Your choice

[foreword22]

I want a very good cpu for gaming, for now and the next 2 years. You have the choice between a Q9550, Q6600 and an E8500. The Q6600 and E8500 are cheaper than the Q9550 by 150$. Which one shall I choose?

For the GPU I might get a gtx280 and buy another one later to put in SLI mode.

I want to OC both the cpu and the gpu.

[Chiefish]

I would buy a Q6600, and put the savings from the 9550 towards going sli for the vid card, You will easily be able to o/c the 6600 to 9550 specs.

[Qwerty]

I fully agree with Chiefish. IMHO the Q6600 is the best possible choice for a gaming PC.

If you set the FSB of the Q6600 to 1333 MHz you will get a QX6850 (4x 3.0 GHz)
I did it with my Q6600 and it works fine since then. It works at default VCore, with air cooling.

[Chiefish]

Im running 1600 fsb with an 8x multi on my old q6600 24/7, under water tho, with a bit more volts than stock. But im also running the old stepping, the newer ones will do even better. And do it cooler as well.

[foreword22]

The only thing that is bugging me between the q9550 and the q6600 is the difference between their L2 Cache. 12MB (2x6) and 8MB(2x4). What you guys think about this does it make a big difference?

[Chiefish]

I dont think that games and everyday programs are going to make much difference with the different size caches, Is there a benchmarkable difference , yes i am sure its a sizeable one too, but in real life usuage i have never found myself short on cache, and i run one of the most cpu intensive programs out at the moment, 24/7 unless im gaming then i shut it down until im finished. If youre going for Bleeding edge benchmarks then get the q9550 other wise spend the difference on better graphics and on a very good power supply, and cooler for the cpu.

[Cobracon]

Yup, might as well go with the q6600, order the GTX280 with water block set-up, and go with water cooling all the way around. Then you can pretty much "lean" on the CPU all you want.