New CPU

[emul8]

With the Penryn CPU,s coming out very soon there are a few reasonably priced QX6850,s around at the moment.
As as per performance increase to price is it worth waiting for the Penryn or going with the QX6850,s

Cheers

[TooNice]

Can't really answer that without knowing the cost difference between the two when Penryn is released. Here's some numbers. Make sure to read the following page for SSE4 optimised performance too.

My guess? You always pay a higher price premium for overall performance gain for every new toys. Price of QX6850 can only go down when the QX9650 is released.

[staffsMike]

With a decent cooler the q6600 can overclock upto 3.2ghz - 3.4ghz and normally with ease. Since they are £160 they are certainly worth it right now. How much are the QX's now?

Since Hexus only managed to overclock their QX6850 to 3.5ghz... i'd say if you want a quad now get the q6600 or if you want an "extreme edition" wait for the new ones to come out.

[emul8]

Thanks TooNice

I have read a couple of articles testing the Penryn chips and I noticed overall the 6850 is marginally behind the new CPUs also like the article said it's going to take a while for applications to actually utilize SSE4.
Your not wrong there you do pay a premium for the latest and greatest shiny shiny I paid through the nose for my QX6700 which has allways run a little hot for my liking.

I have managed to get hold of a retail factory sealed QX6850 at £420 today which I thought was a good deal

Thanks staffsMike as you said and from what I have noticed in a few threads is that people are getting good mileage and results from there overclocked substantially cheaper entry Quad units.

Maybe my next move should be to give one of the new entry level Penryn quads a whirl? at a guess I would say the new extreme Penryn quads are going to be at the 6-700 mark thats a lot of money for an unlocked multiplier.