I3 530 VS Q9450

[azmini04]

This is my first posting! I rad all the time but wanted some advice....

I need some advice/opinions on a new/old system that was given to me.

I am currently running an Intel core i3 530 on a biostar TH55B motherboard. I have dual Intel 320 Series 120GB SSD not in raid with 4x2GB of Gskill RAM. With a XFX Radeon 6870 for a graphics card. I dont do much other than play battlefield and surf the web on it so it does not have to be a work horse but gets the job done. I have a network drive that I save most of my music/movies to so i do not need to worry about that either.

I have a friend that just upgraded his system to the new 2600k, and was nice enough to give me his old system which is an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450. It is mounted on a Asus P5E3 mother board with 8GB of DDR3 RAM and a 120GB WD Raptor drive.

My question is would it be better to take me Intel drives and my better GSkill RAM over to this motherboard and place it into a RAID setup with my graphics card or is going from the i3 to the Q9450 not an improvement. i know my motherboard might not be the best but I think his is a little better and piecing together a system and then using the other one as a spare machine for my GF might be nice.

What are your thoughts? If you need more information i would be happy to give you the specs that i have.

PS both of these machines are custom built and I don't really want to put any money into it as I have an already working system I just wanted to see what people opintion of making a better machine if it was possible.

Thanks!

 

[r0aringdrag0n]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/118?vs=51
You decide, both are basically neck to neck. If I were you, I would use both systems, instead of making one

 

[toneekay]

As far as gaming, I would go for the Q9450 as some of the newer games may be CPU dependant (meaning they may utilize more than 2 cores). As far as photo/video encoding, decoding, heavy multitasking, I would also go for the Q9450...

Now, the i3-530 is indeed almost neck to neck with the Q9450, but having 2 more physical cores puts the older processor ahead with more of an advantage. If you want my opinion... Sell both setups and build one NEWER, BIGGER, BETTER computer!