Opinion wanted

Grandmasha_Yoda

Hi all,
Am looking at buying a pc from Ankermann in Germany, had my eyes on this model:

CORE-2-DUO 2x3,0Ghz E8400
ATI RADEON HD4870 512MB
HDD 500GB
RAM 4GB

But then spotted a new one they have added:

CORE-2-QUAD 4x 2,50Ghz Q8300
GeForce GTX260 896MB
HDD 500GB
RAM 4GB

Am looking for opinions on the CPUs and graphic cards in comparision.

It will be used for gaming, web surfing, the usual stuff.

Thanks for any assistance that will be given.

toco123

How much?

Grandmasha_Yoda

Ah should have added that in.

The core duo is going for €579 while the quad is €559.

toco123

Dunno... I'm kind of 50-50 between the two.. I'd probably go for the first if your overclocking

TerrorFirmer

Second one is much better for games, especially at high resolutions - at 1920x1200 in most new games the quad based machine would absolutely cripple the E8400 based one. And it's cheaper. To be honest I can't think of any reason to go for the first one at all, even if they were the same price.

eshortie

The second one is well worth it, only 20 extra too. The graphics card is better so seeing as yer going to game with it then I'd go that one.

TerrorFirmer

eshortie wrote: »

The second one is well worth it, only 20 extra too. The graphics card is better so seeing as yer going to game with it then I'd go that one.

The quad is 20 cheaper..

toco123

I dont know about the Q8300.. I heard it performs worse than a Q6600?

Solitaire

Yup and worse OC too. Seems to use a small L2 cache which is bad for quads and based on the unstable E7000 cores leading to epic clock-skew between both on-die CPUs. Still a good enough CPU if you don't need the extra raw power in single- or dual-thread apps (e.g. games!) that even a stock E8400 gives

toco123

As for the 260, its price leaves a lot to be desired... However it does perform better than the 4870 and as you are picking the 260 up for cheaper its worth getting it for that.

Quad Core / Dual Core is something that you'll have to pick yourself. Its personal choice and I would generally swing in the direction of Quad... but in this case the E8400 is the winner and with a solid overclock, you might (not sure) be able to outperform the second rig.

Then again the second is cheaper, has a better performing graphics card and a reasonable processor... Considering you will be probably getting stock cooling and bog mobo with your Ankermann this also might be the one to get as they probably won't be capable of too much of a OC anyway!

Solitaire

toco123 wrote:

As for the 260, its price leaves a lot to be desired... However it does perform better than the 4870

Pics or it didn't happen! :P

Honestly, GTX260+ >> GTX260, but HD4870-1024 is NOT much better than the 512MB version except at very high resoultions. And I'm pretty sure at that price you'll only get an older GTX260 without the enhancements that lets the updated version beat out the HD4870-512. Ultimately the lead will swap over from game to game anyway...

TerrorFirmer

Solitaire wrote: »

Pics or it didn't happen! :P

Honestly, GTX260+ >> GTX260, but HD4870-1024 is NOT much better than the 512MB version except at very high resoultions. And I'm pretty sure at that price you'll only get an older GTX260 without the enhancements that lets the updated version beat out the HD4870-512. Ultimately the lead will swap over from game to game anyway...

I did mention in my post that it only really mattered if the OP was gaming at high resolution, but even the 196 version will destroy the 512mb 4870 at 1920x1200 in the likes of Crysis, Far Cry 2, etc...up to 1680x1050 its very competitive though and give or take depending on the game.

Grandmasha_Yoda

Guys,

Just wanted to thank you all for your input.

The quad core pc has been ordered with an upgraded case, HDD, CPU fan and PSU.