Intel Q9400s CPU 65 Watt

INTRODUCTION

The Q9400 has been around for a while but amazingly we searched the web for reviews on it and just didn't find anything significant. Just the odd user review without any formal testing or review. Since the economy took a nosedive and a lot of people are hanging on to the 775 LGA platform which still has a lot of life in it we thought it'd be a good idea to review the Q9400. Still retaining the Double Cheeseburger design (2 dual core CPU's on one die) that we fell in love with on the Q6600 it runs at 2.66 GHz and promises to have the same overclocking capabilities as the Q6600. Consuming less voltage than it's older brother the Q6600 and having a 266 MHz advantage on the older chip might give it an edge. The Q6600 has 8 MB L2 cache and the Q9400 has 6 MB L2 cache so we suspect it'll be a close race. The older Q6600 has a FSB speed of 1066 and the Q9400 has a FSB of 1333 so it's give and take on the specifications of the pair. The Q6600's reputation of being a champion overclocker and it's current low cost will be hard factors for the Q9400 to overcome. As most veteran overclockers know the multiplier has a lot to do with the overclocking potential of a given processor. The Q9400 has a multiplier of 8 and the Q6600 has a 9 multiplier so to reach the same OC speed you'll need a higher FSB to overcome the lower multiplier on the Q9400 and that means picking the companion motherboard carefully. We believe we're up to the challenge and the highest we've managed on our G0 stepping Q6600 is 3.8 and run it day to day at 3.6. Reaching 3.8 was a bit of a stretch on the Q6600, voltages and temperatures were a little high for our liking. With it's 45nm design and 95w TDP the Q9400 promises to run cooler with lower voltage. If what we've seen in the past is any indicator of current CPU performance, lower volts with a smaller die design indicates better overclocking potential. Stick around and see if the Q6600 can retain it's Overclocking crown or if the new kid on the block the Q9400 can don the royal robes.

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