Q9450 or E8400 if you HAD TO AND ONLY COULD CHOOSE 1 RIGHT NOW
 

OK, I have both these processors and a big cunundrum. Which do I keep? I have 8GB of good overclocking ram coming, the E8400 will obviously outclock the Q9450 pretty badly, I easily got the E8400 to 4GHz with crap ram, the Q9450 was not stable at 3300MHz. I didn't tweak that much yet, but I do have one of the best ever overclocking S775 boards so I'm not worried about FSB limitations. If I could afford a real water cooling loop I'm sure the Q9450 would do better.....

Please remember I am stuck with these parts for some time, I know they are old but so am I and I'm not ready to toss myself out yet.

For gaming, stick with the E8400. Most games don't scale well past 2 cores.

Anandtech has a pretty slick comparison tool AnandTech - Bench - CPU

I'd be inclined to go with the E8400.

I had 8400 E0 with a pq5 pro to a Q9450+Tpower I45. Was pretty noticeable with multi thread support apps like encoding and or quad core supported games. A 4ghz dual vs 3.4ghz quad. I prefer the quad. But I did not like the heat and noise. I cash the Q9450 into a B50 with 790x. A quad is better for sure for every day all around. For games you probably just need 50-60fps and we all know it all comes down to gpu.

What stepping is your Q9450? Mine was a C1 and hot as hell. :ph34r:

C1, it's roasty toasty. Only way I could keep it is if I get real watercooling. H100 easily handles the E8400 though.

gaming, E8400

Overclock that E8400 and call it a day.

For games a quad at 3.1-3.2ghz will do for any decent gpu with a single screen. Going from 3.1ghz to 3.8ghz won't be that noticeable. Unless you plan to Crunch. :biggrin:

Run the 9450@3.0ghz and call it a day. Do we really need 4ghz? :ph34r:

Another e8400 vote if its just for gaming.