Thats a pretty pickle.

Where are our tech guys?

Hmmm Strictly games? First one, and if its the 45nm process people can easily overclock that to 3.5ghz.

Games and CPU intensive stuff? 2nd one, also if you have your eye to the future and plan this to be a long upgrade cycle then the second one will become a better chice with more time as applications and games become more multithreaded.

Heres the computer im looking to buy but i dont know what processor to get

Description XPS 630
Date & Time: June 10,2008 11:02 PM CST

SYSTEM COMPONENTS
XPS 630 Qty 1
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E8400 (6MB L2 Cache, 3GHz,1333 FSB), Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Service Pack 1 Unit Price $1,340.00
You have qualified for savings with your online purchase.
Expires June 20, 2008
- $141.00

Catalog Number: 70702 D6302V_F_1E
Module Description Show Details
Processor Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E8400 (6MB L2 Cache, 3GHz,1333 FSB)
Operating System Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Service Pack 1
Chassis Colour Black Bezel Chassis
Memory 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 DIMMs
Keyboard Dell USB Keyboard
MONITORS No Monitor
Video Card nVidia® GeForce® 8800 GT 512MB
LABELS Windows Vista™ Premium
HARD DRIVES 320GB - Seagate 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
FLOPPY DRIVE AND MEDIA READER No Floppy Drive or Media Reader Included
Mouse Dell Optical USB Mouse
Modem No Modem Requested
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 8.1
OPTICAL DRIVES Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability
Sound Cards Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
Speakers No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)
Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed) Microsoft Works 9. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD
Security Software McAfee SecurityCenter 15-months
Digitial Music No Digital Music Software Requested
Hardware Services 1 Yr Limited Warranty with 1 Yr NBD Onsite Service and 1 Yr Tech Support
Online Data Storage DataSafe Online Backup 3GB
Internet Access Services Please contact me with more details

TOTAL:$1,199.00

why are you buying from Dell? Go to your local shop, and customize your own computer. You will end up saving a lot of money.

Lets be fair, 320gb harddrive is an embarrassment.

@Kingofwale

320 is fine for me. I wouldnt even be able to fill a 140 gb drive

You say that now...I don't think I'll ever fill my 500 GB but I'm already past 100 GB without even knowing what I did hehe.

But yeah...is this from Dell?

You really ought to consider buying all the parts online and putting them together yourself. It's really not hard at all, and you'll feel proud that you put a PC together. And if you can't or don't want to, you could pay a friend $50 to put it together and still save a lot of money.

Edit:  And about your question, I'd go with the dual-core...quad core is nice for heavy application use, but dual-core is fine and will be better for games.

local computer shops custom builds = rip off.  I'd actually order DELL over those sketchy places.  Of corse the best is building your own but some poeple aren't interested.

About the processors Q6600 vs E8400.  It really repends if you're going to use applications that utilize multiple cores.  Highend multimedia apps and encoding benefit greatly from 4 cores but not many PC games take advantage of it. 

E8400

-raw speed faster due to architecture improvement and 3.0ghz

-runs cooler, overclocks much better than Q

-PC games will benefit from faster clockspeed

Q6600

-Great for certain applications if they utilize 4 cores.  Great for video editing multimedia related work.

-Maybe more futureproof?  (by the time mainstream apps become 4core support I think a Q6600 may be considered low-end)

I personally would pick E8400.  Its one of the fastest processors in the world and affordable!

Im gonna go with the dual-core thanks for the all the help

@Ihira If he buys from dell he can't overclock.

@TkI would go with the dual core, but build the pc. It isn't hard at all. I'm 14 and built my first pc at 11. I've built 2 more pcs since.