is multiple cores. The speed at which you recognize (2.4ghz) is at it's peak. The silicone can't be cranked any higher. The solution is multiple cores, because of this software developers will have to start programming for multiple cores. The market demands it so you'll see more of it.

Hi there

I'm looking to get a new computer within the next month or two and am wondering whether an Intel E8500 or Q9450 will be better for me. I'll be matching it with a nforce 650i mobo and a GF8800GT with a possible second at a later date. The chances are I won't be overclocking it as I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to overclocking.

I will use it mainly for gaming but it won't be a stop gap until Nehalem; this machine will have to last me until 2011.

I've deliberately left out AMD as the benchies I've seen haven't been kind to Phenom's.

So what should I go with? E8500 or Q9450?

 

[SpinachEater]

1 vote quad

 

[gamecrazychris]

I vote the q9450(if you can actually find one). And, as others have said, the 650i won't work with the 45nm quads but its no big deal the 750i is basically the same as the 650i but with 45nm quad support.