E8400 E0 or Q9550 E0?

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Some games are more CPU dependent for some reason. I'm in the same boat as you though. I have the 680i chipset which apparently wont allow 45m quads also. The better CPU is defiantly the Q9550 though. I know you probably don't want to hear this, but switching to a intel i5 + cheap mobo with new ram would be your best bet option, unless you could find a used 65m Extreme Edition quad.

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E8400 if you are planning to OC, 4ghz is a piece of cake with good cooling on it.

If not the Q9550 is still more than powerful enough but it would need some overclocking to reach its full potential.

Most games don't support multi-cores enough to make it worthwhile yet so i'd go with the E8400 and overclock it to 4ghz.

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Ahh i see. Anywho, if you live near a Microcenter, q9550 is only 169.99+tax, assuming you live in the US

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Croatia. http://www.overclock.net/member.php?u=107849

both would be a good choice really but i like Quads little more than Duals

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It really depends what you are using with it, if you are using anything less than a 5970 you will be just fine with a E8400 @4ghz but with CF/SLI a quad is almost a must as duals are a bottleneck for dual GPU solutions

Yes you are right jackeyjoe its better to have a faster Dual Core than a slower Quad,but Quad is future.

Sure ill overclock it!!!

Dont know if i could get it to 4GHz with my motherboard,but i can get up to 490FSB with my E6550.

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you only need 445mhz FSB to get to 4ghz (9x multi), the main problem your mobo may have is that it just isn't a good OC'er but it should still make 4ghz easily if you have a reasonable chip.

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You really won't be upgrading anymore "down the road" though, or so I would hope, with a socket 775 chip.

Save pennies, sell current, buy i5.

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In my humble opinion, I think that he would most definitely notice a difference in going from the E6550 to the E8400. The E6550 has a stock clock of 2.33 MHz with a multiplier of x7.0 and 4 MB of L2 cache, which should be 2 MB per core. But the E8400 is 3.0 GHz stock with a multiplier of x9.0 and it has 6 MB of L2 cache, which should be about 3 MB per core. Plus, being that it's a 45nm should be another, albeit small factor in the E8400 being faster and snappier. Plus, the E8400 is significantly cheaper than the Q9550.

Speaking of the Q9550, it has a stock clock of 2.83 GHz, a multiplier of x8.5 which not every motherboard plays well with, and it has 12 MB of L2 cache, which should be about 3 MB per core. But my problem with this is that it has a lower multiplier that uses a fraction, and it's quite a bit more expensive than the E8400. See below.

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Actually it's a $92.00 difference on Newegg right now. They currently have the Q9550 for $259.99 shipped (normally $279.99) while the E8400 is only $167.99 shipped (regular price too). So, if this little sale on the Q9550 ends before the purchase is made, then it would make it a difference of $112 dollars.

Therefore, my recommendation lands squarely on the E8400, especially considering that the chipset is a P35.

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+1

Having gone from a e6750 to a e8400 was a pretty big difference. Not only does the extra cache make a bit of difference, but the frequency you can hit makes a big difference in games.

But this late in the 775 game, I wouldn't buy a new chip at all. I'd suggest buying a used e8400 for $110 or so and go from there. Anything over that and you might as well wait to see if you can catch a deal on a i5 board/ mobo.

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His board is solid. I had one for a little while and sold it to a friend. But for the time I had it, there were no problems hitting 500+ FSB. Should be more than enough for a 45nm dually or quad as long as he isn't trying to hit 4.5ghz+

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I agree. In that motherboard of yours you can pump that E8400 quite fast enough for actual games so far, unless you do multithreaded stuff like Video encoding, get the dual.