Quad or Dual

My knowledge of processors is very limited.  I am looking to have a system built similar to the Category 3 - 850si.  I was looking at the chioce of processors and noticed two, E8400 and Q6600 cost about the same.

Reasonable people, in addition to ourselves, can make a case either way. Personally, I don't belived multicore software is going to be available as soon as folks think. The one exception might be in video editing.....

Here's how I made my decision.  4 is a bigger number than 2, ergo, I am superior because I have 4 instead of 2.

Sounds reasonable.

 

Well, my supermodels are all superdike lesbionic Amazonian dudettes.  I wouldn't want to meet one in a dark alley.

What were we talking about?  Oh yeah... Kelly!

I don't know, bro.  You're just fun to bring into the conversation when there needs to be a sexual innuendo spoken or anything having to do with animals, their rear ends and your thumb. 

Always remember,  you are an official huckleberry and no one can take that away from you.  Yeah... uh... that sounds good.   

Sorry to break in on the man love here fellas, but back to topic ,

Considering pushing an entry level quad's clocks up past 3.0GHz is the norm at this point, I would hardly call them "supermodels vs. sumo wrestlers". The performance difference is minimal.

The games that see an advantage in a faster 2 core setup, are your first person shooters and graphics intensive action based titles. The situation can change somewhat based on resolution, but for most gamers, this holds true.

Strategy games and MMO's are more likely to benefit from the quad core. Strategy games will be more likely to adopt multi core support than FPS titles IMHO, but we shall see.

One thing that I will be most interested in, is how NVidia adapts the Phys-X technology they recently acquired. I have to wonder if they will make use of a software driver that will soak up some CPU cycles. If the use of Phys-X technology becomes more widespread in game development now that Nvidia has ownership, this may become another reason to go quad over dual core.

In my opinion, the primary reason to avoid a core2quad is related to heat and power consuption, not the less than 10% performance difference versus a core2duo in games that make use of only one core. If you go quad, be sure that your cooling selections are up to it. I normally advise maxing out cooling whenever possible anyway, but when you go quad, it becomes much more important.