Which is better; Quad 2.33GHz or Duo 3.0GHZ

Redneckemperor

Distinguished
Jun 3, 2009
22
0
18,510
Hey Everyone,

I play a lot of World of Warcraft and do some video/photo editing. I am fixing to build my first PC and am needing to know which is better a Intel Quad Core 2.33GHz processor or a Intel Duo 3.0GHz?

There are some really good combo deals going on right now so please give me some good feedback as soon as possible.

Here are the links to them both:

Intel Duo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

Intel Quad
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115055

Thanks!!!


 

4745454b

Titan
Moderator
Are you willing to do any overclocking with this? The Q8200 is 2.33GHz (333 x 7). You can hit 2.8GHz assuming your Q8200 will do 400 x 7. Almost 3GHz and four cores, that would be great for just about anything. (The dual can also be overclocked to probably just under 4GHz. It would be faster in games, but would be a bit slower in editing apps.)
 

Redneckemperor

Distinguished
Jun 3, 2009
22
0
18,510
I do mostly gaming. I do use Photshop with all my photos and just basic video editing programs. Gaming is the most part of my computer time...other than work.

Hope that helps, never overclocked before but I do have some friends that can do it for me.
 
I don't play WOW, but I can tell you that my EQ1, EQ2, and other MMO experience tells me that cpu clock is pretty critical to avoid stutter. (As an aside, using SLI (2x8800GTX) in EQ2 actually slows down the frame rate and increases stutter.)

If this were my main usage, I'd go for the dual core, higher clock rate processor and OC it modestly if I could. 3.0/3.2GHz with a decent single video card runs a nice EQ2, might run a nice WOW as well.

If you're just retouching photos etc, and don't spend a lot of time waiting for the results of your editing . . . a slower quad isn't gonna be of mush use.
 

Redneckemperor

Distinguished
Jun 3, 2009
22
0
18,510
Sounds good. I will switch it up. Prices dropped on everything today anyways it seems.

Thanks Guys, I will OC it alittle I think.
 

meowkitty77

Distinguished
May 7, 2006
16
0
18,510
I picked up an E8400 and oced it to 3.6 on stock intel cooling. Put the FSB up to 400, make the ram multiplier 2x so you get DDR800 ram(stock assuming its 800) and multiplier 9x and you'll be off to the races. I run this with an 8800gt and 2gb of ram and I can play pretty much anything at any graphics level without issue.
 

logainofhades

Titan
Moderator
I honestly would not get a S775 system if starting out with a brand new rig unless you never plan on doing much upgrading to it. Either spend a lot and go i7, save some cash and go Phenom II or wait and see what i5 prices are later in the year. What you are thinking of getting now is definitely without a doubt very capable though. Just the lack of any real good upgrade path is what concerns me. Ph II 550BE, decent AM3 motherboard with a 790fx/gx chipset, and a decent DDR3 kit would be all you need and would get comparable performance to the core 2. You will then have better upgrade potential should you decide to get more into your video and photo editing stuff. S775 will not see anymore future CPU releases where as AM3 will.
 

rooseveltdon

Distinguished
Jan 18, 2009
364
0
18,790


could not agree more, for your situation there is no point sticking to the core 2 duo line when you can get similar performance out of the x2 550 and still have a viable upgrade path
 


Agree here also.
If you are determined to stick with Core technology though, and you mostly game, a dual core with more mhz is much prefered over a quad of lesser mhz. (if you do not plan on overclocking)
 

TRENDING THREADS