Quote Originally Posted by Skratch View Post
A true enthusiast will see threw all the fanbois and buy a q6600 go stepping. that chip will do3.6ghz for $265 and is the best bang for the buck out right now,You could also buy a board that supports ddr3 and be set for a while.

I'm not giving up on AMD yet,I'm waiting for some more in dept benching results but so far the cd2's look better with there aggressive mid rang prices.

It's funny how things have turned,I used to say this very same things about intel when AMD had the best bang for the buck mid end parts.
See I just dislike the notion that one has to be able to drop $270 on a CPU in the first place to be considered a "true enthusiast." I also don't feel the the Q6600 is the best bang for buck right now in the true sense of performance/price ratio. Yes its the best bang for buck out of high-midrange CPUs, but hardly the best overall unless you're only considering folding or 3D rendering.

If you ask me the whole concept of overclocking is born from the idea of paying less and getting more out of it. Right now we have great $60-80 chips like the Brisbanes and the E21XX series that when overclocked to their max get close to top end performance in games and other apps that most people here use. Thats the range that I play, because thats where I can afford to play in, and in that range imho AMD is the winner due to cheaper motherboards.