my current system is an AMD X2 3800+, so needless to say this is pretty lousy for current and horrible for future games. (this topic is for gaming, not any kind of fancy graphic applications or what not). i went to the store to buy a monitor and me and the salesman started talking and eventually he suggested that i purchase a Core 2 Quad Q6600 for my upgrade. with the motherboard , cpu, and memory included, the price tag came up to about $CAD 500. now to me that sounded like a really good deal, since two years ago the system that i have now cost me more than a grande.
now i've been reading up on this wonderful site, and i came across the Dual-Core E2160, which is supposed to be able to be overclocked to incredible speeds, and yet costs only pennies! i was planning to save up for the Q6600 for a month or two, but this E2160 i can practically buy tomorrow.
so now i am wondering: should i buy the E2160 instead? it sits on the same socket as the Q6600, so i can upgrade it later on, but how well does an overclocked CPU perform for gaming?
firstly, is overclocking something hard to get into and requires a lot of constant tinkering (i've only ever overclocked my CPU by like 5% using some little program i found, so i don't know much about overclocking).
secondly, will overclocking the E2160 be damaging to the CPU? is there a high chance it will "blow out" if i keep using it for long periods of time?
and thirdly, how does the overclocked E2160 compare to the other CPUS on the market? comparing the 2007 CPU charts from this site, the top CPU has an FPS of ~121 in the prey timedemo. the overclocked E2160 has practically the same fps in it's time demo of prey. i understand that the 2007 CPU charts are not overclocked, and that if they were, they'd score a much greater score, but compare those CPUs cost a lot more than the E2160 and i don't have the budget for that.
so to sum it all up, should i purchase the E2160 now or shell out 500 bucks for the Q6600 which i will keep saving for for about 2 or so months. and also, i read in this thread about the new processors that will be out by the end of this year. what socket are they going to be on? if its going to be the 775 socket that the E2160 and Q6600 are sitting on, perhaps i should just forget about the Q6600, but the E2160 and then when the new ones launch buy one of them?
now i've been reading up on this wonderful site, and i came across the Dual-Core E2160, which is supposed to be able to be overclocked to incredible speeds, and yet costs only pennies! i was planning to save up for the Q6600 for a month or two, but this E2160 i can practically buy tomorrow.
so now i am wondering: should i buy the E2160 instead? it sits on the same socket as the Q6600, so i can upgrade it later on, but how well does an overclocked CPU perform for gaming?
firstly, is overclocking something hard to get into and requires a lot of constant tinkering (i've only ever overclocked my CPU by like 5% using some little program i found, so i don't know much about overclocking).
secondly, will overclocking the E2160 be damaging to the CPU? is there a high chance it will "blow out" if i keep using it for long periods of time?
and thirdly, how does the overclocked E2160 compare to the other CPUS on the market? comparing the 2007 CPU charts from this site, the top CPU has an FPS of ~121 in the prey timedemo. the overclocked E2160 has practically the same fps in it's time demo of prey. i understand that the 2007 CPU charts are not overclocked, and that if they were, they'd score a much greater score, but compare those CPUs cost a lot more than the E2160 and i don't have the budget for that.
so to sum it all up, should i purchase the E2160 now or shell out 500 bucks for the Q6600 which i will keep saving for for about 2 or so months. and also, i read in this thread about the new processors that will be out by the end of this year. what socket are they going to be on? if its going to be the 775 socket that the E2160 and Q6600 are sitting on, perhaps i should just forget about the Q6600, but the E2160 and then when the new ones launch buy one of them?