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I have the Q6600 running at 2.4GHz; but right now it's running at 1.58GHz, sometimes even slower - it's just not that fast. Even when running Photoshop or Elements. I'm using XP so the OS is not really optimized for the 4GB of ram or the four cores either but I have not tried Linux yet.

So at this point it seems to me having a quad core is being a wee bit ahead of the curve and the world is not really ready for it yet.

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The OS is exactly the problem here. XP is basically unable to take more than intermittent advantage of more than just two of the cores.

with Linux or Vista running a graphics program or executing a CPU test you'd see the CPU running at 100% of its clock speed.

with regard to ram, XP (32-bit XP, the version 99% of XP users run) does not have enough addresses to assign to all 4 gb of ram, so it also only sees 3.x gb of ram when you run direct x diagnostic or check under My Computer, Properties. The RAM is all there, but the OS has no way to index all 4 gigs, so it uses what it can. When running XP, 2 gb is the sweet spot, but more will not hurt performance.

for now he's ahead of the curve, but thats not necessarily a bad place to be, other than his CPU is running well under its most effective speed.

-adam

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