I have been thinking about buying this Q9450 CPU for a while now. At 299 my mind was made up! Just ordered one 4/15 at www.microcenter.com. It is OEM, but I would end up throwing the heatsink in the garbage anyway. Hope this post benefits someone. Newegg is always out of stock on these!

Usually OEM, means that you won't get a HSF with it, so you'll have to buy one. I'd recommend the Arctic Freezer 7 Pro (if on a tight budget) or the Xigmatek s1283 HSF (if your going to do some good OC'ing). The AF7Pro is about $32 and the Xigmatek is $37 shipped at newegg, which is $7 cheaper than yesturday!
 
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail  
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233003
 
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835186134
 
 

Thanks for the suggestion - I actually already bought the ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro sittin in a box next to my empty pc case. Will finish my build mid May - can't wait!

I will vote against the freezer 7 pro.
 
Had one on my e6600, did a good job, but not for the quads.

Yeah, I ordered mine during the wee morning on Tuesday; actually 3am in the morning. I was happy when I received an e-mail at work (about 11am) stating that mine has shipped.
 
I have a Tuniq Tower 120 to cool it.

 
Well read alot of good reviews about the freezer 7 pro and the penryn cpu's run cooler so I am sure I will be fine  

Good price for now but  Microcenter also  has been selling low vid Q6600 (1.13v) that are getting 3.8 -4.0 ghz on air with 1.5v for $199.  With the FSB wall problems peeps have been having with the Q9xxxs they need to drop in price a little more to be worth it unless you need the SSE4.

I got my Q9450 from Microcenter.  One odd thing about ordering from them - they charged me sales tax, probably because there is a physical Microcenter store in my state.  The store in question did not have the Q9450 in-stock though, they shipped it from Columbus OH.  Just FYI.

I got my Q9450 from Microcenter.  It shipped more quickly than I expected.  I haven't overclocked it yet (planning a mild one just to match FSB to memory), but the Freezer 7 Pro I got to go on it has been keeping it cool so far; during some reboots while installing software and doing some other things, I looked in the BIOS and it said 38.  I've not heard the system-controlled fans speeding up either.

 
I have the Arctic Freezer 7 on my Q6600 and it works great.  Overclocked to 3.8GHZ idles at 38 full load of 46. For the price its great.  Pretty quiet (i don't hear it over my raptors) and is perfectly stable.  Don't be afraid of it.  I bought it for the reviews and would recommend it to anyone.

Its real - It just shipped:
Order Summary - Items Shipped:
Item SKUQuantityDescription
5490711IPSG OEM INTEL C2Q 9450 SLAWR  
NICE. Now I just need a good q9450 overclockers guide.

Damn, you guys are getting better temps on the freezer 7 than I am on my swifty water cool.... but I do have 2 x 8800 GTXs hooked in.......

actually if you add a 2 gb ocz gold, the price drops to 250, or so says slickdeals. thats a nice deal.

 
I have 2x 8800GT in my box, but even those stay relatively cool.  The Arctic Freezer 7 blows the air directly out the port of the PC which certainly helps.  Im sure having 2x 8800GTX would make my cpu temps rise too :-)