The Quad Core QX6700 is an intriguing chip. To take advantage of the 4 processor cores, the application has to support multi-threading and not everything supports it. There are instances in the benchmarking where the QX6700 is slower than X6800, due to the lack of multi-threaded support in the benchmarks.

The user that can most benefit from the QX6700 is for people that are high-end gamers and for those that use multimedia applications. As HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies move into the general PC market, the need for high power CPUs like the QX6700 will likely grow. H.264 content is very CPU dependent, bringing high-end single core CPUs to their knees.

The QX6700 is expensive, but you get what you pay for. The target market for the QX6700 is for the high-end enthusiast willing to pay a grand for their CPU and for the OEMs needing a Christmas season refresh of their computers. In that respect, the QX6700 does what Intel wanted it to and is an excellent choice for those wanting the absolute best in multimedia performance. The 975XBX2 is the second iteration of Intel motherboard, designed to work with the Core2 CPUs.

NVIDIA has a new motherboard chipset coming, the 600i for the Intel platform as well, that will support the new chipset with new features and performance. When paired with their next generation video cards in SLI mode (which is launching next week), it should form the fastest gaming platform on the consumer side of the market before Vista launches to retail next year. Microsoft’s Vista will really push high-end systems to the mainstream, as old tired graphics cards and single core CPUs will fade away.