Q6600/6700 users - input needed

[WalkinTarget]

Looking for some input on the Q6700 chip compared to the Q9450. I was initially going to buy the 9450 until Intel decided to axe it and replace it with the Q9550. With the long wait for the impending Q9550 price drop scheduled for Q3 (it is supposed to drop from $561 to $317 or thereabouts), I am now officially tired of waiting for 'The Next Big Thing' and feel like the Q6700 is worth a look.
I can get it for $269 now, and while it offers less cache than the Q9x chips (8mb vs. 12mb) it is a better OC'er, with the G0 stepping (guarantee if you buy the Q7600) hitting 4ghz with a very good cooling setup.
I can also snag the 9450 still (Microcenter has it for $299) but again, the OC's are not that impressive, with 3.4 about the best you can manage.

So, do I go with the older 65nm Q6700 for the better overall overclock, and remain eco-unfriendly as my quad sucks up more electricity (Al Gore would not be happy), or do I cool my jets and just wait it out ? The 9450 is available for only $40 more, but it actually nets me less performance even taking into account the extra cache it carries.

I'm specifically looking at the Nirvana Zerotherm NV120mm cooler to pair up with this, looking to hit the magical 4ghz mark.

[juneau]

Looking for some input on the Q6700 chip compared to the Q9450. I was initially going to buy the 9450 until Intel decided to axe it and replace it with the Q9550. With the long wait for the impending Q9550 price drop scheduled for Q3 (it is supposed to drop from $561 to $317 or thereabouts), I am now officially tired of waiting for 'The Next Big Thing' and feel like the Q6700 is worth a look.
I can get it for $269 now, and while it offers less cache than the Q9x chips (8mb vs. 12mb) it is a better OC'er, with the G0 stepping (guarantee if you buy the Q7600) hitting 4ghz with a very good cooling setup.
I can also snag the 9450 still (Microcenter has it for $299) but again, the OC's are not that impressive, with 3.4 about the best you can manage.

So, do I go with the older 65nm Q6700 for the better overall overclock, and remain eco-unfriendly as my quad sucks up more electricity (Al Gore would not be happy), or do I cool my jets and just wait it out ? The 9450 is available for only $40 more, but it actually nets me less performance even taking into account the extra cache it carries.

I'm specifically looking at the Nirvana Zerotherm NV120mm cooler to pair up with this, looking to hit the magical 4ghz mark.

Just go with whatever is best bang for buck.

[K PhaNTOM]

I have a Q6600. Would people stop paying 900 bucks for something that is slightly better? what is 4mbs of cache? Go with the 6700, you and your wallet will be happy

[WalkinTarget]

By the looks of it, the Q6700 will save me about $80, and I can use that to buy RAM. Here's an interesting point I found when researching the Q6700 - it has a 10x multi compared to the Q9450's 8, so I really won't need the DDR2-1066 that I was going to buy.

So anyone care to recommend some good RAM (4gb kit) to pair up with the Q6700 and an eVGA 750FTW board ?
This look any good, or can I do better ? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227267

[Trooper110]

RAM looks darn good to me WT, although I'm always kinda wary of the heat spreaders or sinks that they use on RAM like that. Not hard to remove if you so desire though :P

[Warhead]

if you like the reaper series, this set is known to be excellent for overclocking, though it still has the big heatpipes: Newegg.com - OCZ ReaperX HPC 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

well.... maybe theyre a little bigger

[WalkinTarget]

Ordered mah parts,got tired of lying awake at 12 AM thinking about it:

Q6700 retail:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115027

OCZ Reaper 4gb kit:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227267

ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 HSF:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835887011

I gave up waiting on the video card for a month, and decided I could use my 8800GTS until all of the cards are out. I really did think the 45nm CPUs were a better buy, but the Q6700 looks like an amazing chip (G0 stepping) for about $60 less.

[bobytt]

I am using QX6700 and easy go to 3.2GHz on air. for 24/7 at 1.35V no porblems so far for year and 7 months.

[{CLR}geneSW]

Forget al gore... your CPU won't be sucking up that much power, even when gaming... Glad you went with the 6700.

[WalkinTarget]

Another reason I went Q6700 is the fact that in a year I can pass the chip onto the current main board, an MSI P6N, and just buy a newer quad to use on the 750 board. That would give me a second quad in case I mess around with video editing, so it seemed to be a good choice.
Parts come in tomorrow, so I will probably start building next week. What I want to accomplish first is to get the Sleep/Hibernate stuff working so that I can give my PC a rest every now and then. Its running 24/7, but I want to be able to draw less power when I am not using it, which is about 21 of the 24 hours each day.

[juneau]

Would love to know about your decision on the HSF. Never ever heard of that make before.

[WalkinTarget]

Juneau, I initially read about it in a Maximum PC HSF shootout they had featuring about 8 coolers, but here's an Anandtech review as well:

http://www.anandtech.com/casecooling...spx?i=3202&p=6

One of the best air coolers available, and under $40 as well. I bought it at $50 with a $10 MIR, so it outperforms my Arctic Cooler Freezer Pro 7, which is still the best HSF for under $30.

I wanted to try for 4ghz from the chip, but that was before doing my usual research and finding that quads run VERY hot compared to duals, so I've tamed my realistic expectations back to 3.6ghz. It makes sense, as there are now four lil heat furnaces on each die instead of two, and they just cannot be kept cool enough to get a monster OC like one can with the 8400 chip.

[juneau]

I'll have to keep an eye out for this then. I was looking at upgrading to a OCZ Vendetta 2 as it's getting some rave reviews at the moment.

[WalkinTarget]

Vendetta and the Nirvana are pretty much identical in their performance. It really is a toss up unless you find one a good bit cheaper.

[juneau]

Well, i can't even find the Nirvana so......