E8400 or Q6600

Hi, as the title says I want to know your oppinion on whether I should go for an E8400 or Q6600. I am on a budget of about $1000 and have everything else all but figured out. Basically this computer will be used for schoolwork and some light gaming. I would like it to at least be able to go for a couple of years before upgrading and I am not afraid of overclocking.

Also, I can wait a few months to build this, are there any major new releases on the horizon that could drop prices quite noticeably or am I better off just buying now?

Thanks for the quick reply. I was looking at the Q8200 as well but I read that it did not OC as well as the Q6600, do you think that might really end up being a problem or not much to worry about? So than do you think that with the release of the Phenom 2 Intel will drop the price on the Q8200?

the Q8200 has low cache. The Q6600 @ 2.4 is much better. It has twice the cache and is a better overclocker. Even if you dont over clock the Q6600 is a better cpu. The Q6600 is about the same price as teh Q8200.

Q6600 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115017

Q8200 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115055

It aint a bad idea to wait on the phenom II. It may drop the prices of the intel quads. Jeep11 is right about the phenom IIs price to build and compatibility between am2+ and am3. I have read the phenom II can hit 4G with air cooling.

At this point, tho, i still trust intel more. AMD has been shaky. I would let a round of revisions come out before i build with AMD.

By the time the Phenom II comes out, there will be new, faster chips in the sweet spot for price/performance. There's really no need to worry, the top end chips will drop in price and instead of the Q6600, you'll be able to get a faster processor at the same price as a Q6600 today.

You'll laugh at the people who bought their obsolete Q6600 and now have to upgrade in order to play the new "Sims 3" at high settings. Ok, so this is an exaggeration, but a lot can happen in the CPU world in 3 months and I hear that the Phenom II won't be released until April 2009.

It's too bad that AMD has been mismanaged for the past few years. I'm looking to get a new computer myself and for the first time in many years, it seems Intel offers the best price and performance! It would be the first Intel CPU to power my computer since the Pentium III, which was vastly superior to the AMD K6-2. Looks like AMD is now back where they started from.

I personally would get a Q9400 or Q9550 if i were "upgrading", but i would NOT get a Q8200. The Q6600 is a better processor. The cache will help. An it has a much higher multiplier. Q6600 x9, Q8200 x7. At 400mhz , x9=3.6G, x7=2.8G. Many OCers hit 3.2 easily with the q6600. You would have to go well over 400mhz with the q8200 to hit over 3Ghz. staying at 400mhz is much better for keeping DDR2 pc6400 at 800mhz with a 1:1 ratio.

All current Quads and dual are obsolete with the release of the i7. IF i were building new, i would go with the i7.