# Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 Vs Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400?



## CorsairX (Nov 18, 2009)

Hey guys, I was looking at the specs and the only difference between them two that I noticed was the L2 Cache by only 2MB difference. Now is it really worth spending 190$ for the Q9400?


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## [Ion] (Nov 18, 2009)

CorsairX said:


> Hey guys, I was looking at the specs and the only difference between them two that I noticed was the L2 Cache by only 2MB difference. Now is it really worth spending 190$ for the Q9400?



According to Anandtech, the difference is 6%, so I would say no.  The only reason I picked up the Q9400 is it was cheaper than the Q8400 at TD ($170 vs $190 )


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## zithe (Nov 18, 2009)

Is picking up a new Q82(4)00 worth it?


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## newtekie1 (Nov 18, 2009)

Since the Q8400 is $170 and the Q9400 is $190, I'd just go with the Q9400 for $20 more.

Though I think the better option right now is finding a used Q6600 for $150, still one of the best deals right now for upgrading a 775 system.


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## [Ion] (Nov 18, 2009)

zithe said:


> Is picking up a new Q82(4)00 worth it?



Definitely, it'll be a big improvement over the E2180, regardless of which one you pick.  Newtekie1 has a point, a used Q6600 would be a good option


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## CorsairX (Nov 18, 2009)

Does Newegg sells Q6600? 

EDIT: nvm, they dont.


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## CorsairX (Nov 18, 2009)

Wow those specs are impressive. Not bad for that price.

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=29765


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## newtekie1 (Nov 18, 2009)

If you act quickly you can get this: http://cgi.ebay.com/Intel-X3220-2-4...35QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCPUs?hash=item4a9c4a0817

Same as the Q6600, maybe slightly better overclocker, and only $135.  Can't beat that performance and price.


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## aCid888* (Nov 18, 2009)

Q9550 at Microcenter for $180-ish....though I don't know if there is a Microcenter even close to you.


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## theonedub (Nov 18, 2009)

Where were all these people when I was actively selling my Q9550 (for less than $190)?!?!  Personally I think there was a huge difference coming from my Q9300 to the Q9550.

At this point unless you get a ridiculous deal on a Q8/9xxx anything less than a Q9x50 will leave you with regret.


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## [Ion] (Nov 18, 2009)

theonedub said:


> Where were all these people when I was actively selling my Q9550 (for less than $190)?!?!  Personally I think there was a huge difference coming from my Q9300 to the Q9550.
> 
> At this point unless you get a ridiculous deal on a Q8/9xxx *anything less than a Q9x50 will leave you with regret*.



I can not agree with you here.  I purchased the Q9400 because it was on sale, and I have been completely satisfied.  Despite the lower cache, it is still *faster* than my Q6600 running at 3ghz, and power draw is ~30W lower.  For the money I spent, I could not have made a better choice IMO (except I didn't know about i5 so I built my C2Q rig the week before i5 came out )


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## theonedub (Nov 18, 2009)

[Ion] said:


> I can not agree with you here.  I purchased the Q9400 because it was on sale, and I have been completely satisfied.  Despite the lower cache, it is still *faster* than my Q6600 running at 3ghz, and power draw is ~30W lower.  For the money I spent, I could not have made a better choice IMO (except I didn't know about i5 so I built my C2Q rig the week before i5 came out )



Like I said, if you get a killer deal then its all good  I came from a Q6600 to the Q9300 to the Q9550. Each step was a nice upgrade


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## [Ion] (Nov 18, 2009)

theonedub said:


> Like I said, if you get a killer deal then its all good  I came from a Q6600 to the Q9300 to the Q9550. Each step was a nice upgrade



I was considering the Q9550 because of the extra 6mb of cache and small speed increase, but it was $60 more (~35%), so I decided to stick with the Q9400 
I didn't care about ~5% more performance that much


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## Xazax (Nov 18, 2009)

newtekie1 said:


> If you act quickly you can get this: http://cgi.ebay.com/Intel-X3220-2-4...35QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCPUs?hash=item4a9c4a0817
> 
> Same as the Q6600, maybe slightly better overclocker, and only $135.  Can't beat that performance and price.




I like that idea the best, the "Server" Grade Quads are lower wattage and can also OC insanely! and thats a great price, even from Ebay.

Personally any upgrade to LGA775 is beating a dead horse(or socket  ) because of the release of i5, your spending the same amount of money on a LGA 775 socket as you would on the i5 socket, though the i5/i7 is vastly superior in everyway.

