Q9000 Series Chips (Best Chip?)

I'm selling my Q6700 because of it's 1.325v VID. I'm now looking to either replace it with a Q6600, or, more preferably, move to the Q9000 series. Which of these chips is most recommended? Tigerdirect has the Q9300 Retail for $250, which looks pretty good. Also has the Q9400 Retail @ $275, and Q9550 Retail @ $350. Please help me decide which of these chips I should purchase, and, most importantly, why. Some things to consider are which chips run on lowest vcore, which chips overclock the best/highest, and which cards are best value for the money. I've seen different steppings; which are better and why? Thanks for any info! I don't know much about this series of chips, so any info that could help me decide is welcome.

I was thinking either the Q9500 or Q9550, because I would rather have the 8.5x than 8x. Since I can't find the Q9500, I think I'm going to go with Q9550. I can find it at most retailers for $310 retail, with about $20 of taxes. Only thing I'm concerned about is whether I'll be getting the E0 stepping. Since it was released in August, wouldn't they all be E0 by now?

i was at Frys electronics 2 days ago, a Q9450 was 269$. if you have a frys near u, u should check, but i agree with road. save for an i7, your quad is good.

Just keep it you will not be satified unless you have i7

no, the 65nm's range is 0.85V – 1.5V, you're fine. and it depends on what you do. for benching, low multi - high fsb will yield better results at the same speeds. but in real world performance, the results you see are negligible.

besides, when you go high fsb and low multi, you're not only stressing out ur cpu, but ur mobo and ram as well (might have to loosen ur timings). stick with a lower fsb and max your multiplier for everyday use.

@ diogynes, you are one lucky guy, lol. i would have so bought that combo if i saw it!!!

yea, i mean if you think you get better results at 400x9 than 360x10, that is fine too. what i was referring to was higher OC's beyond 400fsb in the ranges of 450+. 400 is fine, and you ram can run in sync also.

however the situation is, you could always link your ram to your fsb, so your ram would run at 720mhz instead of 800, im saying tho, u dont' need/have to . the only thing with that is, you could also run tighting timings at lower mhz if you wanted to.

and what you heard is correct. auto-voltage always takes your voltage higher than what is truly needed for the stability at X speed. you would want to be able to have voltage so you could post and load into windows, and run prime95 for 12+ hours to ensure stability with the small FFTs tests. if one core fails, then you would up the voltage a bit until you find the sweet spot for the lowest voltage that keeps your system 100% stable.

CPU voltage (vcore) is the most important change you're gonna make when starting an OC. there are other voltages to take into consideration but usually only needed at higher levels. (read greysky's OC sticky for more info)

If you want a Q9550 then here is a good source guaranteed E0 and it is $286 with free shipping.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Intel-Core-2-Q [...] dZViewItem

For what it's worth, I just got one of these and it OC'd to 3.5ghz without raising the vcore.