I am building a new computer. I was focused on getting the Core 2 Duo E8400 when I saw a Tiger Direct video on the Core 2 Quad Q6600. In the video, they compare the Q6600 to a thousand dollar processor and the Q6600 was right up there with it. My question is "Do I need a Core Quad?" I don't do gaming or multi-threaded apps, at the most maybe some multimedia stuff. I've noticed the Q6600 is 65nm where the E8400 is 45nm. Also, the E8400 is rated at 67 watts vs. the Q6600 at 92 watts, which means more power consumption and running warmer, right? And the FSB is 1333 on the 8400 but only 1066 on the Q6600. Because of these reasons, I'm leaning towards the E8400. Which processor should I purchase? Which one will last a couple years and able to adapt to new technologies? Thanks to those who respond.

The E8400 is a good buy and it outperforms the Q6600 in mutiple threaded apps. But the type of person that you are you could even go lower and save yourself a lot more money. To tell you the truth i find buying an E8400 let alone a Q6600 is pointless for you if you are never going to use them to their fulliest. It would be like buying a really fast sports car and never really going past 55mph, but you bought it because it "could" go really fast.

Get an E7200 & overclock. You don't necessarily have to crank the heck out of the CPU. You can play it safe & just reconfigure the clock settings to overclock the FSB, but keep the overall clock speed close to the default. Instead of running it at 2.53GHz (9.5 x 266), you could set it to something like 2.5GHz (7.5 x 333MHz), 2.67GHz (8 x 333), 2.6GHz (6.5 x 400).

"Get an E7200 & overclock." im looking at building new new system to replace my ageing barton and nf7 mobo and this looks like a pretty good chip. could you sujest a mobo and ram to bolt up to this. vista ultimate/sp1 120gb hdd plextor dvd-r pioneer dvd r Abit NF7-S V2.0 Mobo, xp2500 mobile @ 200x11/1.575v, 2X512 crucial Pc3200, MSI X800 Pro-TD256 AGP 256M PA9C-42CU cooper

I have a Q6600, does that mean I don't have a good processor and should consider getting the E8400 CPU?

No you're fine. The Q6600 is better overall then the E8400 dual core, because of it's quad core capabilites. If it's broke, then blow that sucka up!