Unless you're for some reason DYING for a quadcore that you MUST absolutely must have for video encoding, or some other that requires more cores. I'd say avoid it, AVOID it all together, spend your pennies else where or save for next year and upgrade the mobo/cpu/ram to i5/i7


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## rahulyo (Nov 18, 2009)

Xazax is right ...

Don't spend ur money on LGA775 ...

Wait for some time and then upgrade to i5/i7 ...


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## BarbaricSoul (Nov 18, 2009)

> Personally any upgrade to LGA775 is beating a dead horse(or socket  ) because of the release of i5, your spending the same amount of money on a LGA 775 socket as you would on the i5 socket,



Got to disagree. There's really no reason to dump a core2 system for I5 or I7 really. Now I wouldn't recommend building a core2 system, but core2 is still plenty fast enough to handle a average computer user or gamers needs. There is nothing wrong with upgrading a core2 system to get another year or two worth of use out of it. Now having said that, let me also add, I also agree that if your upgrading a core2 system, I would not recomend anything lower than a 9*50 for a quad or nothing lower than a e8400 for dual core, but those CPU's are still faster or just as fast than what AMD has to offer.


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## Zubasa (Nov 18, 2009)

rahulyo said:


> Xazax is right ...
> 
> Don't spend ur money on LGA775 ...
> 
> Wait for some time and then upgrade to i5/i7 ...


For $180 it sounds like even an AM3 platform is a better option.


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## newtekie1 (Nov 18, 2009)

Xazax said:


> I like that idea the best, the "Server" Grade Quads are lower wattage and can also OC insanely! and thats a great price, even from Ebay.
> 
> Personally any upgrade to LGA775 is beating a dead horse(or socket  ) because of the release of i5, your spending the same amount of money on a LGA 775 socket as you would on the i5 socket, though the i5/i7 is vastly superior in everyway.
> 
> Unless you're for some reason DYING for a quadcore that you MUST absolutely must have for video encoding, or some other that requires more cores. I'd say avoid it, AVOID it all together, spend your pennies else where or save for next year and upgrade the mobo/cpu/ram to i5/i7





Zubasa said:


> For $180 it sounds like even an AM3 platform is a better option.



I don't see how one would be spending the same amount of money to go i5 as they would to upgrade to something like a Q9400 or even a Q9650.  I mean, just price out the difference:

Q9650: $320
i5 750: $200...but you need a new motherboard $305...crap, needs DDR3 $395

And what do you get for that extra $75, next to no performance improvement.  Thats right, the i5 750 has next to no performance improvement over the Q9650, especially in games.

The same goes for an AM3 system, you need a new motherboard which is going to run at least $100 for a cheap but decent one, and the cheapest quad is $100 also, but even the Q8400 outperforms it.  And depending on the motherboard, if you go true AM3, you need to spend $90 on DDR3 also.  So what does $295 get you on the AM3 side?  Worse performance then simply upgrading to a $170 Q8400...


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## Xazax (Nov 18, 2009)

newtekie1 said:


> I don't see how one would be spending the same amount of money to go i5 as they would to upgrade to something like a Q9400 or even a Q9650.  I mean, just price out the difference:
> 
> Q9650: $320
> i5 750: $200...but you need a new motherboard $305...crap, needs DDR3 $395
> ...



Your missing my point, Yes when does upgrade to a new socket, he'll need DDR3, new motherboard etc, But by spending say 180~ on a LGA 775 processor when the Core i5 720 is near the same price, means he should save the money and put that $180 he saved into an upgrade next year, instead of spending the money on LGA 775 which will be phased out shortly anyway.

What if he wants to upgrade again? He cant. the LGA 775 socket is now EOL, motherboards/CPUs can only be bought second hand, hence he would have to upgrade to the LGA 1156 socket anyway.



BarbaricSoul said:


> Got to disagree. There's really no reason to dump a core2 system for I5 or I7 really. Now I wouldn't recommend building a core2 system, but core2 is still plenty fast enough to handle a average computer user or gamers needs. There is nothing wrong with upgrading a core2 system to get another year or two worth of use out of it. Now having said that, let me also add, I also agree that if your upgrading a core2 system, I would not recomend anything lower than a 9*50 for a quad or nothing lower than a e8400 for dual core, but those CPU's are still faster or just as fast than what AMD has to offer.



You are correct the Core 2's are still strong but take into consideration he already has a Core 2 processor! E6600 is still good, overclocked its better Why need anything more? Does he need a Quad that bad? will the 2 extra cores truly be worth the cost of upgrading a soon EOL socket?

