CPUs > 3 GHz and more CPUs > LGA775 Socket

Advantages: Cheap, fast and cool
Disadvantages: it's not a quad core, £130 may be too much for some

It took a while for Intel to wake up and smell the prices of AMD shares recently (AMD being Intel's main competitor). After years of AMD taking bite after bite out of Intel's market share with innovative, efficient, fast and affordable processors, Intel finally did something about it and released the Core 2 processor. The dual and quad core CPU's completely blew AMD away and AMD still haven't caught up two years later. The Intel Core 2 E8400 is the ...
...advantage of quad cores and Intel has released it's next generation architecture called Nehalem, it's well worth saving your money - with the E8400 costing less than £130, it's value for money, especially if you're overclocking, is undeniable. Whether you're buying a new system with an E8400 in it or upgrading your existing system, the E8400 should be top of your list. ... Read review

Advantages: Fast, good overclocking potential; the best for games (and virtually all other applications)
Disadvantages: Runs fairly warm, but nothing terrible

As a gamer, I needed the best processor out there. Searching around, the only real debate in this price range was whether to go for the E6850, a dual core CPU, or the Q6600, a quad core at a lower clock. After looking at many different benchmarks and reviews, the answer was clear - the higher clocked part (the E6850) was a more power processor, giving better performance in games, and better performance in most ofther software applications as well. ...
...6 months ago when I bought this product; current applications do not need 4 cores to run quickly, especially games. If I was particularly interested in video editing, then I may have gone for a quad-core, but for my purposes it wasn't nescessary. Not only that, but I have used video editing software on this, and it will render incredibly quickly - I was blown away. So, the upshot is - what do you need to use your computer for? A few specialised ... Read review

Advantages: Insanely efficient, SS4 instruction capabilities, unlocked multiplier
Disadvantages: fairly expensive, some more programs need to be multi threaded

...were looking very dire for Intel indeed. Massive job cuts, poor PR and above all they had an outdated series. Their main rivals AMD were trouncing them at every step. They left no stone unturned and Intel seemed to be in major trouble. Then the Conroes hit the market. Instantly the tables were turned. The new 65nm process Intel adopted, dominated the market. They ran cool, extremely efficiently and above all they overclocked. Fast forward to today ...
...overclocks even better than before. Intel knows what consumers want. Value for money. On my meagre rig ;) I managed to overclock the QX6950 to over 4.3Ghz on watercooling. Unfortunatly my motherboard cannot go anyhigher so for the time being im limited. However being the Extreme version, this chip allows you to drop the multiplier to negate the limitations of the other components. Would I recommend this chip though? Maybe. As much as I have raved ... Read review

Advantages: Unlocked multiplier
Disadvantages: Price, same performance can be had with overclocked Q6600/6700 for less

...Back in the older days, Intel used to differentiate the Extreme editions from the standard Pentium 4's/D's with more cache or Hyperthreading. Since the Core 2 Extreme Editions have been released, the only aspect these have that can't be found on the standard Core 2 Duo's/Quads is an unlocked multiplier. Sadly that's the only feature and is it worth 2x the price, I think not!. a Q6600 G0 or even B3 can be overclocked way beyond 3GHz using a 8x or ... Read review

Advantages: cheap, reliable good for everyday tasks.
Disadvantages: you can't expect too much

Got this processor in a cheap Medion pc (from tescos £300) about six months ago was intially very impressed by the frequency 3.33 ghz which sounds good. However this is deceiving to the performance of the cpu i.e. though it handles simple pc tasks such as non demanding things like the internet it often slows down and nearly constantly runs at 100% frequency or quite near that level. Game performance with this cpu is poor and will lead to low fps ...
...cache size 512k, adequete cache size is one of the main neccesitys for good pc gaming and intensive applications. In conclusion value for money but you get what you pay for, if your thinking of upgrading i'd delfinately go for a dual core processor for the sake of twenty pounds extra. ... Read review