Q9450 or 9550?

I am in the process of ordering the remainder of my new PC and have been waiting for Intel's Q3 price cuts to arrive, and looking at Scan, it seems they have. The Q9450 has only dropped marginally, but the 9550 is now only £223.12 and I'm a bit torn as to which to go for. I assume that the extra .17GHz will make little impact on real word performance (And the price: clock speed ratio remains in the Q9450's favour) but will the Q9550 overclock better than the 9450, making it worth the extra £23? I will be putting it in an Asus P5Q-E with 4GB of OCZ Reaper 1066MHz RAM.

The Q9550 has a higher multilplier so you'll be able to push it to a higher speed. It depends how far you're prepared to take your overclocking really, as a Q9450 can reach 3.2Ghz on a 400Mhz FSB while the Q9550 reaches 3.6Ghz on the same FSB. If you want to push the Q9450 any higher then you will have to push your mobo higher.

I'd choose a Q9450 personally because 3.2Ghz is more than enough power for me, but if you require the extra headroom then £23 sounds like a good deal.

Scan is currently listing these prices on today only:
9450 OEM - £165
9450 Retail - £200
9550 Retail - £347

BUT

these prices on the normal pages:
9450 OEM - £197
9450 Retail - £200
9550 Retail - £223

Everywhere else the 9550 are still £350+

Incidentally 9450 retails are currently £194 at Aria on superspecial.

I'd go with the Scan 9450 OEM on Today Only and get a decent cooler :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vimeous

Scan is currently listing these prices on today only:
9450 OEM - £165
9450 Retail - £200
9550 Retail - £347

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That's a Q9300 OEM for £165 lol

Yep, important difference that. Q9300 has a lower L2 cache than the other Q9 series.

Is it just me or is the Q9450 more expensive on the today only page?

Today only = 199.74
Regular = 199.62

Odd...

Yeah; the prices aren't that good, Vimeous. ;) You had me scared for a moment.

when are the prices gonna drop?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by moogle

when are the prices gonna drop?

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I thought they were supposed to drop in July but the other day I read August (or was it Sept), sorry can't remember.

Intel are releasing the E8600 tomorrow (10th August) so I guess the prices will start to line up properly over the next few days... Scan will most likely go live with the chip on Monday which would explain the Today Only price mix-up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NightshadowUK

Intel are releasing the E8600 tomorrow (10th August) so I guess the prices will start to line up properly over the next few days... Scan will most likely go live with the chip on Monday which would explain the Today Only price mix-up.

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OK, I get it now. I'll hold off till next week then. ;)

Q9550's already been reduced it seems. The Q9450 isn't though :(
Iirc they\'re going to stop making the Q9450 for the Q9550 to take it\'s place.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by moogle

Q9550's already been reduced it seems. The Q9450 isn't though :(
Iirc they're going to stop making the Q9450 for the Q9550 to take it's place.

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Well, the suggestion is that the 9550 will fall further once the new Intel lineup becomes clearer this week, and I reckon that the 9450 will drop as a result.

wahay, I haven't had much time to keep up to date on tech info :D
Thanks for that bit of info.

Q9450 is great, got it when it came out with 8 gig RAM (work pc).

Weirdly the Q9550 is a bit more powerful but uses the same amount of power as the Q9450. Only thing not really likeable about it is the 8.5x multi.