A friend of mine is ordering a laptop.

Both are roughly the same price.

Which processor should he go for?

- Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme X9100 3.06GHz (6MB Cache 1066MHz FSB)

- Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q9100 2.26GHz (12MB Cache 1066MHz FSB)

Assuming everything about the processors is equal other than the clock speed and cache, I'd go with the 2nd. The Cache is extremely important, and will help him actually use the full processor speed.

No I would definitely go with the core 2 extreme.

The only reason the quad core has more cache is cause it has twice as many CPUs and that doesn't necessarily mean it's faster.

Anyways if they act the same as desktop processors the extreme is a better CPU.

If he intends to game on this laptop, I'd recommend the X9100. A four core processor alongside a powerful gpu seems like a heat hazard in the making (though I'm sure the Q9100 runs cooler than I'm imagining).

If he intends to make it multipurpose then the Q9100 will be worth more in the long run.

It's not faster.  Heck, the X9100 can be OC'd to about 3.5-3.6 Ghz if you're feeling really gutsy which is way way out of the meager 2.26 Ghz normal of the Q9100.  Though... I wouldn't recommend OC'ing it much if at all.

If he is gaming go with the Extreme.

@ WoW I said it DOESN'T mean it's faster...

Nevermind misunderstanding.

I know.  I'm agreeing with your point.

Thanks for the help guys. Yeah he'll be using the laptop for gaming mostly, so I guess I'll go ahead and recommend him the Extreme.

You should ask this in the pc forum