On my new rig should I get:

AM2 Athlon x2 6000+ 3.0 GHz

This Case and PSU With Zalman Cooling: Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Stacker 830 Evolution RC-830-KKR3-GP Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case Real Power Pro 1000W Power Supply - Retail

or

LGA 775 q6600 2.4 GHz

This Case: Newegg.com - Tuniq 3 IC-TQ3-SVBK Black/ Silver Aluminum front bezel, 0.8mm SECC chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
This Cooling: Newegg.com - Open Box: GIGABYTE GH-WIU02 3D Galaxy II Liquid Cooling

Thanks for the input im ordering tommorow.

I'm an AMD fanboy, so I'm going to say....AMD.

Easy...Q6600. Loose the water cooling kit and get a good air cooler you will get way lower temps.

I vote Intel Q6600 with the Stacker Case and a Cooler Master GeminII Heat Sink
(plus you'll want 2-Silverstone FM121 fan to go with it).

Go with the Q6600 and drop that crappy watercooling, get this Newegg.com - Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler - Retail or this Newegg.com - Tuniq Tower 120 P4 & K8 CPU Cooler - Retail instead. I'd also say go with the Stacker.

Q6600 ftw. Will absolutely destroy the A64 6000+.

yup the Q66 and drop the watercooling get a air cooling or a better water that one sucks

Money was an issue and most of you are picking higher cpu price and higher case.

Q6600 Intel is owning AMD right now. You won't regret your decision!

(1,200 POSTS YEAH!)

Quote: Originally Posted by Rob I'm an AMD fanboy, so I'm going to say....AMD.

Looks like we're out gunned.

I'm not so much a fanboy anymore. I go current technology.

I really haven't been keeping up with the newer breeds as much as I should, but just remember. Alot of CPU's are identical, except for the clock speeds. Like the socket 939 4400 and 4800 for example. They were the exact same CPU. Same core, same cache, same instruction sets. The only difference was that the 4800 was FACTORY OVERCLOCKED and this gives the manufacturer an "excuse" to jack the price up a few hundred bucks . This is also the reason they always recommend a more powerful fan. Because you are essentially running an OVERCLOCKED CPU.

One thing to keep in mind though, is that alot of the time, the reason certain cores are sold as the high end models and others make the low end models, is that because the low end models failed the stability test at the higher clock speeds. The pendulum can swing either way really. And I usually find that you can always push a few hundred extra Mhz out of a lower end model in general. You aren't guaranteed 3Ghz, but you'll probably get around in the 2.8 range on average, and with that much of a price difference the performance is negligible compared to the actual high dollar CPU. The lower end models can usually get very close to or at the same speeds as the higher end models models though. A good example is my aging 2500XP. It's stock speed is 1.8 @ 333FSB, but it can do 2.2 @ 400FSB (3200 speeds) without breaking a sweat.

So if money is an issue to your right now, I'd do a bit of research and see which CPU's operate off the same core, go for the lower end (lower clocked CPU) and get a decent fan or watercooling setup and bring it up to speed.

Best of luck to you.

I know this will disappoint you all but Im choosing the AMD Athlon x2 6400+

Main reason is because im planning to upgrade to phenom when it comes out because I get distributing at the shop and my boss is ordering a couple and im getting it for like half price.

Money is alway the determining factor :-)
Just don't complain when your system doesn't perform
as well for as long :-) But it should still be good for awhile :-)

I LOVE my Q6600... the new Id and UT engines are using multiple cores so that is SUPER sweet. The new Crytek engine that runs Crysis takes great advantage of multicire now, too.

Hell, a quad core q6600 is a better buy than a 8800gts right now for those very reasons. you want the next revamped GPU core anyways after they have some time to tweak and refine the GPU... maybe even add in DX 10.1 support which is not in ANY shipping videocard right now (not that big of a loss though since the new DX update doesnt add anything THAT big.

No need to be scared to buy a new videocard though...because the hardware is capable of the new DX10.1 requirement...it will just take a little driver fix to make it so. However...Everyone is right....
GET THE Q6600 its pretty much an EXTREME with a locked multi...
And the extra cores will kill on the new games...Trust me you will need them when you play crysis or bioshock...or the new UT when it hits the shelves...I run an E6600 and an 8800 Ultra and Bioshock brings my system to some heat warnings from time to time...
GET THE QUAD....


Why there is no sense in throwing out all those 8800's just yet...lol

"Microsoft's Sam Glassenberg told Next-Gen in a phone interview, "DX10.1 fully supports DX10 hardware. No hardware support is being removed....It's strictly a superset. It's basically an update to DX10 that extends the hardware functionality slightly."

He said that the update is similar to what Microsoft did with DX9. "We did make updates to [DX9] that extended the supported feature set. "All the hardware is still supported, all the games still run, all the features are still there, we've just simply extended the feature set and the lifetime of the API," he said. "

And GK is right....THe new new DX10.1 set is just an update...nothing major....nothing worth sweating over...
We have all seen this before with every release....
remember 9.0 to 9.1 etc.....

Quote: Originally Posted by Rob I'm an AMD fanboy, so I'm going to say....AMD.

Or something like that....lol

Q6600 for sure...

Im a AMD fanboy BUT the quad is better... So if you are going for better preformance then I would suggest the quad...
Choice is up to you

Ok, I canceled the order and I got the q6600

Your welcome folks.

Thanks for all the input.