CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU
In our opinion, there are two excellent CPU choices for a powerful midrange system right now, and both of them are Intel Core 2 derivatives: the E8400 dual-core CPU, and the Q6600 quad-core CPU, both of which cost about $200.
We’ve chosen the 2.4 GHz Q6600 in this system builder marathon, because it will provide excellent gaming performance as well as superior application performance in software that makes use of the quad cores. The E8400 would probably provide slightly higher gaming performance at stock speeds, because its 3.0 GHz clock rate is pretty high, but the Q6600 should take the lead in applications that are multithreaded. Since this is an all-purpose machine, we opted for the Q6600 this time around.
When both processors are overclocked, we don’t think it will make all that much difference in gaming performance. The Q6600 should reach about 3.6 GHz overclocked, and though the E8400 would probably go closer to 4.0 GHz, the video card will likely be the bottleneck at these higher speeds, not the CPU.
We might try to use the E8400 in our next system builder marathon, to highlight their differences, but in this round the Q6600 will get another chance to show us what its four cores can do at this relatively low price point.
- cpu ,
- graphic ,
- performance
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Although I fully appreciate the "bang for your buck" approach to this sub $2K build, if you're going to come under budget by over $600 then surely there's room for improving things a little bit more? I thought this was "the best you can get for $2,000" not necessarily the "best performance per dollar for $2,000"
Certainly if I had budgeted $2,000 and came under by that much I'd certainly up a few things simply because I had the room - 80GB OS drive (Raptor?) and upping the graphics to paired GTXs maybe? Even then you're probably still $300 under...so throw in a dedicated sound card.
I agree with the other comment to an extent. However i do thing that this is a very solid build, that if you used the $2000 budget would be phenomenal in performance terms. Perhaps factor in an extra water pump and graphics blocks to get the liquid cooling to the GPUs too? Perhaps even upgrade the graphics cards to HD4870s or similar.
Dedicated soundcard is also a must in my opinion. Apart from those things, good choice!
Apologies if I gave the impression I didn't find this to be a solid build. I was simply voicing an opinion that there's money left over in the $2,000 budget so a little squeezing of extras could've been done. Certainly I always use a dedicated OS drive and at 25GPB for 80GB Seagate Barracuda you can't argue!