Help deciding on CPU and motherboard

[snogger_t]

I know there's a lot of threads about the Q6600 vs. the E8400, but I haven't found any that really relate to what I'm going to be doing with my computer.

My main use for my computer is for recording music (using Tracktion 3, guitar rig 3 and reason 4 with a Focusrite Saffire audio interface) and Photoshop work, so I'm wanting to upgrade my current setup (P4 3.06GHz, 3 gigs DDR400 RAM, crappy video card) because it's really struggling with those task. Also, I might start doing some gaming in between semesters of school. Right now I'm trying to figure out if I should go with the dual core (E8400) or the quad core (Q6600) for what I do. Also, I need a recommendation for a motherboard. This is what I've been looking at getting:

E8400 or Q6600
motherboard (no clue what to get)
2 GIG DDR2 1066 RAM
EVGA 8800GTS ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130082 )
PSU

So any advice/recommendations would be very helpful. Oh , my budget is roughly $500-600 give or take.

 

[dobby]

idk think most DAW audio editor are multi threaded, so i would go with the 8400, so you can really get the most out of the system, also the e8400 isnt a hot CPU, so packaged with a thrid party HS/f it should be very quite.

however you cantgo wrong with either of these processor

if your not overclocking then the a motherboard form Asus or gigabit with a p35 chipset should be ideal.

i would rather see 4Gb of DDR2 - 800 than 2 @ 1066. Digital Audio Enviroments, reallly like allot of RAM, becasue every track is stored as a separate wav file, so when playing it back every Wav file need to be in the RAM.

 

[snogger_t]

What about 4Gb of DDR2 1066? Also, I was thinking about maybe overclocking a little since the E8400 and Q6600 are supposed to be so easy to OC.

 

[grieve]

idk think most DAW audio editor are multi threaded, so i would go with the 8400, so you can really get the most out of the system, also the e8400 isnt a hot CPU, so packaged with a thrid party HS/f it should be very quite..

hmmm... multi treaded so go with a dual core? why not a quad??

You mentioned video editing and little gaming
go with the Q6600, its a great processor.

 

[closed_deal]

Asus P5E X38, seems to be very easy to overclock with and is stable with up to 520 FSB with a NB voltage increase, not tried much higher...

E8400 gets to 3.6 without much hastle at all. Saying that the Q6600 gets to 3.0 easy and 3.6+ if you know what your doing/ have a good enough cooler.

Both CPU's are great for there own area's, obviously the multi-threading for the Q6600 and the pure speed of the E8400 for gaming. Whats better for you?

P.S Maybe save yourself a few bob and get some 800Mhz C4 RAM. Geil for example clocks to almost 1000Mhz...Again your money/choice.

 

[snogger_t]

Maybe save yourself a few bob and get some 800Mhz C4 RAM. Geil for example clocks to almost 1000Mhz...Again your money/choice.

- To be honest, I'm not set on any one hardware configuration. I know a decent amount about hardware, but not the small details for when you're building a system. I've always just gotten friends to pick things out for me and I paid for it. I wanted to go ahead and learn how to do it myself so that I didn't have to rely on anyone else anymore. So I'm trying to get an opinion on what would be the best setup (within my price range) for what I'm doing.

 

[dragonsprayer]

photo and encoding?

you want a quad - thats exactly what qauda are good for

 

[emp]

something like this:

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX All Solid Capacitor Intel Motherboard - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128059&Tpk=GA-P35-DS3L

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017

CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX ATX12V V2.2 550W Power Supply 90 - 264 V UL, CUL, CE, CB, FCC Class B, TUV, CCC, C-tick - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004

ASUS EN9600GT/HTDI/512M GeForce 9600GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card -

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121229

About $40 overbudget, but definitely worth it. If you must then you could cut some corners on the PSU with a Corsair VX 450 instead, on some slightly cheaper ram, or even on a 8800GS instead of a 9600GT.

 

[Mondoman]

sn - you won't need faster than DDR2-800 unless you boost the FSB above 1600MHz.

 

[snogger_t]

About $40 overbudget, but definitely worth it. If you must then you could cut some corners on the PSU with a Corsair VX 450 instead, on some slightly cheaper ram, or even on a 8800GS instead of a 9600GT.

- considering I don't really play PC games, would this be fine for my video card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150229

The only game I might be interested in playing is GTA4 down the road, but I'm looking to get about an 80gig HDD as my windows drive and cutting my video card cost down a lot would allow that without going too much over budget.