q6600 overclocked vs qxxxx vs i7

[Guest]

Hi guys,

I'm a little out-dated on the newer CPU's and so I humbly come before you today seeking words of wisdom. What CPU has the best "bang for the buck" for gaming right now? I'm looking for performance with Fallout 3, and upcoming Starcraft 2, and Diablo 3 specifically.

A friend of mine recommended grabbing a q6600 because you can overclock them to beyond 3ghz, but AFAIK they're getting a out-dated (just like my knowledge of CPUs). Am I better off spending a little more than the Q6600 price? I heard phenom isn't the best route at the moment.

 

[review_benchmark_hun]

I wouldn't go for Phenom

Q6600 is dirt cheap right now, and you don't need such high end cpus like i7 for gaming. actually a C2D like E8200/E8300 will suffice, save the cash on the eye candies.

 

[Guest]

Is there a significant advantage in going with one of the higher qxxxx cpus? Considering that I'm leaning towards OCing a q6600 to 3.0ghz+? I don't know anything about them or the lineup. I tried googling didn't find much without digging in really deep.

Thanks!

 

[jlabit]

I am running a Q6600 overclocked easily to 3.2 and could go higher but don't need to. I'm running Crysis on high settings at 1680 X 1050 with an MSI 4850 GPU. I believe Crysis is probably the most challenging game out there right now for a computer. The Q6600 CPU is a superb overclocker. Highly recommend it. And it's cheap!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[richardscott]

the higher q9xxx cpu's have a larger cache but generally if u have a q6600 at 3.6 then ure fine untill the 32nm nehalms come out, or otherwise u can go with a e8500 and oc to 4.5ghz which is veryfast, its all down to what u need the processor to be used for.