I'm having a difficulty making my mind should I buy Q6600 now or wait for new quad cores.
Right now in my country (Croatia) Q6600 costs about 350$ which is quite a lot. If that price is not going to change in next 4 months I would buy that processor now.
Now, I'm going to ask some questions that need speculative answers (since no one can know for sure).
1. When is new generation of Intel quads scheduled for sale?
2. Does anyone know what prices will be compared to Q6600 now?
3. What are the chances that Q6600 price will drop significantly in next 4months?

I know that these questions are not even close to exact but if some of you have any relevant information on this subject, please share them.

Btw. I'm only interested in quad cores, because I need CPU power for calculation, not gaming.

Seeing as the "old" q6600 is STILL priced at 350 bucks, I wud say u are better off getting that... Cos it might be a while before u get the new generation.. I am from India.. And I understand how it is.. By the way, I own the q6600 and its great.. I wud blindly recommend it, except for ur price.. Ask around in shops if prices are gonna drop..

Even if the shops think the price is going to drop at some point, I doubt they would be forthcoming about it. Much easier to tell you that they believe the price will remain stable for the term, and that you should buy now.

I believe if there is a price drop after the new quads are available, it will be moderate, not extreme. Something like a percentage drop in line with the percentage difference in performance. I'd say if you have the money and the need, waiting only hurts. However, if the new quads are within your reach (both in price and availability) in the short term, you would benefit by waiting a bit.

The problem here: we have no idea how those variables will play out in your area.

The price of old Duals hasnt dropped so I dont see why the price of the Q6600 would drop.

If you need it now buy it now.

If you want to run 4.0 on air wait. "You might not hit 4.0 unless you get a Penryn quad with a high multiplier, and that will cost some money."

We can only wait to see how the lower multipliers can handle the high FSB needed to get 4.0. If you have a sub $100 motherboard it may be hard. We need to get a 500FSB to run the q9450 4.0. Alot of motherboards will choke at that speed. And you need 533FSB to hit 4.0 with the Q9300, good luck with that.

New quads should be around March 12th.
If you dont Video edit you dont need a quad.

I would check the prices in some of your neighbour countries. Sometimes a short trip (or even a longer one) can pay off.
I know for a fact that the quad is cheaper than 350$ in austria. Haven't look at the italian or hungarian market yet.

I read that intel will lower the q6600 prices around April by roughly 40$. http://www.nordichardware.com/news,7353.html

If you can wait that long, wait, but don't expect the price cuts to affect a shop nearby as soon as intel does them.

Well, in my country processors come like in most EU countries, with exception of higher price. Price drops about one month later than in other EU countries.
If new quads are coming in March, and in April we'll have some price cuts, maybe its better to wait and see.

Thank you all for your opinions, quite helpful.

If there's any truth to that article I'm going to kick myself for not waiting. A few bucks more for a higher multiplier on the Q6700 would have been worth it.

Yes, that one also caught my eye!

The link i provided was just an example. Do a google search and you will find plenty of news sites posting it. In addition the looming release of the q9xxx series is a very good indicator for price drops, as seen when intel released the 6x50 series or when they released faster models.

The E8400 is less $$ than the E6850. I will bet the new quads will also be less at the same clock speed. So, you may be better off getting a new one than hoping for a price drop on the old ones.