The "price drop" link goes to an analysis of April, 2007 price schedules.

Is Intel planning another drop in April of this year?

Yes, April 20th. What's puzzling is that I just went to Newegg and their current price for the Q6600 reflects the April price cut....

It's to
a) clear the shelves ready for 45nm technology
b) ensure AMD's new chips don't get much air time

Sorry guys I had the wrong link above for the Intel price drops scheduled for April 20. I fixed it.

John

Deal is extended to March 2.

John

Extended again to March 16

John

Went to Micro Center on Sunday and bought:
Q6600 2.4gHz Quad
Antec Nine Hundred Case & Antec 850W power supply
Corsair 6400 4gig memory
EVGA 8800GT super clocked video card
Pioneer DVD 20x SATA & WD 500gig SATA
Gigabyte GA-EP35C-DS3R & Firewire card (no firewire onboard)
Vista 32bit Ultimate.
Built it Monday night, loaded operating system and drivers Tuesday night and software started last night.
Worked first time with zero problems so far. Even upgraded to Excalibur 6!

That's great Harold.

Lots of luck with your new rig.

Regards,

John

EDIT: Check the heatsinks on that mainboard and make sure they aren't loose. It has been an occasional problem on a few of them. Also,
Is the IDE connector location a problem? I had heard it was and was wondering if you found that to be an issue. That board overall is very reliable.

John:

Take a look at this inexpensive ($670) HP Q6600 system.

Ecost Refurb Q6600 System

I built my own Q6600 system, but for some people, these system deals could make a lot of sense and it's certainly much less expensive.

Jeff

I am not using the IDE connector but it is at the bottom of the board and near a PCI connector. It might be a pain if I had a longer card plugged into slot 6. I will have to check the heat sinks the next time I open up the case. So far the temp is about 34c. That nine hundred case has a 200mm fan on the top and two fans in front of 6 hard drive slots. It should keep everything pretty cool. I am using the standard fan on the CPU.

Does anybody know if this chip will run on an Asus P5WD2 Premium motherboard?

I've checked the Asus site but it's unclear to me if it will. Just curious if anyone is running the Q6600 on this motherboard.

Thanks!

I'm using a Q6600 on a P5B - I would expect it to work on all the P5 line, but I could be wrong.

Does Vegas use multiple processors effectively? I'm curious whether a fast duo core, say 3.0 GHz, or a slower quad core, say 2.4 GHz, would be better for a machine used primarily for Vegas editing and rendering

Yes, Vegas does multithreading.

Some folks use Quads with Vegas love them. But there have been a high number of folks who have had issues with Vegas and Quads. It has not been determined if it is a Quad itself that is the trouble or another issue. You can search the board for Quad to see the details.

If you want to be safe, go with the fast Duo.

Have you read about the new E8500?

John

Harold, what mobo? How much for total system in you don't mind me asking?

My two year old AMD4800+ system is on it's side at the moment...mobo is on death's door..won't hardly boot anymore...southbridge flaking out, won't see SATA HDs 90% of time.

I was all set to buy a 6600 and ASUS mobo when the ASUS rep advised me that my current A8N-SLI Premium mobo is still under warranty...they're shipping the replacement now from one they found in their lab. So I'm saved having to buy a new mobo, CPU and RAM but secretly disappointed I'm not getting an upgrade.

Hello Jim,
I bought the Gigabyte GA-EP35C-DS3R (rev 2.1). It has some future proofing. Will support DDR3 memory (4gig) and DDR2(8gig). Also supports 45nm processors. Several extra features like eight SATA-300 ports (two of them can be converted into eSATA which I did) and high-end components (solid aluminum capacitors, ferrite coils and better MOSFET transistors).
$1,424 after tax & rebates.
* Q6600 2.4gHz Quad
* Antec Nine Hundred Case
* Antec 850W power supply
* Corsair 6400 4gig memory
* EVGA 8800GT super clocked video card
* Pioneer DVD 20x SATA
* WD 500gig SATA
* Gigabyte GA-EP35C-DS3R
* Firewire card (no firewire onboard)
* Logitech LX710 wireless keyboard & mouse (laser)
* Vista 32bit Ultimate.

It is running great. I had a couple of lock-ups yesterday & I don't know what caused them. I have rebooted several times the past 7 days installing software & updates. Other than a power outage due to an ice storm I have not shut it off.

Update:

Intel is still shipping these to MicroCenter and MC is still selling them at the same price.

Q6600 @ $199.99, but also the E4500 for $99.99 and the e2160 for $59.99. [no bundles required].

Also: Don't forget about the upcoming April price reduction.


John

"I bought the Gigabyte GA-EP35C-DS3R (rev 2.1)."
My daughter's boyfriend has lots of experience building dorm room computers. I was considering the Gigabyte model you mentioned, but he recommended an Abit model for a beginner like me because, for one reason, it has a LED readout of POST errors which helps a lot with debugging. Was that a consideration for you?

Thanks

I'm looking for a place to put a system together for me. Anyone have experience with these guys?
http://www.pcsforeveryone.com/

Also, any recommendations on a blu-ray burner?

Thanks,

Dave

No, I didn't worry about the post issues. Fortunate for me everything worked perfect right from the start. I had the machine built in 4.5 hours and it was the first time I built one. Still working good. I have had a couple of goofy things happen. Once it wouldn't boot and I solved it by turning off the USB HDD that were attached. Every board has its issues.

For those of you who live near Fry's, their Friday ad shows the Q6600 at $189.99 in their stores. According to someone at a deals forum Fry's has plenty of them and MicroCenter still has plenty of these as well for $10 more.

John