any benefits to disabling cores in a Q6600?

[blanketyblank]

I'm thinking of getting a Q6600 since they have fallen in price to 200 recently. I don't mind the fact that it is slower than the e8400, but I do like the idea of lower power consumption. I'm thinking I can disable some of the cores for normal use and only enable those cores when I want to do something taxing. Would that have any affect on power consumption?
If it did and I only kept it on 2 cores would it also be possible to OC it higher to match say an e6750 at 3.6 ghz vs 3.3 ghz on 4 cores.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'm not aware of any BIOSes that give you the option of shutting down cores. They probably should add that feature though, that's a good idea.

 

[Idontcare]

What you are asking for isn't really practical on Intel desktops right now (or for the forseeable future). But it is feasible with Phenom quads using their overclocking software package.

There are some motherboards out that which will allow you to "disable" cores on Intel quads, but it doesn't really disable as much as it configures the BIOS to not recognize all the cores. They are powered up and eating electricity, but they won't ever be loaded so they are basically idle 100% of the time and the OS is blind to their existance.

Since the "disabled" cores are still operating at the same clockspeed and Vcore as the "enabled" cores (in this situation) some of the thermal budget is still consumed by the idle/disabled cores which is what limits your overclock on the enabled/loaded cores.