Legit Reviews

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550S Processor Review

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 is 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.

The performance of the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 processor was impressive and for those wanting to spend under $275 on an LGA775 processor it packs some horsepower under the hood that rivals nearly any other LGA775 processor. With four processing cores running at 2.83GHz, a total of 12MB of shared L2 cache, a 1333MHz Front Side Bus (FSB) and the fact that the processor is built on the 45nm process are the reasons that it does so well in the benchmarks. The Intel Q9550 is also an overclocking monster as we were able to reach an overclock of 1.2GHz with ease. With the Intel Q9550 processor running at a clock frequency of 4GHz it was easily able to compete against the Intel Core i7 series, which shows what a little clock frequency will do to potential of the Q9550.

Article Title: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550S Processor Review
Article URL: http://legitreviews.com/article/925/1/
Pricing At Time of Print: $274.99 shipped

Was expecting something a bit more shocking with the price tag Intel is slapping on that chip. The 1.16vCPU is about average for 45nm Yorkfield at those speeds, hell my QX9650 could run 3GHz with ~1.2vCPU. Try running the chip at 1.0v and see if it is stable. Looks like Intel has wised up and decided to cash in on the Green Revolution. For $300 to $400 you can get a used QX9650, something to consider..

Does that 8800GTS have 2D and 3D powerstates? Your idle power consumption numbers seem ungodly high. My Phenom II setup with GTX260 idles ~55w lower and loads 70w lower Perhaps I forget how hot the 8800GTS core was.

don't forget those numbers are the whole system, which includes a water cooling kit.

That might make up some of the difference (assumes valleygirl accent) Oh well, Yorkfield is so 2008

I don't like that they are taking the best of the regular processors and charging more for them now.

It kills the odds for getting a good chip in the non-"s" lineup.

Any idea what %age of the regular Q9950's (etc) get chosen to be an "S"?

Dan

DMB2000uk wrote:I don't like that they are taking the best of the regular processors and charging more for them now.

It kills the odds for getting a good chip in the non-"s" lineup.

Any idea what %age of the regular Q9950's (etc) get chosen to be an "S"?

Dan

not sure and to be honest I'm not sure why they would release that information since it doesn't really matter from my point of view. The thing is I can't find a Q9550S for sale in the US right now as I looked all over the past couple days. Only Dell, Apple, HP and others seem to be able to get them and they purchase direct.

I've had this chip up to 3.6GHz when the motherboard doesn't need to be RMA-ed
I plan to push it again when it's all back together

DMB2000uk wrote:I don't like that they are taking the best of the regular processors and charging more for them now.

It kills the odds for getting a good chip in the non-"s" lineup.

Any idea what %age of the regular Q9950's (etc) get chosen to be an "S"?

Dan

How often do you see a bad Yorkfield though? I don't think I've seen a single one that won't max out the FSB on any given board. They all seem to have the voltage requirements of a Wolfdale with ~+.05v. Not too often do you see a bum Yorkfield like you used to with Kentsfield and AMD's K10(65nm and 45nm). The biggest problem with these Q9xxx chips is the low multiplier, the cores are good for 4+GHz on air, just multi limited.

I don't remember paying that much for my Q9950.

*EDIT*
Good reason, since I paid more than that.
10007855 INTEL BX80569Q9550 Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83 GHz 1333 MHz Socket 775 2 x 6MB Desktop Processor Retail ***Free Shipping*** $318.50

*sigh* I was hoping for significantly lower power consumption, ergo a cooler running system. If the Q9550S idles at the power consumption of the E7200 at load, I doubt it'll make a good fit for me. My E7200 already idles at 40~45C.

Alas, it just seems they just got smarter about the way they categorize their processors. The quad-cores at least. I think the E5000 and E7000 series CPU's could easily make it in the 35W TDP category. I bought an E5200 as a drop-in replacement for a Celeron 430 and power consumption is even lower than it was before.

hnzw_rui wrote:*sigh* I was hoping for significantly lower power consumption, ergo a cooler running system. If the Q9550S idles at the power consumption of the E7200 at load, I doubt it'll make a good fit for me. My E7200 already idles at 40~45C.

yours runs that warm stock?? mine idles exactly that at 3.53GHz, and with both GSO's Folding(E7200 not doing anything) granted i have cheap aftermarket cooling, it idles at about ambient temps...(40-50C)

That's a little warm for a newer Core2Duo. I'd check to make sure that one of the retarded Intel pushpins hasn't backed out.

