Processor Question

[barlow078]

Thinking about upgrading my computer soon...have had it for three or four years now (Dell Pentium 4/ 3.2Ghz / 3.25GB Ram/ XP Media Center Edition)

Let me preface my question by saying I'm not a big online video game player but I would like a computer that is fast and can play movies online and multi tasking without a hiccup/getting hot/working hard (Netflix etc).

I'm customizing my PC on Dell.com

So far I've decided on these specs:

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Memory: 8GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4DIMMs
HD: 1TB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache
OPTICAL DRIVE: 16X DVD+/-RW Drive
WIRELESS: Dell 1505 Wireless-N PCIe Card
GPU: Integrated Intel® GMA X4500HD Graphics (stock)


My question is this:

Is the difference between a

Intel Core 2 Quad QB300 (4MB L2 2.5Ghz 1333FSB)

and a

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 (12MB L2 3.0Ghz 1333FSB)

really all that noticeable?

The price differences between the 2 is a good amount ($220).

Also...is the stock graphics card listed (Intel GMA X4500 HD) better than a GeForce 8800 GT Alpha Dog? (I have an Alpha Dog in my closet...its too good for my current PC)

Sorry in advance for the noob questions...I just haven't been keeping up with the technology since I've last bought a PC.

 

[rolli59]

For your use there want be a big difference between the two CPU´s but if any gaming or encoding was done the Q9650 will be a lot faster.
The intel onboard GMA X4500 HD is about the slowest GPU there is to day and is no competition to the 8800GT.

 

[jimishtar]

first of all, at the moment DDR2 is the same price (if not higher) as DDR3, so it's totally not worth gettin ddr2 ram. about the cpu's: q9650 is overpriced and almost the same as q9550. so comparing q8300 vs q9550(q9650) - i would say yes, at stock speeds the q8300 is a lot slower. and add that 8800 gt, cause integrated graphics usually suck.

bottom line - for watchin online videos u will do just fine with q8300 and the 8800 gt. just be sure that your motherboard can support quad cpu.