Which CPU to buy at present??

[Lee Akred]

I’m building a new rig for mainly gaming (already posted on forum regards components) and I was wondering what the best CPU to buy is at the moments?

I know there are many different opinions on the subject, just wondered if I could have some ideas?

My rig will consist of;

OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Reaper HPC Edition
Asus P5Q Deluxe Intel P45
Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB
Swiftech H2O-220 Compact Watercooling Kit
Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 650W ATX2.2 Modular
Cosmos S case
Haven’t decided on Graphics Card yet?? (Don’t know which to wait for)

I was going to buy the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.66GHz 12MB-cache, but im not sure now? I plan to overclock, but not to any great lengths.

Any help with this much appreciated

 

[Nabz]

Don't buy the Q9450, if anything get the Q660, the performance between them will be minimal and the price will be cheaper if u get the Q660. 8800 GTX???? or maybe an ATI Radeon 1. Ill get back to you on that 1, apart from that the RAM looks nice, Spinpoint is great, and a nice watercooling. not sure about the Cosmos S case, but everybody has their own choice.

 

[easyrider]

Q6600 or Q9450

The latter is the faster CPU that uses less power runs cooler and has newer instruction sets.Oh and 12mb of cache compared to the 8mb of the Q6600.

The Q6600 is a great buy but if I was buying now the Q9450 would get my vote

 

[easyrider]

Don't buy the Q9450, if anything get the Q660, the performance between them will be minimal and the price will be cheaper if u get the Q660. 8800 GTX???? or maybe an ATI Radeon 1. Ill get back to you on that 1, apart from that the RAM looks nice, Spinpoint is great, and a nice watercooling. not sure about the Cosmos S case, but everybody has their own choice.

Why?


From the OP's specs he clearly has the budget.

The Q9450 is a great CPU and runs faster than the Q6600 clock for clock.

Also has SS4 instructiions sets that see huge gains in encoding and phtoshop tasks.

 

[RizlaKing]

I was in the same position not long ago and in the end i got the Q9450 they may only be little things that make it better then a Q6600 but in the end they added up to enough to make it a better choice. There are some on here though that have an absolute love affair with the Q6600 and that will always be their recommendation.

 

[Lee Akred]

Thanks for all the advice!

I already have the Cosmos S case, and i admit now that it wont be the quietest case! But i like the looks and style of it

And i know the Q6600 can OC really well and really high, but i dont want to have to buy a new CPU just to push it so high.

But overall will the Q9450 be the better choice? I dont want to have to upgrade for a while, which is why i thought the newer CPU would last.

Does anyone know the cheapest place to buy the Q9450?

Thanks again.

 

[easyrider]

Thanks for all the advice!

I already have the Cosmos S case, and i admit now that it wont be the quietest case! But i like the looks and style of it

And i know the Q6600 can OC really well and really high, but i dont want to have to buy a new CPU just to push it so high.

But overall will the Q9450 be the better choice? I dont want to have to upgrade for a while, which is why i thought the newer CPU would last.

Does anyone know the cheapest place to buy the Q9450?

Thanks again.

Read the rules mate.Competitor links are not allowed.

The Q9450 is the faster CPU.

 

[RizlaKing]

Yeah no competitor links allowed so you'll just have to be froogle with your money and look a little .

 

[Greebo]

Well I would wait a week or two. Q9450 is end of line very shortly so it might get sold off cheap. Q9550 dropping down in price to the same as the q9450 is now.

There is also a q9400 replacing the q9300 at the same price if your budget doesn't stretch to the q9550 or you want to save a bit of money. It has a 8x multi vs the 7.5x of the q9300.

 

[JoeDredd]

This is an interesting thread, but will Intel be releasing a "G0" version of their new quads soon like the 6600 ?????