Just for reference I usually idle around 35-40 degrees C depending on the ambient temp. Then again I'm not using a stock cooler either.

I use the tiny stock cooler which is about half the height of the one that comes with earlier Conroe and Kentsfield models. Load temp is ~10C higher than idle so the temps don't bother me all that much. I just don't want it to go any higher (60C is my personal hard limit). Computer is underneath a desk and not getting much airflow. Removing it from under the desk drops temps by 5~10C. That's not an option unless I want to trip on it.

Playing around with virtual machines so I wanted to upgrade to quad-core for the extra oomph, but only if it doesn't run significantly hotter than my E7200. At this rate, it seems like the Q9550s will idle at ~55C and go up to ~70+C at load.

Plans on building a virtualization server (this one's definitely getting a quad-core and a boat load of RAM) have been put on hold. I'm getting overtime on weekends quite often, so I'm reluctant to order stuff until I know I'll have the time to build and test it. Not to mention I need to wipe out a couple of hard drives and get rid of two computers before I get space for the server.

That's weird that being under the desk has warmer temperatures seeing as warm air rises. I'd still check the pushpins on the stupid retention mechanism Intel decided to go with. Messing with OCCT I've seen my CPU load in the upper 70s. I don't care that it is slowly killing the CPU, if the PC is stable then I'm good with it. Hell I still have an Athlon T-Bird that is functional and was overclocked for years. It wasn't until I knew about temperatures and bought an aftermarket cooler that I first saw what was being reported. With an aftermarket cooler it would load in the upper 70s. I have no idea what the temperatures were like before when it had a really small orb cooler on it.

At least you're getting overtime. I quit my last job because I was working 60+ hours a week on average and only getting paid for 40 (salary). On top of that I wasn't making much more than peanuts so after a year I said to hell with it. The job was going nowhere for me, my boss was the owner's younger brother, so no room for advancement. And toward the end I really despised the product I was selling to poor saps. I never lied to anyone about what it could or could not do, I would often just leave out the technicalities which weren't always that easy.

I quit toward the end of January and can't find a damn thing. Right now I feel like I should have swallowed my pride and stuck it out and found something else in my spare time before leaving. Problem with that was I didn't have spare time to look. It's a good thing I have experience and a 4 year degree, that at this time seem worthless.

One piece of advice to anyone still in college/university, do not get a business degree they are all worthless.

Major_A wrote:That's weird that being under the desk has warmer temperatures seeing as warm air rises. I'd still check the pushpins on the stupid retention mechanism Intel decided to go with.

Messing with OCCT I've seen my CPU load in the upper 70s. I don't care that it is slowly killing the CPU, if the PC is stable then I'm good with it. Hell I still have an Athlon T-Bird that is functional and was overclocked for years. It wasn't until I knew about temperatures and bought an aftermarket cooler that I first saw what was being reported. With an aftermarket cooler it would load in the upper 70s. I have no idea what the temperatures were like before when it had a really small orb cooler on it.

Well, that warm air rises about all of three inches and stays there. The desk is kinda enclosed and the exhaust fan on the back is also a bit blocked since the desk is against the wall. If you put your hand under the desk, you can actually feel the air is warmer than room temp.

Also rearranged the fans to give hard drives better cooling. The CPU, I really can care less about. Easy enough to replace that. The data on the drives, though, I'd rather not lose and making full back-ups is somewhat impractical (5.5TB). I'm concerned that if CPU temp rises, case temp would also rise and hard drive temps would increase as a result.

Major_A wrote:At least you're getting overtime. I quit my last job because I was working 60+ hours a week on average and only getting paid for 40 (salary). On top of that I wasn't making much more than peanuts so after a year I said to hell with it. The job was going nowhere for me, my boss was the owner's younger brother, so no room for advancement. And toward the end I really despised the product I was selling to poor saps. I never lied to anyone about what it could or could not do, I would often just leave out the technicalities which weren't always that easy.

I quit toward the end of January and can't find a damn thing. Right now I feel like I should have swallowed my pride and stuck it out and found something else in my spare time before leaving. Problem with that was I didn't have spare time to look. It's a good thing I have experience and a 4 year degree, that at this time seem worthless.

Yep. I like the overtime. Gives me more funds for PC parts. Besides, it's very rare for us to get overtime so whenever we're offered OT, we just accept it.

Sucks about your job/current lack thereof. Hope you find something good soon.