E6850 vs Q6600

[jrf23]

Finally I have a good arguement to end this debate!
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu...uad-q6600.html
Basically, if you don't want to read it, the E6850 is better if you don't want to overclock anything, but your best bet is to overclock the Q6600 as it outperforms the E6850 when overclocked on all counts! Now I just need to know how to overclock!

[Disk_Contented]

Out performs it on what?
The quad has greater multitasking potential.

Let's see:

Core 2 Duo E6850 with 25% higher clock speed performs better in a lot of applications, including games. Moreover, it is also more economical. As a result, the most optimal choice for a system working at nominal speeds would depends a lot on the type of tasks it is intended for.

in other words, the faster clock speed makes it faster at standard speed... Fairly obvious.
More economical... It's cheaper.
Dual core is the current optimal choice for games, since games are not quad optimised.
Set up a task intensive app, that wacks the processor and you'll see the difference. The quad will wipe the floor with the dual core.

[jrf23]

Eevn for gaming the overclocked Quad was better than the duo mainly because it has a better cache. Not all games do use the Quad cores, but in the future they will and you might as well take the small hit now and be ready for future games! I guess it depends on whether you're going to overclock or not! I'm going for 3.2GHz then push for 3.4Ghz on the Quad.