e_dogg

Like others have said, the Q9450 and Q9550 is a much better price and also a good upgrade. If you're ok with buying a used one, you can find them for sale here for ~$175ish. And you can find good sales at Microcenter or Fry's if you happen to live near one.

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TFL Replica

Extreme CPUs are meant to be used in conjunction with extreme cooling (LN2, DICE etc...), they actually OC relatively poorly on air/water. I chuckle whenever someone spends a fortune on one thinking they'd get higher clocks on air only to notice they can't clock as high as others with regular CPUs.

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r34p3rex

Sell your rig on craigslist for $1000, buy a new i7 rig, profit

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PowerTrip

Q9550 hands down, does 4ghz easily with good affordable air coolers like the Mugen 2, Dark Knight, etc.

California Micro Center has them for $170 in Santa Clara

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YorkField Q9550@4.12Ghz on air
Wolfdale E8400@4.5Ghz on air
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-iceblade^

a Q9550 would be better.

and as for vid encoding, a quad is fantastic. it's nice to be able to convert 4 videos at the same time and not feel like your system is being slowed to a crawl...

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JarrettM

I picked up my Q9550 from Microcenter and I don't regret it at all. Sure, I can't get mine stable at 4.0ghz, but it's mainly due to my board sucking at FSB past 450.

pvp309rcp

Sorry for the late reply guys...love all the great opinions and options...+ to the ones who gave the most helpful info.

So I'm seeing that the Q9550 is the better bang for buck. However, what if I want to get the most out of the Q9650 which I hear can get up to 4.2-4.5ghz on air (I think?). Can a Q9550 actually reach 4.0ghz on a 780i which usually isn't able to reach high FSB? How's the performance difference when it comes to the Q9550/Q9650 vs an i7? Would spending an estimate...I guess $700-$800+ justify a whole system overhaul instead of just getting a Q9550/Q9650 for $100-$300+?

Sorry...that's a lot of questions haha

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PowerTrip

It's all up to you, if you have the money and it's no problem, go i7 920 D0.

However, you said you don't want a full system overhaul. I went from an E8400 (great chip) to the Q9550, and the difference is great. I would also recommend upgrading to 4GB RAM as well, and you will be golden.

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YorkField Q9550@4.12Ghz on air
Wolfdale E8400@4.5Ghz on air
I did Latty's Linux Challenge and I now run and play games on Linux!
4850s CF Club | 3Dmark06 score 21,231 | I Fold @home | Scythe Mugen 2 Club

slothfish

That is a horrible price. Get a Q9550 at Microcenter for $159, or if you don't mind spending that much money, get an i7 920 for $199.

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JarrettM

Honestly, the Q9650 upgrade cannot be justified at this time, as you can get the Q9550 at a little over half the price. Sure, its max is only going to be at about 4.0ghz, but realistically the Q9650 isn't going to net you 4.5ghz - at most 4.2 on that board if you get a good chip. And the difference between 4.0ghz and 4.2ghz isn't much except for benching. I say get the Q9550 and a memory upgrade - or just get a whole new i7 system.