I built a gaming rig on a budget, and consequently chose a socket 775 motherboard. I went with a Pentium E6500 dual core, due to its cost and relative efficiency. It performed well at many tasks, but struggled with more hardware intensive games (particularly when you have the settings maxed out (I'm using a GeForce 470 in this rig)). I quickly realized that the processor was my bottleneck, since the performance monitor would show 100% load at certain times playing certain games. For a serious gamer, that's just unacceptable, since it will inflict pitiful frame rates on you. I did some research and discovered that Core 2 Quad is the cream of the crop for socket 775, and actually can decently compare to many of the i-Core processors. This things is beautiful. Everything runs like butter now. The whole system feels so smooth now. I know it's not much of a benchmark, but just for the record my Windows Experience Index for processor speed went from a 5.7 (Pentium E6500 Dual Core) to a 7.3 (Core 2 Quad Q9550). In summary, it's so fast. You should get one.Read full review
The Core2 Quad from Intel is the ultimate answer to any kind of power hungry application whether it be gaming, audio/video editing, 3D graphics design, virtual machines, the list goes on. The Q9550 delivers massive amounts of power to any multi-threaded program or numerous single-threaded programs with plenty of power to spare. And the best result of this chip is that it BARELY gets hot when used with a decent heatsink. In the few weeks that I have been using this chip, temperatures RARELY exceeded 45 degrees Celsius with an aftermarket heatsink and it has been stress tested in all ways on many occasions. It really is one of Intel's finest creations. The chip is practically flawless. The heatsink-fan on the other hand that comes with the retail package is not worthy of great praise. This fan will not handle heat output as well as a copper-based heatsink that has a decent fan on it. I personally have not used it for this reason but several people have claimed temperatures approaching 85 degrees Celsius, enough to fry the chip according to some testimonies. Still, don't let this stop you from buying this chip. The extra expense of purchasing an aftermarket heatsink to supplement this chip does not detract from my recommendation as the price for the performance is more than worth it and aftermarket heatsinks can be purchased for around $30 that will easily handle intensive applications without letting the chip get too warm. Bottom line, if you want extra juice, this chip delivers. If you're building a new machine, the Q9550 won't break the bank and you'll have extra cash to spend on other performance parts.Read full review
Easy to install and work perfectly.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Worked like it should
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Best performance upgrade i've ever made!
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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