Just wanted to get some feedback on 2 CPU's. The first is a Q9950 OC'd to 4ghz. The other is an I7 920 at 3ghz. How much difference would there be between these two. I am asking this mostly from a gaming point of view

If the 920 is a D0 stepping, then go with that, you can easily take it to 3.6 on just about any air cooler other than stock. The Q9950 is a pretty solid overclock and if not on water, I would be hard to imagine good temps being maintained. If the Q9950 is air cooled, I bet the system has lots of noisy fans moving the air.

For your gaming, the difference will be in the motherboard and memory timings, and of course video card; but I think either cpu will meet your gaming needs.

I'd go with the 920 because it should do other tasks a little quicker, especially those apps which can make use of hyperthreading.

Easy answer.

One has a upgradable setup. The S1366.

i got an easier one. DONT LISTEN TO TOP. hes just bitter because he blew all his $$ on i7 lol

i would go wiht the 9550, i7 is still too over priced for what it is.... and ddr2 memory beats most ddr3 on the market remember that

like skiman said tho, with the 9550 u will most def need water on it. i got mine at 4 ghz and it idles about 45c full load about 60c. then again there is the new 9550S they released with lower voltages and heat.

performance wise tho we did pass mark test on all 3 of our pcs and for price to performance ratio mine took the cake. skiman and top did beat me. but not by much. not worth the extra $500-$1000 for the extra performance in my oponion.

so its really up to the point of do you want the newest gear to say you have it? because performance wise you wont gain much out of it.

Cheers. dat be my 2 cents

Hi guys I guess I didnt make the question clear enough though. I actually already have the q9550 system and was wondering if I would see much of a increase going to the I7. By the sounds of it though it wont be that huge of an increase and I should hold out longer or do some other upgrades instead. I was actually thinking more in the lines of some velociraptors on a raid card.

Good thinking.

the cpu you are running now isnt much of a bottleneck for performance at all. Hard drives are a bottle neck unless you are running a raptor or three , or running solid state.

If you are a gamer, raptors in raid would be awesome, also a gpu change if needed.

Then later, if you aren't happy with games loading in ~3 seconds flat ( lol ) then perhaps a cpu change if you want / feel the need

If you already have the Q9550, then hold on to it. The next big jump with intel performance is just around the corner when the six core twelve thread processors are released.

Agreed. Games mostly aren't utilizing more than 2 threads anyways.