INTEL Q6600 Quad Core Processor

One of the most asked questions on the HL forums over the past month has been "What processor should I buy?". It's a difficult question, but certainly a valid one. For those seeking the best VALUE, we'll usually recommend either Intel's E6850, featuring two cores operating at 3.0GHz on a 1333FSB, or Intel's Q6600, which offers four cores operating at 2.4GHz on a 1066FSB. Both the E6850 and Q6600 are available at most retailers in the $270-300 range, making them a great balance of performance and price.

Which one should you choose? That all depends on you, and how you plan to use your system.

The Dual Core to Quad Core performance comparisons have been covered very well all over the net. The bottom line is basically that those looking for the best overclocking performance will benefit more from the E6850 and its default 3GHz clock speed, while those looking to future software releases that are optimized for multi-cored processors should jump all over Intel's entry level Quad Core processor, the Q6600.

Looking at the spec sheet, you'll notice that the Q6600 is identical to INTEL's E6600 Dual core processor in almost every aspect (save of course for the number of cores): 2.4GHz clock speed, 1066FSB, and a 65nm process. The Q6600 is basically two E6600's crammed together on the same silicon, linked via the CPU's FSB.

Probably the only argument you can raise against investing in a Quad Core processor is software support. At least in the present tense, not many programs take full advantage of four cores (not all that many take full advantage of two cores, either). However, as multicore processors are the future and continue to build up a mainstream userbase, more and more software applications will be optimized for multicore operation. Another factor to keep in mind is the ability to use the processor's affinity (located within your Windows task manager) to assign cores to specific applications (you'll need to reset the affinity each time you start up a program or reboot).

Browsing forums across the web, you'll see several threads regarding the Q6600 and steppings. Steppings are simply revisions of the CPU where the manufacturer makes adjustments that improve the performance of the CPU. When Intel announced their price cuts the last week of July and released the E6X50 line of processors with the G0 stepping, the Q6600 migrated over to the new G0 revision, joining its big brother, the Q6700. The G0 stepping brings with it a lower TDP, dropping from the B3's 105W to the G0's 95W and the Thermal Spec rises from 62C to 71C. What does this mean to the end user? Slightly lower power consumption, a bit lower temperatures, and potentially better overclocking ability as a result of the lower thermals.

The Q6600 on our test bench is a B3 stepping, not exactly held in the highest regard by enthusiasts, but in a way, that's good; it should give you an idea of what you can expect, as opposed to the best you can expect should you choose the Q6600 for your next build.

Let's look at the test setup and then jump into some benchmarking.