Which one of my older systems is better

[AxemanACL]

Ok here is the deal. I have my current older system and a new super cheap system I recently bought for use at school. I am planning on giving/selling one of them to my little brother.

System 1, my old/current rig
Intel Q6600 OC'd to 3.0Ghz.
4x1Gb DDR2 800 MHz
ATX board, only one PCI Express 2.0 slot.

System 2, my new cheap bare bones PC
AMD Athlon II X3 450 (3.2Ghz) with the 4th core unlocked. I have not tried overclocking yet
1x4Gb DDR3 1333 Mhz
mATX board, 2 ram slots, 1 PCI Express 2.0 slot

The peripherals can be switched around, but for reference, I have a GTX 460 as my main graphics card, the secondary system will have a 8800GT put in.

Is System 2 an upgrade from system 1? Switching to system 2 as my main computer will require switching cases, and reinstalling windows, so a little bit of a pain, but not much. I am not planing on doing any upgrading any time soon, I am trying to save money at the moment. I use my computer for gaming, (I can play BF3 plenty good enough on System 1 at the moment), then for basic internet browsing.

Thank you all for your advice and help. And man this ended up being way longer than I expected.

 

[Outlander_04]

why dont you benchmark them ?

Install FRAPS
which runs games faster


The first is stronger ....probably

 

[AxemanACL]

why dont you benchmark them ?

Install FRAPS
which runs games faster


The first is stronger ....probably

Sadly I can't/ don't want to at the moment. The Second system came with a garbage power supply, I am planning on buying another to power the 8800gt. I would have to switch cases or run the power cables from my System 1's case to System 2.

 

[bucknutty]

Hard to say, they will be very close. I would go with the amd and the ddr3 ram if i had to put somehting togehter. But if I was already happy with a system and changing ment doing work i would just leave it.

 

[whooleo]

That Athlon II X3 (unlocked X4) would definitely beat the Q6600 in unbiased multi-threaded work loads but I'm not sure about single-threaded loads but I'm leaning towards the Athlon wining in that too.

 

[whooleo]

Plus the AMD system is more future proof.

 

[Outlander_04]

That Athlon II X3 (unlocked X4) would definitely beat the Q6600 in unbiased multi-threaded work loads but I'm not sure about single-threaded loads but I'm leaning towards the Athlon wining in that too.

Unlikely . The 6600 is the same architecture as later core 2 quads . Core for core , clock for clock they are roughly equivalent to Phenom ll processors

The athlon may be the same stars core as phenom but it is detuned . Unlocking it wont add cache

 

[whooleo]

But the core 2 quad is not a monolithic design like the Athlon (and yes it makes a difference and that is why I said it might win in single thread work loads).

 

[Outlander_04]

But the core 2 quad is not a monolithic design like the Athlon (and yes it makes a difference and that is why I said it might win in single thread work loads).

It made no difference to performance then , and it makes no difference today .

 

[whooleo]

http://www.techspot.com/review/197-amd-athlon2-x4-620/page9.html

 

[Outlander_04]

http://www.techspot.com/review/197-amd-athlon2-x4-620/page9.html

You will enjoy this
http://yostwerks.com/
it also has nothing to do with either of the processors mentioned by the OP

 

[whooleo]

???ok lol???

 

[Wisecracker]

X3 450 Rana all-the-way ...

better RAMs & ready for another 1x4GB, newer NB/SB (even with the SB710 if that's what it is), more OC headroom, more efficient-better power management, more current instruction sets AND your CPU/RAMs will move forward to AM3+ when you are ready.

The only thing the Q6600 will win is if your app hits 4 threads hard -- and even then you have a better than 50% chance of unlocking a fourth core on the X3 Rana.

I'm playin' the snoot outa Call of Dooty II with mine -- with an HD4770!

 

[AstroTC]

Easy decision, the X3 is on Tom's Hardware recommended CPUs and the OP has it unlocked so I think he should choose the AM3 route

 

[AxemanACL]

Best answer selected by AxemanACL.