The Q6600 is a good introductory quad core processor for the Socket 775.

Author's Rating:

Pros: Quad cores, 8Mb total L2 on-chip cache

Cons: 65nm always produces more heat than a 45nm quad core

The Bottom Line: 
Four cores in an Intel Q6600 versus two cores in the E8600, which will ultimately win the performance battle on the Socket 775, you make the choice!

Author's Review
In the world of IT, we do not get out very often so our biggest thrills surround the arrival of new hardware.  Recently, a new desktop computer from Dell arrived and inside it was the Intel Core 2 Quad, 2.4Ghz processor.  The need to benchmark the daylights out of this processor was too much to handle and we had it crunching in less than two hours after arrival! 

How did the processor perform?  
Under a heavy load that was created by running all three benchmarks simultaneously and browsing the internet, the processor only reached a peak temperature of 60 degrees Centigrade.  At idle, with no applications open, while running Windows XP Professional SP2, the processor had a low temperature of 47 degrees Centigrade.  Impressive considering that the system had four Core 2 processors in a 65nm package, just waiting to spring to life!

Performance Testing
To give you an idea of the performance of this processor, I used two different benchmarks:  Super Pi and the BOINC Manager benchmark.  Each of these benchmarks stresses unique aspects of the processor and are heavily dependent on the supporting hardware around the processor like the memory, hard drive and motherboard chipset.  The Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor was installed in a Dell Vostro 410 motherboard with 2,048 Mbs of memory operating in dual channel mode.  The Dell computer uses an 80Gb SATA hard drive with Windows XP Professional installed to handle the operating system tasks.

Super Pi V1.1 is an application that extrapolates the specified digits of PI into a text file.  Since the task is both processor and file system intensive it can give you an idea of how fast your cpu is.  The Q6600 processor with its 4mb of shared L2 cache per core and 1066 FSB has all it needs to perform well in this test.  The problem is the calculation is single threaded in this version of Super Pi so you only see the performance of one processor. 

Here are the results of three runs at 1,000,000 digits of PI:
#1; 21 seconds
#2; 21 seconds
#3; 21 seconds

The Boinc Manager benchmark is designed to stress every available thread on your computer to see how many computations per second it can perform.  With the results, the Boinc Manager automatically assigns distributed computing projects to your processors.  The benchmark has been improved by scholars at academic institutions over the period of several years and is now a very reliable metric of modern computing performance.

Here the results of three runs:
#1; 2331 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per cpu, 4924 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per cpu
#2; 2334 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per cpu, 4931 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per cpu
#3; 2332 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per cpu, 4929 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per cpu

The MCS CPU Benchmark 2008 will test the entire system to give you an overall score based on CPU and file system performance.

Here are the results of three runs on the Dell Vostro 410 personal computer:
#1 15610
#2 15611
#3 15610
 
Could it be faster than the Intel Core 2 Duo E8600?
You will get into many heated arguments among computer professionals if you bring this topic up.  Be prepared for many references to Klingons and Star Wars as you try to convince them that a 3.33Ghz Dual Core processor is faster than a 2.4Ghz Quad Core.  First, four processors will always win because they can handle four simultaneous applications that are single threaded.  Yet on the other hand, a computer architecture geek would say that the memory bus would be strained feeding four cores at the same time.  The geek would be correct because testing on the MCS benchmark seems to support that conclusion.  I encourage you to look at the numbers yourself and make your own decision on this one.  My vote is for the lower cost E8600 but that is just from a guy who likes buying cheap parts on Ebay.

Recommended Hardware Configuration
You may be reading this review and wondering how the Intel Q6600 can work for you.  The processor can be used in a small form factor case to yield a very powerful multimedia machine.  In the past, I have recommended that only low power Intel Celeron 356 processors be used in this configuration but if you wanted a system that could encode blue ray discs then a quad core is the way to go!

For example, you can go to NewEgg.com and buy the Intel BOXDG41MJ (a mini ITX motherboard with high resolution DVI out, SATA with RAID, 6 channel audio and Gigabit lan),
a 32Gb Solid State Hard drive list as FTM32GL25H
a N WIN BP655 Black Mini-ITX Computer Case
all for about $245 after shipping.
Then pick up this processor for less than on $100 on Ebay.
Now you will have a $345 computer system that can work with any DVI capable television so that you can watch YouTube or NetFlix content from the comfort of your own living room!

I have built systems like this for several people and they love it.   The hard drive and efficient power supply in the BP655 case produce little heat so they can afford to leave the PC on all day with YouTube operating as a cable television show!

Please note, you should use Fedora 64 or a Red Hat Linux clone rather than a Windows Operating System because there are so many cool applications for home entertainment being released by the open source community today!  Linux operating systems are also much more processor cycle efficient so they reduce the thermal output of the computer as a whole. 

Specifications
Processor Core: Kentsfield
CPU Cores: 4
Hyperthreading: No
Frequency (Mhz):  2400
Bus Speed (Mhz):  1066
Clock Multiplier (Mhz): 9
Dimensions:  1.48” x 1.48”
Socket 775 (FC-LGA6)
Data width: 64 bit
Level 1 cache size:  4x32 Kb instruction cache, 4x32 kb data cache
Level 2 cache size:  2x4Mb on-die L2 cache
Instruction sets:  MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3
You can find this processor under the following Intel part numbers: BX80562Q6600, HH80562PH0568M, QMAQ, QQGV, QUPT, QXVD, SL9UM, SLACR

The processor was released with four different steppings:  B0, B1, B3, G0.  A general rule of thumb is that you want the latest stepping to take advantage of any performance modifications that Intel made.  The G0 should be readily available on the market today.

Terminology
If you are new to computers, you will see a lot of unfamiliar terms in this review.  Here are a few definitions to make your life a little easier: 

Instruction sets are actually additional hard coded functions within the microprocessor that software developers can use to reduce the number of clock cycles used to calculate a mathematical value. 

Whetstone is a synthetic benchmark for evaluating the performance of computers.  The Whetstone was created to defeat compiler optimizations in the 1970’s and has since become a standard metric of performance because some of the earliest mainframes used it to analyze their own computing potential.

Summary
I think the quad cores in this processor tend to mislead the computing speed freaks by making them think that "more processors must mean more power".  The truth is quite different though.  When you compare these results to the speed numbers put up by an Intel E8600 running at 3.33 Ghz we see that clock frequency is still king.   Yet, if you are looking for a solid business computer this processor will do the trick.  You can save about $100 if you purchase this processor used on Ebay.    Just watch those steppings carefully!