Verified answer

I suggest u go for the core 2 duo E8400 3.0 ghz for 3 reasons..

1)IT has 1333Mhz FSB which is required in gaming..

2)it is faster 3Ghz .I know u must be thinking the other one i quad core but believe me performance will be much better.

3)its cheaper than the quad core.

now u must be thinking that it has more cache but this is just one good that the quad core has and the c2d has man many more..

So i guess now u know..

And as far as the corei7 is concerned i would say technology changes every 2nd day .So if u buy that the next day or the next week a new one will be coming out..so if u keep waiting u go no where...

Hope this helped u..

Smarth

You'll probably see a boost in speed with the quad-core over the dual-core when converting video, but not as much with Photoshop or video editing. Photoshop tends to eat through RAM more than your CPU usage, and a dual-core is usually more than enough for editing video. More cores isn't always better. Like you said, having 4 cores is pretty useless if you're only using 1 or 2 of those cores, and most applications aren't designed to take advantage of multi-core processing yet. You're not going to get any boost in speed while web browsing or typing a paper. In fact, since quad-core processors generally run at slower clock speeds than dual- or single-core ones, you might actually end up running those applications slower on the quad-core. When you start getting into really processor-intensive things, though, a quad-core processor will generally outperform a dual-core one. Basically, unless you're going to be converting a lot of videos there wouldn't be any huge difference between the two. Everything else you listed would barely run faster or possibly would run slower on the Q6600 compared to the E8400. I have a MacBook Pro with a 2.16 GHz Core Duo and 2 GB of RAM running Leopard. The only time I ever see my CPU usage get above 40-50% is when converting videos and sometimes when running certain apps (like 3Ds Max) in XP using Parallels, and even then I almost never see anything above 85% usage.

get quad core it is faster than dual core! 2.4ghz X 4 = the amount of speed you get with quad core! and for graphics card get atleast a Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT..im using a e8400 3.0ghz for my new gaming rig though but it is equipped with 2 Nvidia Geforce 9800 GT in SLI

quad core q6600 is rediculous. its the best for its price. Its what I use and i have it for hardcore gaming. So even if your not it'll still be able to boost your speed. use www.newegg.com for reviews and such, its where i get all my parts.