Penryn or Q6600?

[Tetras]

For the price of the QX9650 you could get a decent clocking board (P35/X38?) and Q6600 and still have over half of the cash left over! If you really like that mobo you could also seek out a second hand QX6700 (unlocked multi).

Not my cash but no way I'd buy a CPU that costs the price of a decent gaming rig and over 3x a CPU that'd give 90% of the performance

 

[Talrinys]

I would wait for the Penryn processors, reasons being:
1: IPC improvements, 5-10% extra
2: Better prices for stock speeds
3: Much higher overclokable speeds from what we're seeing so far, and well just logic tells me that they will of course reach higher speeds no matter what
4: Better power usage, espically in idle modes
5: There simple aren't enough games out there right now that use all 4 cores, so why not wait for a processor that packs more of a punch per core, plus has the 4 cores you will need more at that point?

 

[Talrinys]

According to the latest Tomshardware article (quad core vs dual core), the new "affordable quads" aren't likely to hit until March or so.

That sounds unlikely, the Penryn quadcores? Oh well, as long as it's early March that might not be a killer but annoying nonetheless.
Maybe they delayed them a bit because Phenoms are delayed too, they have more time to work on fabrication?

 

[weescott]

The lower priced quad cores seem to be FSB limited ATM. Probably the chipset limiting them. Only time will tell if X38/X48 will let these chip show thier potential. But 3.6 -3.8Ghz is still equivalent to a 3.8 to 4.3Ghz Q6600. Just don't expect the insane speeds the QX chip is getting.

 

[Vir]

What you can do is this, build a rig (with P35) and for now choose a E21x0 series dual core (70/80 dollars) so you can play your games. Then when the new quads hit the stage you buy one of them Same as I'm doing, easy, saves some money and plays the games still very well when overclocked to around 3.2Ghz

 

[The Running Man]

cpu limitation is unlikely to be a massive factor in these games. Note that a dual core will suffice, as above why not just grab a cheapy dual core and a future proof board to go with it?

i have an E6600 @ 3.3Ghz and am resisting the Q6600Go, im going to hold off and pick up a Penryn and new mobo (currently nv 650 SLi based chipset so carp for quadcore clocking anyhow)

who knows, between now and then AMD could strike bag.

 

[Mint_Sauce]

I'd just go for the Q6600. I've found mine is total overkill for everything I do other than Photoshop and one or two other more specialised packages and even then its just really really quick

GPU is the real problem. :/

 

[BlairH]

What you can do is this, build a rig (with P35) and for now choose a E21x0 series dual core (70/80 dollars) so you can play your games. Then when the new quads hit the stage you buy one of them Same as I'm doing, easy, saves some money and plays the games still very well when overclocked to around 3.2Ghz

I'm not currently looking to downgrade my system.