Can the OP wait till next year, or just a few months, and upgrade his system then. The upgrade would be far more pronounced and he will see significant gains from going first gen Core 2 to first gen i5/i7, then he ever would just buying a Quad-core LGA 775


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## newtekie1 (Nov 18, 2009)

Xazax said:


> Your missing my point, Yes when does upgrade to a new socket, he'll need DDR3, new motherboard etc, But by spending say 180~ on a LGA 775 processor when the Core i5 720 is near the same price, means he should save the money and put that $180 he saved into an upgrade next year, instead of spending the money on LGA 775 which will be phased out shortly anyway.
> 
> What if he wants to upgrade again? He cant. the LGA 775 socket is now EOL, motherboards/CPUs can only be bought second hand, hence he would have to upgrade to the LGA 1156 socket anyway.



The i5 720 is going to be near the same price, and near the same performance too.

Yes, he could save and upgrade later, but he wants to upgrade now.  Yes, upgrading now to 1156 is an option, and would give him an upgrade path in the future.  However, upgrading to a Q8400 now, means he can wait longer before doing a completely platform upgrade, which will likely give him a better platform in the long run.


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## CorsairX (Nov 18, 2009)

Thanks for all your replies guys.

Now, since Im getting different point of views, would you point me out a good 1366 mobo and cpu combo at newegg? So that I can take it in consideration.

I would prefer the mobo to be Gigabyte and if is less than 250 better yet.


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## vega22 (Nov 18, 2009)

not sure about over in the states but you can get q67s over here for £140 atm which is great value imo, you might find their good value there too?


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## BarbaricSoul (Nov 18, 2009)

> You are correct the Core 2's are still strong but take into consideration he already has a Core 2 processor! E6600 is still good, overclocked its better Why need anything more? Does he need a Quad that bad? will the 2 extra cores truly be worth the cost of upgrading a soon EOL socket?



Does he/she need a quad? I can't answer that as I don't know exactly what he/she does on his/her computer. What I am saying is this. He/she already has a good motherboard and 4 gigs of Corsair DDR2 800 RAM. What would be more cost effective? Upgrade to a CPU that gives the same performance as the I5 in everyday situations, or replace his CPU, motherboard and RAM and upgrade to I5? It'll cost him/her atleast double to upgrade to I5 as it will to upgrade to a q9550 or a e8500, and I seriously doubt he'd notice a difference between the two platforms.


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## CorsairX (Nov 18, 2009)

BarbaricSoul said:


> Does he/she need a quad? I can't answer that as I don't know exactly what he/she does on his/her computer. What I am saying is this. He/she already has a good motherboard and 4 gigs of Corsair DDR2 800 RAM. What would be more cost effective? Upgrade to a CPU that gives the same performance as the I5 in everyday situations, or replace his CPU, motherboard and RAM and upgrade to I5? It'll cost him/her atleast double to upgrade to I5 as it will to upgrade to a q9550 or a e8500, and I seriously doubt he'd notice a difference between the two platforms.




THis is exactly what is getting me thinking since I dont have the money to spend on a major upgrade. Im just upgrading here and there to stay up to date with games. Right now I can play Crysis, MW2 and about every game out there to max settings. 

What I was thinking on doing is upgrade CPU and maybe get faster rams.


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## BarbaricSoul (Nov 18, 2009)

CorsairX said:


> Thanks for all your replies guys.
> 
> Now, since Im getting different point of views, would you point me out a good 1366 mobo and cpu combo at newegg? So that I can take it in consideration.
> 
> I would prefer the mobo to be Gigabyte and if is less than 250 better yet.




http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128362
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231224 (I7 requires triple channel DDR3 RAM also)


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## zithe (Nov 18, 2009)

Xazax said:


> I like that idea the best, the "Server" Grade Quads are lower wattage and can also OC insanely! and thats a great price, even from Ebay.
> 
> Personally any upgrade to LGA775 is beating a dead horse(or socket  ) because of the release of i5, your spending the same amount of money on a LGA 775 socket as you would on the i5 socket, though the i5/i7 is vastly superior in everyway.
> 
> Unless you're for some reason DYING for a quadcore that you MUST absolutely must have for video encoding, or some other that requires more cores. I'd say avoid it, AVOID it all together, spend your pennies else where or save for next year and upgrade the mobo/cpu/ram to i5/i7



There's really no reason at all to switch to core i5 if he can get similar performance for cheaper. He's running a 24" (and most likely 1080P monitor) so for games a new processor wouldn't make much of a difference between the two quads. 

