# Q6600 Quad or E6580 Build advice



## Acidburns (Aug 10, 2007)

Dear Tech Support Forum,

I am planning to perform a major system upgrade from my previous system. With the recent intel price drop I would like to try an Intel based system. In particular I have had little experience with Intel motherboards, and I am undecided as to whether the Quad Q6600 or the E6580 Duo would be a better choice. I plan to re-use components from the existing system where possible (case, DVD drives, powersupply etc)

I intend to use the system primarily for Gaming and 3D modeling / Photoshop work.

Current Computer Spec:

500W Powersupply (can't remember the brand - coolermaster maybe)
AMD FX-55
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
2GIG DDR 400
IDE Hard drives
Geforce 7800GTX


Proposed Components

Q6600 Quad CPU
Zalman CNPS9700 Cooler
Abit IN9 32X-MAX WiFi nForce 680 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 800Mhz
Geforce 8800GTS 640MB

I have a budget of up to £1000.

Thank you in advance for your input!


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

You cant reuse the power supply


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

I agree. Also, the E6850 would be a better choice in most cases.

Take a look at This:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817812005


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## Acidburns (Aug 10, 2007)

Will I need a new power supply because of the increased power demand? Thank you for your recommendations TheMatt. In what situations would the E6580 perform better than the Q6600? If I was interested in a little amateur overclocking, would the E6850 still be superior?


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

In just about any application where you won't be doing four processor intensive at once. If you want to play three or four 3D games at once, go with the quad, if not, go with the dual core.

Most home users will be better off getting the E6850. Also, you probably won't even need to overclock with the E6850 since it is so powerful.


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

Yes you need a new one because the 8800 is power hunngry


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## Acidburns (Aug 10, 2007)

What about the motherboard choice?


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Its a very good board. You might also want to take a look at the MSI P6N Diamond because of its active northbridge cooling (heatsink with fan).


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## Acidburns (Aug 10, 2007)

Thanks for that! With any luck I'll let you know how it goes over the next week or two!


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Good luck and have fun. :smile:


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

Q6600 Quad or E6580? thats the million dollar question right there.im kinda struggling over that myself.i think i am going for the quad myself though.


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## Acidburns (Aug 10, 2007)

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I got my system all built now, here's what I went for:

Case - NZXT Lexa Blackline
Cpu - Core 2 Duo E6850
Cooler - Thermaltake Blue Orb 2
Ram - OCZ DDR2 PC6400 800Mhz Gold
Graphics - Geforce 8800GTS 640MB
PSU - OCZ 700W Gamexstream
HDrive - Samsung 320GB Sata2 16MB
OS - Vista 64 Bit Home Premium

System seems stable, quiet and cool so far, I haven't tried any benchmarking or overclocking yet.


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Looks good. How does Vista 64-bit seem to work out?


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## Nik00117 (Jan 8, 2007)

When I switched from intel I ran into a very unexpected roadblack...

INstalling of HSF

its a pain compared to AMD. let me explain how I do it

Ensure that the white plastic tip is not spreading out the black holding things on the bottom of the black sticks that hold the HSF in place. LINE ALL THE HOLES UP WITH the slots, it doesn't matter which orintenation your HSF is in, since they are all square.... Now do it horitzonal when you push down on them. Like lets say the corners are like this

A C

B D

Press down either A and D first or C and B not A B or anything like that.

And be patient. I hate the LGA755 socket HSF installation.


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

I definitely liked the HSF installation method for socket 478, but I do like the CPU installation for LGA775 because there are no pins on the processor to bend or break


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

TheMatt said:


> I definitely liked the HSF installation method for socket 478, but I do like the CPU installation for LGA775 because there are no pins on the processor to bend or break


Exacly my friend had not done any cpus since he was like amd boy lol and i put his intel on, so when he bumped the heatsink and had to put it back on he took the cpu off to clean it and thought he broke off all the pins lol


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## Nik00117 (Jan 8, 2007)

I always thought that was a smart idea. Not having worry about bent pins is nice


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

LGA was actually first implemented on the cartridge (slot 1) Pentium 2s and Celerons which mounted to the cartridge via an LGA package.


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