bit-tech Shopping: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor

Rating: 10

Time with product: 3 Weeks

Strengths: Fast for A/V encoding and multitasking; price competitive to C2Duo CPUs with less computing power processing; overclockable to above 3.2GHz.

Weaknesses: Booting up a bit slower than C2Duo CPUs at same clock speed; power hungry.

Summary: Having used an E4300 PC system overclocked to 3.1GHz for quite sometime, I notice my new Q6600 PC overclocked to 3.2GHz is quite fast when it comes to encoding A/V files and handling multitasking. However, I am a bit disappointed by its slow booting into windows Vista 64. Perhaps, I was expecting a bit leap in computing power and system start up time. However, upgrading from C2Duo to C2Quad did not improve system start up time at all. In fact, I have experienced the opposite result in the booting and start up process. Once windows Vista 64 is up and ready for invoking programs, you will notice the extra power Q6600 has to offer for running many programs at the same time with ease. C2Quad is certainly excellent for audio and video encoding.

Rating: 10

Time with product: 14 Days

Strengths: Fast! Fast! Fast!

Weaknesses: None so far.

Summary: I put this in an XFX 680i LT motherboard and this thing flys! I am not taking full advantage of the quad core as I am not running a 64 bit system. I bought it so when I do upgrade, once they get the bugs out of Vista, I'll be ready for it.

Rating: 10

Time with product: 1

Strengths: This processor is fast. Overclocks to 3.4ghz no problem. Handles multitasking very well. Runs very cool on a simple processor fan.

Weaknesses: Price does seem a bit high still but you pay for the quality.

Summary: This processor, once overclocked, is the best bang for the buck today. Many people are able to hit 3.4-4.7ghz with these things and at those speeds are just as fast as the Core 2 Duos at the top of the line. The processor runs cool for a quad core. Lots of power here to do some serious computing.