The Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Processor

Last month with the economy in the gutter we brought you a review on the Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 processor and found that it packed some serious performance for being a $169.99 processor. While many of our readers would be happy with a 2.33GHz processor with a 1333MHz Front Side Bus (FSB) and 4MB of L2 cache, others want something a little faster. Since the Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 is lacking in cache, we figured you'd enjoy a review on the more powerful Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 processor. The Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 has four processing cores running at 2.83GHz, a whopping 12MB of shared L2 cache and a 1333MHz Front Side Bus (FSB) to keep things moving along nicely. At $275.99 the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 is roughly 60% more expensive than the Q8200, but for those that don't overclock the extra clock frequency and cache may be worth it.