Where to draw the line?

TBH, I'd go with the Q9300 and save the extra cash.

You could overclock it up to Q9450 speeds easily anyway if you wanted to.

Well I don't rearly want to overclock, and I want this thing to last me as long as possible. But if I save now, it will be soolner before I can buy a second 8800GTX for SLI, or a larger monitor.

True, and the performance gain doesn't seem significant anyway.

even if it's not significant, is it noticeable?

Well, yeah in benchmarking.

But in real worlds apps? No. Doubtful.

Even if it is, so you have to wait an extra 2 seconds to finish encoding a file. So what?

I was meaning also for gaming, would it greatly increase frame rates?

An extra 160mhz increase will help in gaming if it's on the gpu but the cpu? Nope, not unless it's a very low clocked one to begin with.

It'll depend on the resolution you're gaming at as well as that extra might just tip your rig over the 25fps minimum (my minimum frame rate anyway) to make a game playable. But that's also dependent on the rest of your rig's spec's and the detail settings you're running a particular game at.

Cache sizes near as make no odd's to frame rates.

hmm, well I have an 8800GTX as my GPU, and 2X 1280*1024 displays, however I am wishing to upgrade to a larger resolution when I can afford it, what would you say was the max resolution playable with this setup?

I think the answer to your question is simle thingie2... Look at Alex's reply... If I were you, I'd go for the cheaper option, give in the extra 160Mhz on the CPU and put the money I save towards my second 8800GTX.

Cheers:
Chris

hmm, I might go for the cheaper option, still not that sure though.

As Alex has pointed out (and Carbon is doing all the time...) for gaming the GPU is a lot more important than the CPU. The 2 8800GT's will be a lot more important than a 160 Mhz increase in the CPU speed.

You asked advice on where to draw the line and quite a few people are telling you where to draw it. However, it seems to me that you questions should have been to draw a line at all since you'd prefer to go the whole hog anyway...

Cheers:
Chris

Yea, but it's not only for gaming this CPU, it will also be used for 3D modling programs etc.

Again the key word here is 3D. If you're using applications like 3D Studio Max or Maya they will rely on the GPU as much as on the CPU itself. If you're concerned about processing power while using 3D modelling or DTP allpications, then I would still advise you to stick to the cheapest solution as far as the CPU is concerned. An increase of 160 Mhz in CPU speed for £60 is nothing compared to the increase in RAM the same money will buy you. And RAM is what you will need for 3D modelling.

I'm currently running only an E2160 (1.8Ggz with a mere 800Mhz FSB) but I got 4GB of RAM in my system. Trust me, Photoshop, Illustrator, Painter, 3D Studio Max and Maya are running pretty fast on that.

Cheers:
Chris

Thingie, as well as dabs be sure to look at www.ebuyer.com and www.novatech.co.uk

I got my CPU from Novatech as it was cheaper than from dabs.