Where to draw the line?

**thingie2** · #1 12th May 2008, 14:05

Well, for my new build for gaming and other stuff, I am getting a quad core proccesor, however I am unsure as to where to draw the line. I was going to go for a Q9450 (2.66Ghz) for around £240, but it is a fair bit more than it's smaller brother the Q9300 (2.5Ghz) at around £180. So what I want to know, is the extra £60 worth it for the extra 0.16Ghz increase in clock speed? or is there something else about the proccesors I am missing?

Thanks

**Mike0001** · #2 12th May 2008, 14:15

Doubt it! Would you notice?

**thingie2** · #3 12th May 2008, 14:17

i don't know, but also after looking into ti more, it looks like the 9450 has 12MB cache, but the 3000 only has 6MB, does this make a big difference in performance?

**Mike0001** · #4 12th May 2008, 14:59

Yes, the cache would make a difference, don't know how much. Ah just picked up PCPro and it has test results! lol Performance indicators are 1.53 and 1.63, is it worth £60?

Hang on, prices quoted at £161 for Q9300 and £186 for Q9450! (Exc VAT)

**thingie2** · #5 12th May 2008, 15:14

hmm, well the prices I quoted were including VAT, where were those prices quoted from? or was it just intel's rrp?

**Mike0001** · #6 12th May 2008, 15:19

Well I have searched online and can't find any prices near those, and PCPro don't say where they got their "typical" prices from!

http://www.pcwb.com/catalogue/item/A0401745

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...?s=13&se=q9450

http://uk.insight.com/apps/productpr...t_id=ITOA05Q00

http://www.microwarehouse.co.uk/catalogue/item/A0401745

**thingie2** · #7 12th May 2008, 16:00

well I got the prices from www.dabs.com they are sometimes more expensive though, but I find the site easy to use and easy to find what you want so I usualy use that to find the products.