Maximum PC

Boxed Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 for $170+tax at Microcenter. it may be an in-store only thing, I don't know, but even TigerDirect and NewEgg can't really beat this price.

That seems like a rip off considering the Core i5 750 is only $200, and Microcenter often has the Core i7 920 for $200.

I've seen it as low as $130 at my local Micro Center. They always have great deals on CPUs
@guo- But it's great for upgraders. To go up from, say, an E6300 to a Q9550 and only drop $170 on the CPU, instead of 200 on the CPU, 100 on the mobo, and 100 on the RAM is definitely worth it.

I'm considering buying a second one (I already have one that i've had for about six months now) for my media server because Id on't really need the new i5/i7 tech for a media/file server...

I've seen slightly lower, but like I said, even Tiger can't match (I tried with them). They're closer to me, but Tiger and MicroCenter are only about 10 miles apart, so for the extra like $60 savings, I'll drive the extra 10 miles.

I just saw the i5 750 at Micro Center for under $180. Too bad for me that I have to add tax, but it's still a very good price.

Darn. If only I had a Socket 1156 board (or whatever socket it takes) and DDR3 RAM, I'd go for it. But both my systems (my server included) are Socket 775 so I figured this would be a direct "plug and play" simply without having to upgrade board or memory (and yes the mobo sucks, but it's not dead yet.... maybe when it dies, I'll go for the i5).

I'm still not happy about how long they've had this sale going on that chip. It was supposed to be a November 2009 special, and then they are still carrying it. I had to go out of my way on a day that I was moving and coulda used the time better, to go to Chicago (2 hour trip 1-way) to get that thing. Much as I loved the trip and the day (for the most part), I much rather would've just waited and got it AFTER I moved. It was a Christmas gift from somebody, well, I paid $75 of it though, but it was still a gift and I heard nothing but bitching the whole trip. Much rather would've waited. For that, I gotta say I'm upset with MC. Still a kickass price though. After taxes it came to roughly $185.

my friend got PO'd since I bought my Q9550 about six months ago for the same price had had paid for his E8400 dual core (just four months prior to that). But as i told him, there will always be a better deal the next week after you buy something.... so far, I haven't personally seen any lower price (heard about it though) anywhere I normally look (Except for a used on one ebay or StarMicro.net).

Dude, that's actually just funny to me, lol. Still not the same as a company advertising a price as a limited-time special for 1 month only, then after a huge rush of people flock to get it, they keep carrying it at that "Monthly Special" price months down the road. That's misleading advertisement. I'm still happy with my getting a Q9550 for that price though. My best friend has a Q9650 and tried to get me to get that one, but I just told him about the price and he almost flipped his lid. He even told me that it would have been stupid for me NOT to go for it at that price. Obviously, lol.

oh, he's still PO'd at me as it is today for that... I told him that if there will always be something better...

I don't really see the need for the Q9650. I personally cannot justify the price difference between that and a 9550. Sure, you can take a 9550 to the same stock speeds as a 9650 (FSB) with good cooling and a good NB chip, so I decided that after a long debate with others, that the 9650 wasn't worth it, but I couldn't pass up the $170 price tag when everyone else had it for (and still have it for ) $230 or more (like TigerDirect/COMPUSA, Frys, etc)

That's true, but I'm thinking with the release of the Q9500 the Q9550 will be EOL'ed and the Q9650's price dropped the the 9550's levels. That's what Intel did with the Q9450/Q9400, and Micro Center's clearance further suggests this.

Oh well, lol, I still got a killer deal regardless. I don't really see it happening though, cuz the big difference in the 9400 and the 9450 is 6MB worth of L2 cache and I doubt that they'll do that with the 9550's, it'd be very stupid of them to do so, major $ loss.

They just released the Q9500, which is a 2.8Ghz 6MB L2 chip. They did the same with the Q9400, and they EOL'ed the Q9450, and then dropped the Q9550's price to that of the Q9450. That's what I'm thinking they'll do with the Q9550.

If they do, I might just end up ebaying my Q9550, lol, and buy a Q9650 then, who knows? I wouldn't be buying the 6MB version of it, that's stupid. Btw, I'm happy to also announce that mine is the SLB8V (E0) Stepping, so I'm looking forward to some easy and happy overclocking, woot! The SLAWQ is the C1 stepping if you didn't know that. You can check the box when you go to pick it up at Micro Center and request an SLB8V if you want to, they'll look for it.

The 9650 is WELL worth it if you know anything about overclocking and have a solid foundation for the chip to shine. I was impressed with my old E8400 and the headroom it had. The 9650 is an absolute monster! Runs 4.2g folding 24/7 and will do over 4.5g on kamikaze benchmark runs. All at very low voltage settings (relatively speaking) vs. most other chips.
If you're the type of person that puts a chip in and leaves it as is while you surf the web, then and only then would it make more sense to go with the 9550 over the 9650.

The problem is the Q9650 is $150 more then the Q9550, and still more expensive then an i7 920. If you're already rocking DDR3, you can buy an i5 750 and mobo for the same price. It's an absolute ripoff... even if the Q9650 would OC some .3Ghz farther, it's not going to match an i5 750.

THAT was the selling point for me. I've sadly been unemployed since last May and am drawing unemployment whilst trying to find a job out here, therefore I'm on a minimal to zilch budget. That's a LOT of $$$ and I even had to sell my Guitar Hero stuff to get the initial $75 to help buy it. I went for the most obvious choice, not to mention the fact that the apps that I'll be using it for will have such a minimal difference in speed between the 2 chips on stock speeds, that it literally makes no difference to me whatsoever. Totally NOT worth the extra $150.

Hey look, now I can upgrade my q6600!