If he wants to go SLI/Crossfire, he's limited to 8x/8x, a problem that doesn't necessarily plague all LGA775 boards. You'll see equal issue with both systems (graphics-wise) being bottlenecked in the next few generations, but the 775 platform may end up being faster (perhaps not noticeably) than the i5 system due the LGA 1156's bandwidth limitations being about half the full potential of what the 775 sets have to offer. Considering this, is there any reason to may more? I can see i7 being justified a little better.

Not sure if these assumptions are correct, but I thought they should be considered as possibilities.


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## BarbaricSoul (Nov 18, 2009)

> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-214-_-Product 860 would be a better choice.



He asked for a 1366 socket set up, not 1156 socket set-up


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## Xazax (Nov 18, 2009)

zithe said:


> There's really no reason at all to switch to core i5 if he can get similar performance for cheaper. He's running a 24" (and most likely 1080P monitor) so for games a new processor wouldn't make much of a difference between the two quads.
> 
> If he wants to go SLI/Crossfire, he's limited to 8x/8x, a problem that doesn't necessarily plague all LGA775 boards. You'll see equal issue with both systems (graphics-wise) being bottlenecked in the next few generations, but the 775 platform may end up being faster (perhaps not noticeably) than the i5 system due the LGA 1156's bandwidth limitations being about half the full potential of what the 775 sets have to offer. Considering this, is there any reason to may more? I can see i7 being justified a little better.
> 
> Not sure if these assumptions are correct, but I thought they should be considered as possibilities.



But right now he is using a Gigabyte P35 DS3L which means his CF options are only 16x and x4 PCI-E 1.1a and seeing as he is only using a single GFX card LGA 1156 wouldnt be a hinderance at all.

But he wants a 1366 which is an entirely different beast, my advice to the OP is if you want 1366 your going to have to spend a lot more $$$ the cheapest i7 is the 920 which is $300 and most motherboards run about 200-300 depending on what brand/feature set you like and Tri-memory channel kits 6GB run another $200

CPU/MOBO/Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202&cm_re=i7-_-19-115-202-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131359
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104132


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## zithe (Nov 18, 2009)

Ignore what I say I guess lol. I'm the kind of person that usually ends up buying the stuff they originally attacked. (E2xxx series, intel/nvidia combo)


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## niko084 (Nov 18, 2009)

The cache makes a decent difference, even stepping from my q9400 - q9550 made a pretty decent difference.

Personally I would spend the few extra bucks, at the cost of the Q8400, I would jump ship and go AMD and get a Phenom II x3 and try to unlock the 4th core, out of over 10 I have done, everyone has unlocked and clocked pretty decently.


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## CorsairX (Nov 19, 2009)

Xazax said:


> But right now he is using a Gigabyte P35 DS3L which means his CF options are only 16x and x4 PCI-E 1.1a and seeing as he is only using a single GFX card LGA 1156 wouldnt be a hinderance at all.
> 
> But he wants a 1366 which is an entirely different beast, my advice to the OP is if you want 1366 your going to have to spend a lot more $$$ the cheapest i7 is the 920 which is $300 and most motherboards run about 200-300 depending on what brand/feature set you like and Tri-memory channel kits 6GB run another $200
> 
> ...



Those are some good upgrades but I will not go that route yet. Anyways, there is no game out there that requires so much specs. I mostly play FPS games such as (BF2142, MW2, Crysis) in max settings.

Since my mobo and cpu are about 2 years old, that is one of my main reason for upgrading to something better and newer. 

Are these better than what the mobo and cpu I currently have now? Is it worth it?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.293017

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.293014


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## BarbaricSoul (Nov 19, 2009)

Are they better? Yes. Worth it? CPU wise, I think so, but you would definently see a larger improvement getting a q9550. Motherboard wise, not unless you want to run crossfire in the future. Unless you want to run crossfire in the future, I wouldn't bother replacing your motherboard until you do upgrade to I5 or I7 or beyond.


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## niko084 (Nov 19, 2009)

BarbaricSoul said:


> Are they better? Yes. Worth it? CPU wise, I think so, but you would definently see a larger improvement getting a q9550. Motherboard wise, not unless you want to run crossfire in the future. Unless you want to run crossfire in the future, I wouldn't bother replacing your motherboard until you do upgrade to I5 or I7 or beyond.



Ya, I agree, I'm still running my old P5K-E and it will take this q9550 over 4ghz, I just hate to see it run so hot so I don't.

I was constantly thinking about getting a P5Q-E or Deluxe but it's just not worth it.
I'll upgrade to an i5 or wait until the power consumption drops a bit on the i7s.


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