running a virus scan in background

[quadcoreman]

hi. i posted a question about what parts i should get for a good gaming pc. Time has past and i pondered a few things.

the Q6600 is great, but i understand that most likely with the things i do (gaming) that only 2 cores will be in use, and the other 2 asleep.

on the otherhand, if i get a good dual core, like the CORE 2 DUO E6750 2.66GHz, the performance will be pretty much the same in gaming as the
Q6600 and i save some money.

but let me ask you this question which has been bugging me...

if i get the dual core and i run a game, AND have a virus scan in the background along with msn and others... will the game lag?

If i get the Q6600 i know for a fact that it wont, but will the dual core handle this? because i would get quad if it cant. If the difference in minor, then ill go for dual, but if the pc will really go faster with quad then ill go quad.

also, i like to minimize the game and do other stuff, like surfing the internet, while having chatting on msn, talking on ventrilo (chat program) and others.
will quad be better? or is it unessessary?

my specs: (withought cpu cause i dont know which one yet, not 100% sure on GPU either)
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P...........................................................$192.00
EXTREME POWER 600W (RP-600-PCAR).....................................$99.00
GF8800GT 512 DDR3 2DH PCIE(maybe)......................................$355.00
Seagate Barracuda 320G HDD, 7200RPM 16M Cache.....................$113.00Pioneer 18X DVD Dual Layer Burner 112D OEM, No software - Beige..$50.00
G Skill 2G DDR-800 (2x1GB) Dual Channel..................................$95.00
G Skill 2G DDR-800 (2x1GB) Dual Channel....................................$95.00

just one more thing.. with warhammer online coming out, should i get 8600gt or 8800gt? i know 8800gt is much better, but if the 8600gt can give me solid fps, then i dont need the 10000000 fps on the 8800gt (exaduration) what im trying to say is, is it worth spending $150 on 8600gt? will i reget it? or is the $400ish 8800gt a better buy?, cause if the fps is like 5 more on 8800gt then ill go for 8600gt. And yeah i do want high setting. with 1680 x 1050 pixels (256 MB GPU is out of question)

i would appreciate if you could please clear this up for me, i couldnt find a proper answer on the internet anywhere.

thanks.

[koala]

if i get the dual core and i run a game, AND have a virus scan in the background along with msn and others... will the game lag?

Yes, the hard drive activity from the antivirus while it deep-scans every file will be too much for the game to keep up with, no matter what CPU or graphics card you have installed. If you have 2 or more drives setup as RAID, this would lessen the lag, but not significantly. It's ok to leave the AV running in the background, but not scanning.

MSN and other programs which aren't constantly accessing the hard drive will not cause any lag. This is where multi-core CPUs are useful, and recommended for multi-tasking.

8800, definitely. Or wait a few weeks for the newer cards. The 350W PSU listed in your 'My System' will NOT power an 8800. You need at least a 550W. More important than the total watts, it must have 26A/+12V.

will quad be better? or is it unessessary?

Quad will handle heavy multi-tasking better than single or dual, but it's more for future-proofing at the moment. Things like "surfing the internet, while having chatting on msn, talking on ventrilo" and more can easily be handled by a dual-core. With my dual-core AMD I can play a fullscreen 3D game on high settings with Firefox, MSN, Mailwasher, F@H, Nero and several other apps running, with no lag.