Core 2 Quad Q9300 reviewed

Keywords: Intel Core 2 Q9300 review Q9400
Xbitlabs has an extensive review on the new Q9300 processor from Intel, the lowest priced 45nm quad-core.
The official price of $266 will get you a 2.5GHz quad-core with 6MB of L2 cache, half of what the top models feature, but still enough to outperform the Q6600 in most situations.
Overclocking though, is somewhat disappointing. They only managed 3.5GHz, which is understandable given the low 7.5x multiplier. That increases the need for a higher FSB and chipsets don't perform to the same level as when overclocking dual cores. Wolfdale, on the other hand, will be much more rewarding and a better option for now, the Quad is better for the long run.

Intel will also release the Q9400 soon, which features a higher multiplier of 8x and the same 6MB of L2 cache, but that will not help much with overclocking - that's only 3.7GHz on the same test bench.
In the end, these are still the processors to buy if performance is a requirement and if heavily multithreaded apps are used on a daily basis. AMD hasn't got anything to compete with Intel right now, and the B3 revision Phenom X4 probably won't be it, unless they come up with good clocks and even better pricing.