Hi guys..

I'm building another PC for a friend and am trying to figure out which CPU to use.

The ones I've looked at so far:

Intel Core 2 Quad 6600 - (It's what I use and I know it's good!)
Intel Core 2 Quad 8200 (slightly better in some applications than the Q600 - and cheaper)
AMD Phenom II X4 940 (slightly better than the Q6600 for the same-ish price)

Can you guys give me any advice on a processor around the £160 mark? Is the Q6600 still the processor to beat at that price or is there something else?

Cheers

Joe

Phenom II 720 gets my recommendation

Go for a Dual Core & save yourself a packet.

Q6600 is pretty good all round IMO.

However if the Q8200 is better than the 6600 and cheaper, I'd go with this. AMD are not the multicore CPU to have at the moment.. Intel are still the ones to beat.

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

Q6600 is pretty good all round IMO.

However if the Q8200 is better than the 6600 and cheaper, I'd go with this. AMD are not the multicore CPU to have at the moment.. Intel are still the ones to beat.

Cheers! Thanks for the advice.....

In the end, the computer got built faster than I anticpated, I ended up getting the parts last Friday and building it on Friday evening.

I went for the Q6700 eventually, which was £25 cheaper and clocked 0.26 GHz faster. It’s essentially the same chip, I believe (from reviews), with the multiplier 1x higher.


The eventual build was:


Antec Sonata III Case with 500W EarthWatts PSU
Gigabyte EP43-DS3L
Intel Core 2 Quad 6700
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro
8 GB Corsair 800Mhz (PC2-6400) 4 x 2GB
Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB 32MB Cache
Lite-On DVD-Writer (Dunno the model no.)
ATI HD4670 1GB GDDR3

The CPU is really nice, runs Vista (and I would imagine Windows 7) really well.

Thanks again guys! Answers much appreciated.

Mmm that looks like a nice build. Glad you got it sorted. Sorry I didn't find the thread earlier. :hide:

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

AMD are not the multicore CPU to have at the moment.. Intel are still the ones to beat.

Maybe if price is not a factor, yeah...

Quote from MijnWraak :

Maybe if price is not a factor, yeah...

Well it was a factor The AMD Phenom II CPU's are good value, but actually the Q6700 was both better AND cheaper, like-for-like, than the AMD chip which was supposed to perform around the same.

This is not a AMD/Intel thing, it's just that the Q6700 is good and very very cheap in the UK at the moment.

Unless it was some fishy used/open box deal for q6700, Ph2 720 is a better bang-for-the-buck CPU than any Intel quad-core, especially for gaming. And many people have been able to unlock the 4th core on 720.
And for the record, I'm not saying that Q6700 is not a faster CPU here...

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

AMD are not the multicore CPU to have at the moment..

While I certainly wouldn't pay full price for a Phenom with the odd AM2 arrangement, I'm fairly sure AMD have the value crown with their €200 Phenom II 920 + Foxconn 790GX + 4830 deal...

q6600 there is a reason that it wasnt a new proccessor 18months ago but is still used widly today, it is great especcially with g0 stepping

eit: lol bit late , but you went for the next best , talking of overclocking i may soon turn on the asus live overclock utility or just straight overclock my q6600 to 3Ghz a core