Best bang for the buck

Author's Rating:

Pros: Great for multi-tasking, low price, overclocks very well

Cons: Can run warm, uses more watts compared to the new 45nm chips.

The Bottom Line: 
A great buy for budget conscious individuals who want peak performance.

Author's Review
This processor is simply amazing. I've been running this chip for about 8 months and haven't had any problems whatsoever.

The stock speed of 2.4Ghz is more than enough for most applications, and even most hi-end games. If you're into overclocking you can very easily get this chip to run at 3 to 3.2 Ghz on either stock cooling or a slight upgraded after market solution. People have been reaching 3.6+ but temps will get very hot without adequate cooling.

I have my CPU clocked at 3.2Ghz on my 680i motherboard. I'm using an 8x multiplier using a 1600 FSB running linked and synced with my 800mhz memory. I'm using a cheap after market cooler which does it's job great. I average around 55C when idle at hover between 69-70C on full load.

One program I recommend is Everest. You can tinker with your FSB settings, memory timings, CPU speed, etc. and see which combination results in the best numbers.

For the price these are selling for now it's a no brainer. There aren't a whole lot of applications out yet that fully utilize all 4 cores but they're coming! More and more games are being releases that will use all 4 cores, and if you multi-task, the extra cores will speed things up.

For anyone looking for the bast bang for buck ratio I whole heartedly recommend this chip. Whether you run at stock speed or overclock to 3.2Ghz+ it will serve you well. Theres no reason to spend 4x's as much on an "extreme" edition chip just to have an unlocked multiplier when a Q6600 will get you fantastic speeds anyway!