Nutcase, Xaak, Greeri and I all bought Penryn 12MB cache cpus soon after they were available, and we have all struggled with high overclocks at the start. Since the fsb of them starts at 333 mhz, motherboards or memory start running out of gas by the time we hit 450 fsb which means the cpu is running 3600 mhz. We were getting those clocks much easier with G0 stepping Q6600's, since the fsb started at 266 mhz and the multi is higher. With the G0's, we could top out at 400 mhz fsb, temps were manageable with top rated air hsf's or a good water kit.

So our conclusion is that while we are seeing improved crunch times, mhz for mhz, due to the new instruction set, bigger cache and streamling of the cpu design, it's almost not worth the effort. Perhaps for a totally new build it would be. You'll need a premium overclocking board, some really fast ram, good solid psu and a good watercooling setup to keep everything going for 24/7 crunching clocked.

And then you seem to be leaning towards the 6MB cache version. I have no idea what the reduced cache version would do, first, for crunching, and second, for cooling. With every die shrink, intel has upped the cache size, I feel it's at least as important to the designers to keep these chips cool with more surface mating surface that the larger cache adds, as improved performance.

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Co-owner, the Group of 10 100 200 300

Thanks Paul and Gary.  I knew you two would have the answer I was looking for.  So on with a Q6600 it looks like.  Thanks again....

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It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues