Building a new system, not for gaming only home use. I really like programs too run fast when I use them. Word processing, burning a few DVD's. I will run the GAP35DS3L board. Not sure how too OC, but I know I will find help here. What CPU would work best for me? If I OC would both chips run about the same speed.
                                                                                                           Thanks

. o O (another E8400/Q6600 thread????)
 
Flip a coin.  Heads for E8400, Tails for the Q6600.  and if you don't like the results... best 2 out of 3.
 
Still not happy???  Best 3 out of 4.
 
Still not happy???  Print a picture of the E8400 and Q6600 on separate paper.  Hang it on the wall.  blind fold yourself, and through a dart at it...
 
 
 
When you OC, the speed will be the same on each core, you can't set them separately.

As Grimmy implied, you really can't go wrong with either choice. You could push the E8400 much higher than the Q6600, but if the application is multi-threaded, the Q6600 could perform better.

Go with an E2180. It's less than half the price of the two you mentioned and is still overkill for what you want it for.
 
Word processing and burning DVD's take very little CPU resources, so any dual core processor will be more than you'll need. But having a second core really helps make a system feel faster, so I would recommend any of the cheaper dual core CPU's.

Lets see 8400 45nm 65w 3.0ghz giving you 6mb performance  and saving you money in electricity, or q6600 at  95w 65nm and the new quad core 45nm's  coming out around the corner. I say go with the core 2 duo 8400 and wait for the new 45nm quad cores to come out and drop in price, then buy one you will be a happy mofo. I hope they dont move away from 775 platform though, dont want to upgrade my motherboard.

Like you both said it probably really is flip a coin to decide as they're not worlds apart, but if he's on a budget then a he needs to think pocket/needs wise. As other posts have said the price of a q6600 per core is around 60 dollars and 110 on the e8400. The e8400 is without a doubt cooler, more up to date and can OC with a stock fan nicely, but less suitable for encoding. I'd say if your only after gaming and speed for the short term then get the e8400, but if your after a long-term budget solution get the q6600.

whatever the "little devil" sitting on your right shoulder tells you to get between the two just go for that one!
 
hope that helps! LOL

correct. and there have been a ton of threads on this. I think I even posted one a while ago, and eventually got tired of waiting for the e8400 and am gonna get a AMD 6400+
You really can't go wrong with either. Right now I know for a fact that the e8400 generally runs games faster, but in multithreaded apps the Q6600 is the way to go. The Q6600 might be the way to go in the long run... when games can better use the 4 cores!

Go E8400 or E8500
Iam sure you are not doing vedio encoding or rendering or animation at home
So forget any quadcore and go dual
Both 8400-8500 can be ocd to 4GHz on air cooling and will outperform Q6600 ocd to 3-3.2GHz
in games and all other aplications
Some will say that new programs and games will be coming out using 4cores
that might be true but you are safe for a year at least then upgrade to QX9650 when prices drop
and oc to 4GHz and use it for another 2-3 years
 
See you in 2012 for another discussion

Why don't you search through the numerous threads on this and find the answer yourself?
 
There must be 30 threads already ... some only weeks old.
 
Plus every major hardware site has done this comparison ... google it.
 
This topic is about as interesting as working with a bulimic patient.