Windows 7 - Wolfdale or Yorkfield ?

Hi, I'm just about to order the necessary hardware parts for my first Mini iTX system.
The only item that gives me still headache is the CPU.

I'm thinking between E8400 (Wolfdale) and Q9550 (Yorkfield).

Surfing through the internet didn't bring me much closer to the answer.
The quad seems to be better for video processing (rendering & encoding) and some PC games (GTA IV).
The dual core seems to be more efficient.

Because I have an E8400 (C1) already in my mATX system, I feel more towards a quad for a change.
Now I'd like to find out the correlation between multicore and Window 7.

Does it take advantage of quads at all ?

I am very much asking myself the same question right now

Windows 7 can take advantage of quad core CPU's. Although quite a number of software packages aren't geared specifically towards working any better with multiple cores...or more than 2 cores....so the difference might not be that great. With that said, I just built a machine with a Q9550....very nice CPU...I'm quite happy with it.

Can I ask you what temps you're getting please ?

The E8400 (C1) idles, according to everest, between 35 and 38 degrees.
That's with Intel's crappy stock cooler and without using any thermal paste.
Using Intel burn test, it goes up to 66 degrees at full load.

Certainly, I am running mine (Q9550) on a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R with the stock Intel cooler as well. I'm running mine with a 276 x 8.5 setting, so 3.2Ghz instead of 2.83.

I'm idling between 31-35, and under full load I'm seeing 58-62 degrees. That's according to the CoreTemps64 application on Windows 7 64-bit

I have an E8400 right now, and I've been really happy with it. If and when I upgrade, it'll be to quad core, though. I'd say even an 8500 since the price has dropped a fair amount from when I bought my cpu.

Whatever you get, I'd recommend investing in a better cooler. Just a thought...

I've been considering an aftermarket cooler...but in all honesty my temps are not a problem whatsoever. I guess I might be able to up my overclock more....but that comes at the risk of possible stability problems...so I don't anticipate going any higher.

Thank you ! That sounds better than I dared to expect.

And yes lokiundergod, I will order these two CPU coolers.
One for the Mini iTX and one for the mATX system:

I've read internet posts of people getting much higher than I am seeing......but it doesn't seem to be a problem whatsoever on my machine. Temps are fine, my fans rarely (if ever) increase in speed and I've never had a crash or lockup. I've been very happy with this CPU.

pparks1 ! I'm happy to speak with an Q9550 owner.
Please tell me, do you check the Task Manager sometimes ?
Would you know whether Speedstep kicks in usually and if yes, what the decrease is ?

With my Wolfdale's 3.0 GHz, Speedstep makes it go down to 2.0 Ghz.

And does it show how busy the 4 cores are when you do stuff ?
I ask because on my dual core, I can see very well that both cores are round about equally busy sometimes.
Having read that the usage of all 4 cores is very depending on the software that is being used.
That's why apparently the majority of PC games don't use more than 2 cores.

I'm rather happy that I won't have to be worried about too high temps.
Having two Wolfdales under the hood does not seem to double the heat.

And the few performance charts I could find about the quad, showing about 25 to 30% faster processing at certain tasks, encouraged me to go for the quad.
The E8400 (E0) cost here where I live 138.59 Euro and the Q9550 (E0) 194.83 Euro.