Q9300 if not going to upgrade for 2+ years

no,i7

You should go with a quad for the long term, yes. Just not sure Q9300 is the best choice.

Can you afford a Q9550 for an extra $60? It's worth it IMO.

If you overclock, the 7.5 multiplier of the Q9300 will make it very hard to reach more than 3.5 GHz. A $70 cheaper Q6600 would give you roughly the same performance, OCd to 3.6.

depends on your budget and what you plan on using it for.

I dont live in the USA, but New Zealand, the Q6600 is discounted and i7 would be too expensive, having to buy a expensive mobo ddr3 ram and a high end CPU. In NZ a Q9300 is $400, a Q9400 is $480-515, a Q9450 is now discounted also? am i correct? and a Q9550 is $624-$673

Plan on using for gaming. I know a Core Duo is better with the majority of games, but from now to 2 years would a quad core be better is alot of games have already gained a benefit from quads.

Read this http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=362187 a Core duo is pretty useless, and this game was realeased only this decemeber. I reckon Alan Awake is gonna benefit even more with a quad over a Duo core, released in Feb 2009.

"If you overclock, the 7.5 multiplier of the Q9300 will make it very hard to reach more than 3.5 GHz. A $70 cheaper Q6600 would give you roughly the same performance, OCd to 3.6. "

remember if you over clock a Q9300 to 3.5Ghz you need a Q6600 to reach 3.8Ghz for it to be equal, because of the 45nm tech the Q9300 has. 10% more per clock with it.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-... The Q6600 is overclocked 0.1 more Ghz then the Q9300 and the benchmarks shows it to be equal or more better for the Q9300. Any way I cant get a Q6600 as it is discounted.

Yes the Q9450 has been discontinued for awhile, and the Q6600 is about to be as well in the US in January or so.

Also you are gonna need a quad for Alan Wake, the physics effects will kill a dual.

As far as prices for current pickings go, given those prices you are better off hunting down a US retailer that will ship to you, or hell even US ebayer who will ship to you. Ebay US will be cheaper than $400 for a Q9300.....plenty of sellers on ebay that ship worldwide and what not. You can get a Q9550 off there for around $330. But...wait...youre using AUD, or something.

Wow, the Q9550 here in US is only 310.00 .

Is a Q9550 really that much better then Q9300?

A Q9300 is 249.99 USA dollars which = 433.926 NZ Dollars, 33 dearer if i buy from the US and if anything goes wrong...

REALLY need help - bump the Q9300 is also discounted leaves me with

E8400 $319
E8500 $350
Q6600 discounted
Q9300 discounted
Q9400 $473 -$537
Q9450 discounted
Q5500 $646

NOTE THESE ARE NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR PRICES

If you cant decide for me can you tell me should i spend $31 more for a E8500 over a E8400?

Spend $31 more for the E8500 if you overclock. If not, don't bother. The E8500 overclocks better, but at stock the two CPUs are very close.

Read this:
http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=775&p=2

yea id overclock so id go for the E8500. Now the question is the E8500 or the Q9400, keeping in mind I want it to be the most furture proofed with games, but also want to have the max settings on 1680x1050 Resolution and also the most bang for buck. I dont want to buy a Duo core and next year they start realeasing top games which i would likey to play and run better on a quad core.

Well, you're going to have to guess here. If you expect next year's games to take advantage of quads properly, get the Q9400. Game developers are working on that, but there's no guarantee they will succeed any time soon. So far Microsoft is the only one who did it (in FSX), but most software companies don't have developers as good as Microsoft's.

Say games do gain an advantage with a quad core over a duo core how much fps loss would i be looking at if i used a E8500? probaly overclocked to near its max. Im looking at a high end Core duo vs a low end to mid Quad...

If i were to spend the extra money on a quad core, I might as well be spending it on a i7 cpu, but then id have to get a more expensive mobo and ram...

Get a Q6600 Bingy ... easy choice.

Just wait a few weeks till Phenom II is releasd (Deneb) and Intel will respond with a price drop on the mid range quads.

Cheap, runs a little hotter so make sure the airflow in the case is good and I suggest an aftermarket heatpipe cooler.

Yes the Q9xxx are slightly faster on some things and run slightly cooler but the Q6600 is a nice price and overclocks to 3Ghz (@333fsb) on stock voltage - that's a nice free bump and doesn't require aftermarket cooling.

Overclocking it further is easy but the summer here in Australia makes the proposition a bit harder as I swore off water cooling after the last "flood" I experienced.

Save up and then get an i7 when the prices drop further down the track ... you won't notice an appreciable gaming increase over core2 anyway.

An E8400 is also a good choice but I think a cheap quad is better for what I want - gaming and a bit of encoding - your choice might be different, but I suspect not.

Good luck.

reynod

"E8400 $319
E8500 $350
Q6600 discounted
Q9300 discounted
Q9400 $473 -$537
Q9450 discounted
Q5500 $646

NOTE THESE ARE NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR PRICES "

The Q6600 is discounted (no more being made.) even in the USA only that USA has more stock left and NZ were i live has none left.

If games havent really had an advantage with 4 cores yet (quads) then a i7 CPU with 8 cores, you would expect years and years for games to use all 8 cores.. wouldnt you?

Intel Core i7 doesn't have 8 physical cores. 4 are physical cores and the other 4 are virtual cores made by Hyperthreading technology.

Bingy order a Q6600 from NSW ... plenty of online PC shops over there.

Don't buy PC stuff from home ...

Reynod and what happens if its faulty or anything?

Odds of a CPU being "faulty" are almost non-existant.

Gonan go with thw E8500 the Quads are like $130 dearer (the Q9400), the lowest model that isnt discounted. If i were to spend that much id might as well be getting a i7 CPU

Here Bingy.

http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/?tag=Australian_PC_Shops

http://au.pricespy.biz/cat_2.html?g=222

293.95 AU for a Q6600

Too late already ordered a E8500 quads are a waste of money atm, a High end Core duo is cheaper then a low end quad such as a Q6600 and is better for games, EVER game out at the momment a high end Core Duo such as a E8500 will beat a low end quad (which costs more) And you can over clock the **** out of a E8500...

Whatever, do your thing, but your points are not valid.

A 6600 / 9450 overclocks well.

The 6600 is cheaper than the 8400.

A high end dual will only beat a low end quad stock ... then only on a few titles.

If you don't want to listen to advice then don't ask.

6600's are easy to get ... online vendors are good.