Intel Core 2 Duo or Intel Xeon Quad?

[iDerf2006]

Hey everyone. Well, the time is coming closer, and by the start of this winter I plan on finally building that big new mega-upgrade to my ole' Northwood P4. My choice in processors, however, has come down to two choices - the Intel Xeon X3120, or the Intel Core 2 Duo E6750. I plan on having this system last me for quite a while, so I'm looking for a processor that can handle it all. I've been doing some researching, and I can tell that the Quad systems aren't for everyone - currently only very specific and few applications utilize the Quad Cores. I'm not sure what I do will. What I plan on doing with this PC is occasional gaming (Call of Duty 2, Halo, F.E.A.R., and Call of Duty 4 mostly), ripping DVDs using HandBreak, converting file formats, and possibly installing a fancy Mac OS X hacked up installation and using iMovie HD. Can I warrant spending the extra $40 on the quad cored system, even with it's slower clock speed and the 1066 FSB compared to the 1333 FSB?

 

Thanks for your expertise! I really appreciate it.

[bonestonne]

the higher FSB will be better than more cores. in fact, raw clock speeds are negligable depending on the system [i could sit you in front of my Dual Pentium 3 Xeon rig and you'll love it, but its got a slow FSB].

 

so few apps even use 4 cores, unless you do major work, like CAD design, video editing, or live audio editing on a massive scale, two cores will be fine. that and OSx86 is not a 64bit OS. having a quad core and 4+gigs of RAM is like running XP 32bit...you'll have it all, but you can't use it all. be sure to run a proper 64bit OS on 4 cores, it'll utilize them better.

 

the E6750 will be absolutely fine for what you're doing. Xeons are nice, but even if you have heavy usage at home, you're better off saving your money, and thats only because you're at home, not at work, unless you work from home that is.

 

i'm running a Pentium D 940 and even with its somewhat sluggish FSB [800mhz] it carries Ubuntu x64, OSx86 10.4.10, and Windows XP x86 like nothing i've ever used before. [aside from the Pro Mac's in school which all have twin Dual core Xeons @ 2.66ghz and anywhere from 1.5 to 4gb of RAM. the dual core will be plenty, because in school i do lots of video editing and photoshopping.

[sandmanfvrga]

At the company I work for (as System Administrator) we got a couple quad xeon engineering pcs and then newer Core 2 Duo's. The Core 2 Duo's can do the same work for less. Quad core and eight core {censored} is nice to say in tech talk, but unless things are coded to take advantage of it (which almost nothing is), then you are wasting money. Got with Core 2 Duo.

[Synaesthesia]

I would say the dual-core is perhaps a better choice for you, but with quad-core prices so low, it would be a bad buy either.

 

Quad core is also much hotter and therefore noisier.

 

The 1333fsb advantage is completely negligible. I'd say go for the E6750, if you wanna spend more, the Q6600.