I've been thinking about this for quite a while since the 4 core I'm currently setup for costs the same as the 6 core, but which is best? What makes a 6 core better than a 4 core? Been looking at some specifications over the two processors and they seem alike for the most part.

The processors are:
AMD Phenom2 Quad 965 3.4GHz AM3 S-940
AMD Phenom2 X6 1090T 3.2GHz AM3

You've got to be kidding, that X6 1090T normally costs at least 50% more than the X4 965 and is definitely superior. Pretty much the same clock frequency, but it has 6 cores, a bigger L2-cache and consumes less electricity.

Of course, the real question is : do you really need a 6-core CPU ? What will you use if for ? If the answer is "gaming", then I'd definitely advise to save on the CPU and invest your money in a good graphics card.

This is my current setup:


CPU
AMD Phenom2 Quad 965 3.4GHz AM3 S-940-303/AMD Phenom2 X6 1090T 3.2GHz AM3

Motherboard
ASUS M4A87TD USB3 Socket AM3 DDR3 ATX

RAM
8GB DDR3 1600MHz Kingston HyperX (4x2GB)

GPU
1280MB MSI Nvidia GTX470 PCI-E

HDD
1TB Samsung 7200rpm 32MB SATA2

Case
Antec Nine Hundred Two u/PSU

Powersupply
1000W Energon EPS-1000 140mm

CPU Cooler
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro S-939/940

DVD Disk
48x16x Lite-On DVD Sort PATA

OS
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit (Dansk)

I'm ordering the PC through a website instead of buying the pieces individually, so the processors are probably priced high? There isn't any money to save either way - only 303 DKK or £34 (at the current exchange currency). And yes, I'm going to use it for gaming.

why do you need a six core?

if your answer is gaming you dont need it, also if you are going to go down that route of saying " i need more power" wait 2 weeks and get a sandy bridge i7 for an amost identical price but it will be considerably better

SSD

this. i personally am waiting to see what people will produce for sataIII 6gbps drives before i fork out on 2 256GB ones for RAID 0

Sandy Bridge is available now it seems.

http://www.box.co.uk/Intel_Core_I7-2600 ... 42506.html

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/

I won't consider buying SSD yet because they aren't worth it. A 40gb SSD costs twice as much as a 1T HDD, so why bother? Well, at least from the site I'm looking at.

Although Intel make really good processors they cost a fortune, and I quite like having two kidneys.

Because the HDD is often the main bottle neck in performance, in a high performance box.

So true. My 5200 rpm hdd is a pain in the arse, really burns me on games with streaming like Oblivion. Need to get something a little more high spec soon!