Core 2 Quad 9550

Yeah, it has good performance, especially if you overclock it. If you already have an LGA775 board that will accept it I say go for it. Sure an i5 or i7 would be faster, but it's also more expensive considering you would have to buy a new board and RAM. If you are going to build a new system though it does make sense to pay a little extra to step up to an LGA 1156 or 1366 setup.

Why did they whack the 9450?

I forget the exact reason for it but it was one of these or a combo of them. Intel dropped the prices of the 9550 and 9650. Introduced new quad cores like the 9400 in its place.

Yeh, they replaced the 9450 with the 9400 cuz the less cache version was much cheaper to make.

Speaking of 9400, they were going for $140 at Microcenter before they all sold out... =/

No. It's just Intel's way of increasing yield - eg. making usable CPU chips, same as AMD's tri-cores.
A Q9400 is just a Q9550 or Q9650 with a fault in the L2 cache. Intel deactivates that half of the cache, drops the internal multiplier, and voila! They have a usable (and salable) chip instead of a piece of junk.

Can you post the link to this sale? I went on their website and did not see this sale.

Its not a sale either. Its the regular price.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml...

Check the store that you are going to. If its out of stock check back the next day.

Okay thanks very much. I did find it after clicking on a store. Has anyone had luck actually buying one at this price? Or is it the classic bait and switch scheme, walk in the store, sorry it's out of stock?

Does Newegg do price matching? Because if they do, I'd rather mail order it from Newegg.

No and No. If you got a store near you just head down there.

Go for Q9550 if you already have a decent LGA775 mb, otherwise i5 would be a better choice.

You can pick up a nice 775 socket motherboard for cheap:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/ite...

Try to buy and I5/I7 motherboard at that price. If you don't mind spending extra to get the I5/I7 then go that route. It is a bit more future proof.

The Q9550 is a beast and I have two of them that I bought from, you guessed it - Microcenter, I paid 170 bucks each. Microcenter has the best prices on their selected cpu promo than anyone around. I'm not sure how they can do it and no one else can but I will continue to shop them just because of it...

yeah,for some reason micro center can sell their CPU's for about $80 cheaper than frys elec or newegg     I suspect bulk deal with intel!     .Btw i got my mobo from micro for $70 clearance sale   Good ol Asus brand.

You are wrong. See Wolfdale vs Penryn.

Very nice. You will be pleased with that setup for less than half the cost of the I7. Did you get a good deal on ddr2 or did you already have some?

Also, did you get the E0 rev cpu? I got 2 and both were, they OC quite nicely!...

Not quite. Penryn is the mobile version.

Penryn is the 45nm Laptop Core 2 Duo's, Penryn-QC is the Extreme editions of those chips.
Wolfdale is the 45nm Desktop Core 2 Duo's, E8xxx & E7xxx.
Yorkfield is the 45nm Desktop Core 2 Quad's, Qxxx, Q8xxx, QX9xxx.

Like others have said, if you have a 775 board go for it! I have one that I use for gaming and video editing. Very powerful processor. I love mine!

I wish I was in Philly right now. Boy would a Pat's steak hit the spot right now.

They have a i5 750 for $149.99
It's more of a steal.

Actually, Penryn was originally the name for the entire 45nm family, including Wolfdale, Yorkfield and the mobile chips. For some reason, Intel then started referring to just the mobile processors as Penryns. But it was to the 45's what Conroe was to the 65's and what Nehalem is to the Core i series... From Intel's site:

http://blogs.intel.com/technology/2007/04/penryn.php

I'm not talking about the code-name, I talking about the core name.

Well hogwash... I just tried setting up my computer and the damned monitor won't recieve the signal. Oh well, everything else seems fine. All the fans are a-spinning, the CPU hasn't exploded... it hasn't combusted into a fiery explosion... Perhaps I should try resetting the BIOS or reseating my graphics card.

Sounds like a new topic but anyway, does your motherboard support the CPU?

lol,i guess it should be a new topic,but meh,i'll try to get it to work myself until i give up   the motherboard supports it,yeah, the fans are spinning, the motherboard is hooked up, everything seems fine... I think the POST screen would pop up IF my monitor worked...so i believe the problem is with the graphics card... it's not recognizing the motherboard or not recognizing the monitor   Tried reseating it,didn't work...