The Intel E8600 processor is a very interesting addition to the 45nm family. It is currently the fastest C2D cpu available on the market. The 6MB of L2 cache is present and hopefully the 45nm technology helps you get low temperatures and high overclocking margins.

Getting to the fun point, we did manage to push the CPU at 4.45GHz , even our air cooling system was reaching its limits at those levels. We feel that most users could be easily reach the 4.20GHz using smaller coolers, although using a more efficient cooler than the bunled one would be required.

The retail price brings it at the point where users may wonder, should I buy the E8600 or the Q9300? Both products have exactly the same price but different philosofy and destination.

After finishing all tests, we have no wonder who will use each processor. If you are going to use your PC mainly for office/game use, then the E8600 may be more suitable for you. Audio/Video encoding applications would be highly benefited from the four cores of Q9300. Both products are highly overclockable and should give a significant performance boost. If you already have a E8400/8500 there is no reason to upgrade - in fact, getting an E8500 at 150 Euros may be even more a reasonable move and save you 85 Euros to invest in extra memory :-)