Q9550-S Arrives at ABT for Benchmarking!

We are pleased to report that we received our engineering sample of Q9550S from Intel.  Thanks!  This is the brand new 12MB L2 cache, S-spec quad-core, 2.83Ghz CPU from Intel with a thermal design power rating of only 65w!

http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SLGAE

What does this mean?  Well, we think it may be a great overclocker and we are not going to waste any time in getting it set up for benchmarking.  We are going to also overclock our e8600 – which is currently at 4.0 Ghz – as far as it will go and give you a PC gaming “shootout” comparison – Quad Core vs. Dual Core.  We will also set new, even more demanding benchmarks, and answer the question –  it is worthwhile to upgrade to quad core for today’s PC games from a dual core CPU?

So, stay tuned.  I am currently finishing my review that compares 8 sets of drivers – ATi’s Catalyst 8.9 through 8-12 and Geforce 178.13 through 181.20 – with our top video cards and should be up by tomorrow.  Therefore the Q9550s benching is starting in just a few minutes!  We should have the Q9550 brand new review up by Monday – barring unforeseen issues.

Mark Poppin

ABT editor

If anybody would like to see us add any benches, – or have any suggestions for us or comments for our benching or review – please feel to post comments and/or sign up to discuss in our ABT forums:

http://alienbabeltech.com/abt/