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What kind of difference will the extra 3MB cache provide?

For PCSX2? 0-3%, depending on the game.
For most other apps and games? 0%.

Choose wisely.

It's actually a bit more for non-PCSX2 applications particularly games and compression software.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/int...i=3559&p=2

Another quick question: in gaming benchmarks, the Q8400 and the X4 945 are about equal in performance. Would PCSX2 be the same?

Q8400 might get better performance, because you can use sse4.1 which is better than sse2 (AMD CPU's).

Intel CPUs in general seem to outperform their AMD equivalents on the emulator, even when both are using SSE2.

You might not have the virtualization technology with the Q8400 (seems Intel have updated the CPU, and added VT ).

Yeah, the whole 8xxx series of Core 2 Quads are "budget" quads. They are basically the same as the 9xxx series, but without virtualization and some other features. There's basically no difference in PC gaming performance, though.

I have an XP computer that is still running great and will be for years and I can use Virtual PC on that to play any older games so virtualization isn't a big deal. In fact, I'd be 99% sure I'd never ever use it.

Okay, so, just to clarify, a 2.66Ghz Q8400 will get about the same or greater performance as a 3.0Ghz Phenom II X4 945?

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Excuse my rudeness! I forgot to thank you all for your valuable input. Air, you're full of win, as usual. The rest of you are too

If you overclock it to the same speeds, yeah.

You should be able to push that processor pretty far for an overclock, though, maybe 3.4ghz+ with a good fan.