OK so I'm building a new rig (for gaming) and while I've picked out everything else, the CPU is up in the air, I've been looking around and have narrowed it down to three based on price and quality. I'll save the lecture and post those three here. Keep in mind ALL of them are LGA 775 Socket.

1st - Dual Core CPU 64 Bits
Type - Core 2 Duo (E8500)
Model - BX80570E8500
Core Type - Dual Core Wolfdale
Frequency - 3.16 Ghz
FSB - 1333Mhz
L2 Cache - 6MBs
Manufacture - 45nm

2nd - Quad Core CPU 64 Bits
Type - Core 2 Quad (Q6600)
Model - BX80562Q6600
Core Type - Quad Core Kentsfield
Operating Frequency - 2.4GHz
FSB - 1066MHz
L1 Cache - 128KB+128KB
L2 Cache - 2 x 4MB
Manufacturing Tech 65nm

3rd - Quad Core CPU 64bits
Type - Core 2 Quad (Q9400)
Model - BX80580Q9400
Operating Frequency - 2.66GHz
FSB - 1333MHz
L2 Cache - 6MB
Manufacturing Tech 45 nm

So those are the three I'm looking at, I hope I get a lot of replies because I know opinions differ and I would like to do a census of multiple inputs. Those are the three CPUs I have to choose from since they all fit my budget, please don't try to push AMD on me because I have no interest in AMD and have already purchased the MOBO. I guess it comes down to HOW much of a difference does quad core make over dual core? I've been reading articles on line and it's been all over the board from none to a ton. Anyone with personal experience upgrading from a dual to a quad for gaming?

Finally I'll post my MoBo stuff.

Brand GIGABYTE
Model GA-EP45-DS3L
Supported CPU
CPU Socket Type LGA 775
CPU Type Quad-core / Core 2 Extreme / Core 2 Duo / Pentium
FSB 1600/1333MHz
Chipsets
North Bridge Intel P45
South Bridge Intel ICH10
Memory
Number of Memory Slots 4×240pin
Memory Standard DDR2 1200
Maximum Memory Supported 16GB
Dual Channel Supported Yes


Just in case I missed something in my calculations and that Dual core isn't compatible with my MoBO... I'm pretty sure it is though. Anyways, any and all help is great and I thank you all for any help or thoughts you may give.

NOTE - I DO NOT OVERCLOCK EVER.
So before anyone says "Well that's the best cause you can over clock it the most." Please don't, I do no over clock hardware. If anything else is needed in terms of the other pieces of hardware I will be using please request such so that I may post the information.


Time is of the essence to the most part, I need this computer for school but I am building it primarily for gaming. So I'll have to buy this CPU within the next two weeks. Right now I'm leaning towards the Dual core for the sheer clocking speed it already has, but I am not certain since two cores at 3.16 is 6.32 but 4 cores at 2.66 is past 10.0... is this one of those situations while for todays tech the quad core is slower but when software comes out that uses the full quad core it will be faster???

Thank you all for your time and help.

Well if you're going to overclock then the Q6600 represents a good value as far as quad cores. I say you should go with the Q9400 though, so long as you can afford it, since Wolfdale CPUs are more efficient clock for clock than their predecessors, and you should be able to get some benefit by overclocking it. I would choose this over the E8500 since even though the E8500 can overclock to a higher frequency, and thus provide a little more performance in todays games, tomorrows games are going to be optimized for more threads and thus will benefit from having the extra cores.

Ah, I guess you edited your post to say you won't overclock, or I missed it the first time .


Anyway if you aren't going to overclock then the higher core speed of the E8500 makes it a better buy. Games will eventually be optomized for more cores, but by that time I'm not sure that any of those CPUs will provide the performance you need at their stock speeds. As such I think the higher core speed of the E8500 will last you longer till your next upgrade. Even though the new iCore7 will allow developers to have up to 8 threads, the reality is that the higher clock per clock performance of the new chips will allow developers to get away with optimizing for two cores for a little while longer.

E8500 for shizzle my nizzle!