Which one is more recommendable for playing (and only playing, but maybe having a few instances of the game running at once) considering

- to be short on money
- to not intend buying a new computer every 1-2 years (in other words: it shall be used for a while!)



PS: sorry for my english

When you said "to be short on money" did you mean "I am short on money" or "I am not short on money"? I think you mean that you want to buy cheap, and if that is true, then you should get the e8400, since it is cheap, and it is better than the q9450 for most games.

anyway, where are you from?

I could afford either, but would I prefer the cheaper solution if the Q9450's gain is not so much.

I'm from Germany, why?

q9450

E8400
and after 1 year if lot of games need 4 cores you can upgrade to Q9650@3GHz which is comming soon
price will be nothing after 1 year and you'll not have to build a new system

As I said, I don't intend to upgrade again in near future

Even 2 years from now most games will not require a quad core cpu.

Stick with the duo core since it's stock speed is higher than the quad's.

What if you intend on OCing? It should be easy to make the quad catch up to the dual's stock speed. Although the OC'ed dual will of course be higher than the OC'ed quad.... someone needs to benchmark this!

Contradictory opinions here....is there any benchmark or deep testing of E8400 vs Q9450?

O TOM I hear a challange