Q9100 or T9600

Ok, I know there are different benefits and drawbacks between duals and quads. What I want to know is which would most likely benefit me more with what I intend to do with it. This upgrade will be going into the Dell m4400 in my sig. I chose these two because the ES models are relatively cheap (sell for around $150 on ebay).

Usages (listed in order of importance):

• VMWare - Will most likely be running at least 2 virtual machines at a time, 3 when 4GB RAM dimms become cheaper.
• Video re-encoding (editing is rare)
• Games - Only one I can see really benefiting from a CPU upgrade is Supreme Commander. It's not a big factor, but greater performance in this area would be nice too.
• Audio re-encoding

I do intend to keep this machine around for awhile, hopefully I will do it as historically I upgrade every 6months but those were older models so I think I can manage. I dont plan on making this upgrade anytime this year. A SSD upgrade is in line 1st, then cpu after which 4GB RAM dimms should be cheap enough for me to slap on for the virtual machines. Obviously each proc will do better in different situations, but which will perform better overall?

I'm leaning towards the Quad only because it would be simple reserve one core for my host OS and have the 2-3 virtual machines share the remaining 3. If I use get the Dual I'll have to hope the host OS can manage usuage efficiently enough to not like any of the processed get bogged down.

 

For the virtualization you're doing, getting a Quad core will significantly boost your performance. If money is no issue, go Quad.

 

Yeah, the tasks in your list will benefit from many cores as much as possible. Go with the quad.. However make sure that your laptop is powerful enough to run a 44W CPU and powerful enough to cool that CPU too...


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Get the Q9100 if your laptop supports it.

 

A heavily multi-threaded transcoder like Handbrake will SING with a quad-core CPU. Go for that.

 

For sure my laptop can handle the quad cause the qx9500 is an option from dell. Guess quad it is then! thanks for the input guys

 

QX9500!? QX9300 is the max right now... otherwise agreed with the rest.

 

Ah, typo. =P thank you. I ment to say QX9300 haha. I get lost in my dream world frequently haha

 

The Q9100 is easily the correct choice.

 

depends on how much you wanna spend
if you have a low budgetthe t9600 is your choice.
But if you havea lot of cash then you should definitely get the Q9100

 

Even if you were on a low budget considering the tasks the OP has in mind it would be a much better idea to save a bit and get the quad core as a much better investment, saving the $$$ for the dual core is no better than throwing the money away.

 

Lol this comparison question between a quad and the dual gets asked often now. Both the Q9000 or 9100 are the better choice by far. With a bit of overclocking both those chips should get close or exceed the speed of a stock QX9300!