Do any of the games you play use multiple cores? I think SupCom is the
main one that does....
You gotta believe that more and more software will be adapted to use
multiple cores over time. It will be a selling or upgrade feature.
Probably games and video manipulation apps....and simulation tools
should, with time, also be adapted.
Of course, you could always save now and upgrade just the processor
later, once it has become cheaper. Get a good mobo, though. Thus, a
board that runs quad now but only has dual could be upgraded to the
fastest quad available now in a year at a reduced cost relative to now.
That's my plan. I got the 3.0 GHz Coreduo E6850.
Brian Weeden wrote:
I've finally decided to upgrade my main system from the Althon 64
3000+ and nForce4 mobo that have served me so well for the past couple
years.
I definitely going Intel for the first time in a long time but can't
decide whether it is worth it for the Quad core as opposed to the Dual
core. I am looking at both the Core2Dou E6650 and the Quad core
Q6600. The Core2Dou is $170 on Newegg while the QuadCore is $285.
It would be going into my main PC which is use for work (some
numerical simulation), video rendering, and gaming. I guess the
question comes down to how much multiple cores would help. From what
I have seen, only a few games support 4 cores and not that many more
support 2 cores. I already have an ATI X1950XT that I won't be
replacing for at least another year so that might end up being the
limiter on gaming anyways. All I know is right now the Athlon 64 is
the bottleneck.
I know certain video/audio encoders support 4 and it will help there
but I don't do that much. And the numerical simulations I currently
use are not multi-core aware. The budget is tight this time around
which I guess is why I'm banging my head so hard about that last $100.
I guess the bottom line is does everyone think that $100 for 2 more
cores is a good long-term investment?
