Q9300 is available

Rob Williams

Rob Williams

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Tiger Direct also gouges in their shipping, which is why I never purchase from them. Higher product prices and higher shipping prices generally make me want to go elsewhere. NCIX on the other hand offers express shipping for something like $30, while it's $80+ through Tiger Direct.

That aside, the Q9300 wouldn't be my first choice. It's clocked nice, but has less L2 cache than the bigger brothers, which could make a difference in some intensive applications. I think the Q9450 will be the sweet spot for most people, though it should retail for around ~$370 once available. Still not bad considering how kick-ass 45nm is.

It's good to see they are finally starting to come out.
 
sbrehm72255

sbrehm72255

Tech Monkey
Even the US price seems a bit high for a OEM product, but I guess that's to be expected on first release, the others should be hitting the streets soon then I guess.

Like Rob says, I'm sort of looking at the Q9450 if I can get the cash together ............;)
 
werty316

werty316

Partition Master
I could have sworn tigerdirect.com had it at a cheaper price earlier in the day when I looked...

Crap, I'm gonna need a new board to use on of those great chips :(
 
sbrehm72255

sbrehm72255

Tech Monkey
Seems like they are going up by the hour almost. The place I linked to had 3 different listings for the same Q9450 all spaced about $50 bucks apart with the lesser items no longer any good...........:(
 
Kougar

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
Intel's MSRP for the Q9300 is actually $266. TD is enjoying the scarcity, as most retailers are wont to do I guess.

IMO the extra whopping 12mb cache is uneeded. There was amazingly little difference going from 4mb to 2mb with Conroe, usually 10 % give or take according to the program used, and still usually less. A few sites have tested 4, 2, 1, and 512kb caches for "Core" based chips. The Q9300 is just the same design so it should follow the cache trends, and it has even more cache 6mb. I just don't see 12mb mattering, but then again I don't do heavy video encoding either.

If it wasn't for the low 7.5 mutliplier I'd rate this chip pretty well... without that extra 6mb of L2 cache dragging it down the better Q9300's should overclock very well.

It'll be like the E6300's of yore but better... I got a 24/7 stable 100% OC on a E6300 with only a 7 mutliplier and a cheap 965P-DS3... :D I would expect similar results (read GHz, not % !) with many Q9300s thanks to half the cache and less heat, just like the E6300.
 
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sbrehm72255

sbrehm72255

Tech Monkey
I'll be holding off till the prices settle, just like when I had my killer E4300 (also 100% OC out of it). I'm really in no hurry to spend extra money right now that I don't really have.
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
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Kougar said:
Intel's MSRP for the Q9300 is actually $266. TD is enjoying the scarcity, as most retailers are wont to do I guess.
Click to expand...

That's not a MSRP price... it's a price to reseller. So $266 is what Tiger Direct pays, therefore making a $300 price tag not so ridiculous.

Kougar said:
If it wasn't for the low 7.5 mutliplier I'd rate this chip pretty well... without that extra 6mb of L2 cache dragging it down the better Q9300's should overclock very well.
Click to expand...

That's one thing that hurts it for enthusiasts. But you are right about the cache issue... most people wouldn't even notice the difference.

sbrehm72255 said:
I'm really in no hurry to spend extra money right now that I don't really have.
Click to expand...

If only more people had that attitude ;-) The truth is, most people don't NEED the new CPU, at all. Chances are even better that most people would not even notice the difference, so it's somewhat pointless to upgrade unless you want better temperatures, better overclocking and perhaps better multi-media crunching.

I love 45nm though, that's for sure.
 
Merlin

Merlin

The Tech Wizard
I'm with everybody and these CPU's.
But we are so addicted...where does it all end.
I need the 12 mb...oooops 12 step program, it's never enough.

You Laugh?.......you know it's true :eek:)
I ordered from Newegg last night, then cancelled ...on replacing the old AMD2 6000+ with the M2N32 SLI Deluxe board......yup, was going to pull stickers off and go Intel.........then I chickened out and cancelled......I'll get my credit card reversed on the order in two days.
I'm going to chill for a while and watch the componants morph into the next generation.....
( Maybe )

Merlin
" on step #1 " ( denial )
 
sbrehm72255

sbrehm72255

Tech Monkey
About the only reason I would need/want one of the 45nm jobs is for OC'ing fun..............;)

I really have no real need for more power/cores as it is. OC'ing is my main enjoyment in life (outside of the wife that is)...........;)
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

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Haha, the 12-step program would be a good one. God knows Bill needs that one :rolleyes:

sbrehm72255 said:
OC'ing is my main enjoyment in life (outside of the wife that is)...........;)
Click to expand...

Whew, you are lucky you finished that off, else your wife might have finished you off. You know... assuming she spies on your online activities and all.
 
sbrehm72255

sbrehm72255

Tech Monkey
LOL.....she does read the forums from time to time, I always have to play things on the safe side..................;)
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Buy.com looks to have the exact price-range I was expecting, so all is good. To be honest, I think that is a GREAT price for that processor. Call me giddy, but the processor packs quite a punch. It offers 12MB of cache, 45nm benefits (which I've endlessly whored information for in our reviews over and over) and comes nicely clocked.

I might have to pick one up and give it a good review. I am concerned about the potential overclocking, but something tells me it won't be horrible.
 
sbrehm72255

sbrehm72255

Tech Monkey
My only concern about OC'ing a quad would be the heat, I've never owned a quad or even messed with one before, but from what I hear about the past Quads, heat can become a issue with Quads pretty quick.
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

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Staff member
Moderator
sbrehm72255 said:
My only concern about OC'ing a quad would be the heat, I've never owned a quad or even messed with one before, but from what I hear about the past Quads, heat can become a issue with Quads pretty quick.
Click to expand...

It's not so bad to be honest, as long as you are using a great air cooler. The move to 45nm improved efficiency even further, so it's easier than ever to keep a Quad-Core cool. I have a feeling that the Q9450 with a nice AIR cooler should be able to hit at least 3.2GHz... perhaps a little more more. Depends on the overclocking-ability of the chips themselves though. They might not go that high on water... who knows.

Merlin said:
Hmmmmmm
(775-pin LGA Socket T )
What's the difference?
Click to expand...

Socket T = LGA775
 
sbrehm72255

sbrehm72255

Tech Monkey
Well, if they clock anything like the E8400/E8500 core, they should do rather well I would think..................;)

Have to wait till the retail chips hit the streets and see just what the average user is getting out of them I guess.
 
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