Q8300 or q6600

[lornj]

anyone have any advice on which would be better? plan on putting it in a biostar tpower i45 with 8gigs of corsair dominator ram, and i have a 600w thermaltake purepower 600ap PSU. video card is a bfg 8800gts 512.

 

[jsc]

I'm not so sure. At stock speeds, certainly, go with the Q8300. Overclocking may be a different story. We pretty much know we can get 3.6 GHz. (400 X 9) out of a Q6600. For the same speed, we'd need an FSB of 480 MHz. with a Q8300.

My[/] bottom line, I am glad I do not have to make that decision.

 

[ulysses35]

Depends on what you plan to do with it. The old Q6600 does indeed overclock better than the newer chip - however the newer chip runs cooler.

If you are not planning to overlcok the the Q8300 at stock speeds it slightly quicker -

 

[werxen]

the cache size is the only thing saving the Q6600. why not go with q Q9 series?

 

[lornj]

money is whats stopping me

 

[macabre215]

If you plan to overclock a decent amount go with the Q6600, if not go Q8300.

 

[wonderingwhatis]

If you plan to overclock a decent amount go with the Q6600, if not go Q8300.

Exactly.
Basically the higher multiplier on the q6600 should make it easier to OC since your not going to have to raise the FSB as much to get a higher overclock.
Like everyone said it will run hotter and consume a bit more power so plan on getting a decent HSF for it.

 

[cadder]

With good memory and a good board, they are probably capable of the same speed, otherwise the Q6600 might be easier to overclock.

 

[mamw93]

Q6600 will overclock great with the stock cooling. Q8300 has considerably less cache which you'll need so if you want a good CPU go with the Q6600. People are getting stable overclocks to about 2.8-3.0gHz without heat trouble. Though for best results... I would get a large heat sink or maybe even water.