new gaming system, is quad core worth it?

[U4EA]

I'm debating whether or not to move to quad core in my new gaming machine (plan to get it within a week or two). I haven't kept up to date all over the past ~2 years on what's doing good or not hardware wise, so I've only just started to read a few recent Anadtech articles and gotten slightly up to speed.

I was initially thinking of getting a Core 2 Duo E6550, an ASUS or Gigabyte P35 board, 2-4 GB RAM and an 8800 GT. But a friend of mine recommended I go to Quad Core instead (Q6600 or something). I probably won't be running anything too hardcore on it, aside from perhaps Age of Conan or something. I suppose for the purpose of running WoW, which is what it'll be used for mostly, either of those would do fine (WoW being CPU limited might make the Quad Core a bit better perhaps)? Just want to be able to run it flawlessly at high widescreen resolutions (1680x1050) with everything maxed.

Any thoughts or advice? Cheers

[AmIdYfReAk]

Honestly, from what i've seen and heard about.. w0w isent that hard on a PC ( a stupid amount of NPC's/players in one area pending )

a buddy of mine is playing w0w on a Athlon 64 3200+ with a X800 Maxed at 1920X1200 and he apparently dosnt get any slow downs.

Correct me if i'm wrong btw,

Though, Age of Conan, now that will take it out of the computer.

as for the Quad and Dual question, you should give this a wee read.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/dual-quad,1720.html

and make your own choice.

edit: The games that he used to test will only use basically one core, they wouldnt be able to use all 4 of the Quad's... but all/most of the latest games ( including A.O.C. ) are written to make use of how ever meny cores you have... So the real question when asking if you would like to go Quad or Dual is: Go for a little more speed now ( overclocking pending ) or have more speed for the Future.

[Foo]

The Q6600 is a bargain. Definitely worth pushing to it at this point. If you're not hardcore gaming you'll see a more general benefit in Windows performance when multi-tasking.

[Captain]

Agreed, you can't go wrong with a Q6600. I'm on a C2D E6750 and it overclocks like a beast. 2.6GHz to 3.4 on an aftermarket HSF and doesn't go above 30 degrees Celsius.

[U4EA]

I'm currently running WoW on an Athlon 64 3700+ with a 7800GT, and while it runs flawlessly at 1680x1050 in most *common* situations, there are some larger scale settings (certain 25 man raids) where it does tend to stutter. As well, there are many console commands to make it look far better than what the UI allows you to adjust, and I want to experiment with them =p

Reading that Tom's Hardware link now amidy. And yea better multitasking would be nice too. Cheers guys.

[+JuggerNaut+]

WoW, huh? so that's where you been. fs.

[Captain]

Another soul lost

[AmIdYfReAk]

nexttime the shuttering happends, Check to see if your harddrive light is blinking/staying on.

[§ìgñå]

The Q6600 is a bargain. Definitely worth pushing to it at this point. If you're not hardcore gaming you'll see a more general benefit in Windows performance when multi-tasking.

That is true. I just grabbed one for cheap even though I had an E6600. Its runs things so much smoother than the dual, even at the same ghz.

[U4EA]

WoW, huh? so that's where you been. fs.

Haha, amongst other places, yes =p

nexttime the shuttering happends, Check to see if your harddrive light is blinking/staying on.

Pretty sure it's not a paging issue, but I'll pay attention next time anyway.