I recently installed a Q6600 into my PC and I've noticed it's been alot slower then my previous 2.40GHz Core 2 Duo, I'm not sure if it's a hardware or a software issue here but listed below is what my setup is at the moment:

Q6600
Asus P5N32-Sli (650i chipset)
4GB RAM
Nvidia 7900GS
900w Modular Power Supply (Can't remember the name off the top of my head)
2x 250GB Hard drives

I did have an Sli installed before this but taken out 1 card to see if it helped, so I'll put that back in after I've solved this constant slowdown but any help would be excellent as I'm at a dead-end with this.

What's your temps and did you reinstall your OS? Should be the same speed as your previos E6600 on most apps and faster on others.

I can get the temps for you in a minute but no, I've not installed the OS. Never really thought you'd need too with a CPU.

As for a speed difference compared to the E6600 it's significantly slower then the E6600 at the moment.

If your temps are too high you might be throttling. As for the OS reinstall, technically you shouldn't have to but if it's Windows we're talking about you never know. I always reinstall after any major hardware change just to be sure I'm getting full performance. Does your OS recognize all 4 cores in device manager?

It does recognize all 4 Cores in Device Manager, Just browsing w/ Firefox it's sitting on 30 Degrees however I did try to play some music a minute ago and it wouldn't play anything without a huge amount of stuttering. Just did a restart and getting the same results.

Well Asus's site regarding your MB is pretty outdated but it looks like most of the recent BIOS updates address cpu support, you might check and see what version your running. When your saying that it stutters during music, open task manager and see what cpu usage is at. Check to see how many processes are running. Your cpu should plow right though most anything you throw at it, but check anyways. Your temps are great so that's out.

I agree with Scarchunk. Update your BIOS to see if it helps. If I remembered correctly, all 650i chip has quad core support, but you need to update the BIOS.

right I can look at updating the motherboard, I've found Asus drivers a pain to update in the past. on my G15 keyboard it was showing the CPU at >50% usage with just WMP (while playing a track) and Firefox.

You should try updating the BIOS, before you drop the big bucks. I currently also have Q6600, and it works like a charm.

Don't use ASUS's updating software. Use DOS to update the BIOS. Its safer, more reliable, and faster. Try updating your BIOS to 0703, and see if it works.

As for 50% usage, I'm suspecting its a code error in OS. I'm not sure though, but if you can, and have the will and energy for it, try to reinstall the OS.

I've had a few Asus boards and they have an app that I think is called Asus Update. DON'T try and use its update through the internet function as it sucks. Download the BIOS update to your computer and then tell the Asus Update program where to find it locally on your computer. It has always worked fine for me as long as you DO NOT tell it to update from the net. As for 50% usage with media player....somethings wrong. How many other processes do you have running?

Installed the BIOS update and it's working perfectly now. Thank you all for your help, most appreciated.