Intel Core 2 Quad 9300 Processor Review

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 - Budget Phenom Slayer

For those that haven't been keeping up with all the new processor launches the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 processor is the newest 45nm quad-core 'Yorkfield' processor. It is also the entry level 45nm quad-core processor, which means it has the lowest price tag! At $285.99 plus shipping on PriceGrabber the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 is still fairly pricey, but you get what you pay for and it should run circles around the $235 AMD Phenom 9850 quad-core processor. The Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Processor has been getting a ton of attention these days as retailers are offering it in some pretty killer bundles. Microcenter for example has the Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q9300 (OEM) processor and a 2GB (2x1GB) OCZ Gold DDR2-800 memory kit being offered together for $250. If these deals are looking tempting, but you are unsure about the processor and how it stacks up against others on the market you are in luck as we are going to run the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 against seven other processors to see how it does.

With the latest version of CPU-Z 1.44.2, we can see our quad-core 'Yorkfield' processor is correctly identified at 2.50 GHz with a 1333MHz FSB and 6MB L2 cache.Our processor is an M1 stepping and has a TDP of 95W, which is the same as the Q6600 that it replaces. The Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 should be a pretty good overclocker, but it only has a 7.5 multiplier (333MHz FSB x 7.5 multiplier = 2.5GHz). With a somewhat low multiplier the FSB will have to be increased beyond 450MHz to break the 3.5GHz mark. This eliminates the use of many low end motherboards as to hit FSB speeds above 450MHz it will really tax the platform. If you increase the FSB to 400MHz that will make the CPU 3.0GHz, which should be easy to reach! We will try to reach these higher clock frequencies in our overclocking section as many enthusiasts will be buying this processor just to overclock it.

Moving over to the cache tab in CPU-Z the 6MB of L2 cache can be seen.

Flipping the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 processor over, some differences can be noted between the various 45nm processors by Intel.