Which computer to buy? Help!?

Newbie Forum
#1

So im trying to decide between 2 DELL computers for work (and they HAVE to be DELL).

  1. Core2Duo E4500 (2MB L2, 2.2 ghz, 800FSB)

or

  1. Core2Quad Q6600 (8MB L2, 2.4Ghz, 1066FSB)

Is the quad core worth the $200 difference in price? Im going to be running CS2 & CS3 adobe progs… Graphics and Video Editing mostly… i cant seem to find if a quad core will make THAT much of a difference… what do you guys think? Now, obviously, the quad will out perform the duo but is it worth the $200 extra? thanks in advance!

#2

Yo-

In my opinion - I would go with the quad core - if nothing else to extend the life a couple of years into new applications-eh!!

#3

Basically the Q6600 is two E6600s on one chip and it has been observed that the internal thread handling is not very well optimised. You need well-written applications to exploit the potential of the extra cores.

However I think the Adobe applications are one of the few to properly take advantage of 4-core processors. Otherwise with almost every software, the Q6600 will probably [B][I]not[/I][/B] out-perform the E4500.

#4

I agree with going with the quad core for you have better performance running everything you want in the back ground and still having 2 processors to duty with on software. Remember like dual cores other processors will kick in if you need the boost! I can’t wait until they are on laptops, cause I will be getting mine then!!

#5

cool… i guess i’ll make my case to my boss for the quad core then… thanks everyone!

#6

The Q6600 runs around $280 and the E4500 is about $130. You won’t be getting $200 dollars more of a CPU, but as suggested future apps will/may be able to utilize the technology.

#7

I’m guessing that the quad core one might have other things upgraded (like more memory). Are the specs identical except for the processor, or is the processor the only diffrence?

#8

nope… its the same exact computer, except for the processor.