Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550S - Can you say HTPC now? @ Magicmc.com Reviews

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550S - Can you say HTPC now?

The Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550S has a very good reason for existence. Not eveyone is ready to move up to the X58 platform in order to get the i7 to take advantage of Hyperthreading and Intel Turbo Boost Technology, but would love to grab onto the quad Core CPU. The Quad Core2 CPU Q9550 family was made just for you. Even the S series, which targets small box and efficiency enthusiasts with its lower TDP value (and of course the HTPC manufacturing sectors), it is less expensive than an X58/CPU combo, with similar results in single thread and quad core testing.

Especially when running a multitasking environment or bandwidth intensive applications, the Intel Core2 Quad Q9550S showed extremely fast and smotth performance. It is during thesse times that the full use of all four cores took full advantage. It far outperformed the AMD Phenom II X4 940 by a wide margin in brute speed tests.

If you need a screaming LGA775 CPU, then the Intel Core2 Quad Q9550 as a top choice would be a no brainer. If you are looking to incorporate this in small form factor or HTPC builds, the smaller TDP will help to reduce heat and increase power efficiency, making up for the $100 or so you kick in for S model TDP stepping.

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