Yeah, I did a bit of searching and contemplating the past couple days before 'calling the ball' on the Q6600 - it was all about value and longevity.
The Q9xxx series is just plain overpriced right now - and unfortunately will likely stay that way for a few months. I really wanted to make a large jump to the 9450, but at $350 it was just too much for me to stomach when the retailers have already discounted the Q6600 (that one especially) and Q6700 CPUs rather nicely. The 9300 was a contender, but for $290.00 (and the low multiplier...) just didn't sit well with me value-wise. Granted, the new transistors, cooler overall operation, and instruction set (SSE4) were factors (for choosing the 8400 dual core too) - strong ones - but the 9300 is not looking to be as flexible as an overclocker's performance chip.
I had set myself on the 8400 dual core until last week. It is a great value, but I succumbed to the lure (wisdom...) of four cores for the same price and was willing to forego the excitement of clocking to 4Ghz. With the 6600 I know I'll likely be settling for 3.2Ghz 24/7 and possibly playing with 3.6Ghz plus (depending on the batch and VID - G0 stepping is about a given at this point) on occasions.
The 6700 hasn't dropped enough yet (that one is due to drop more soon) - still priced the same as the 9300 - and looks to overclock basically the same as the 6600 anyway. The 9 multiplier on the 6600 is very flexible - ideal actually for the frequencies I want to reach toward with the memory I have (DDR2 800Mhz, but should be very flexible on frequencies too), which I bought a year ago...
Anyway, there's the logic behind the processor choice.
You're right, I could probably use more memory - but I'll have to wait until tomorrow (figuratively)...
I've been reading a lot of y'all posts for the past several months - they have really helped to give me a good perspective - thank you - and please keep it up! I'll hopefully join in in a helpful way soon too!
Edit: Batch L750A936, S-Spec (stepping) SLACR (G0). Woot! I'll be looking for the VID and post...