cpu's

[shadow1100mfp]

i'm trying to decide between these 2 cpu's

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...p?EdpNo=2643933

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...p?EdpNo=3574211

i'm leaning towards the quad just because it's a quad core and its so cheap, but im also leaning towards the dual because it's a little faster and it doesn't seem to have that "too good to be true" feel to it.

i don't plan on overclocking my computer at all, but i may dabble in that later (the quad, according to the video on that sight, can be overclocked to about 3.2ghz, i don't know about the other one though).

can anyone offer advice or pros/cons to either of these?

[Razor512]

the quad core will be overall faster if you run programs that take advantage of 4 cores

many games don't

if your in for gaming, go with the dual core and overclock it, you will get much better performance than with a quad core

but if you use programs like maya or 3ds max or other professional apps the go with the quad core

the dual 8400 also overclocks better than the q6600

[shadow1100mfp]

the quad core will be overall faster if you run programs that take advantage of 4 cores

many games don't

if your in for gaming, go with the dual core and overclock it, you will get much better performance than with a quad core

but if you use programs like maya or 3ds max or other professional apps the go with the quad core

the dual 8400 also overclocks better than the q6600

i play games once in a while, but that's a secondary concern for me (i just want to build a good, quality very fast computer). the most demanding program i use is photoshop (it's the top edition adobe sells). i know that'd be best on quad core, but if i went with the dual, would i be overall more satisfied?

[Sparda]

The quad core will be faster because it has 8MB of shared cache

[VaKo]

I'd get the Quad core myself, your going to see more real world gain having 4 cores compared to 2 slightly faster cores. The FSB of the 8400 is slightly faster but again, in the real world you would probally not see much gain from this alone.

[StarchyPizza]

I would go with the Quad so you're somewhat future proof I guess you could say for any apps you may want to run but are heavy on the CPU