madmanjohn, fantastic story. You've got an interesting job, do you get groupies in your line of work?
BazookaJoe, I'm not too fond of that review its obviously dodgy look at these statistics from the TPU official WPrime thread.
LeMoose - Phenom 9950 3009 MHz – 12.719
ntdouglas - Core 2 Quad Q6600 - 3204 MHz - 12.919
As one can see although the Phenom 9950 is clocked lower than the Q6600 the Phenom 9950 was able to attain a faster speed.
Also
fatguy1992 - Core 2 Quad Q6600 4005 MHz - 10.249
Kei – Phenom II 920 3780 MHz – 9.747
Although the Q6600 was clocked at over 4GHz it was unable to compete with the Phenom II which was clocked at only 3780Mhz
This proves that even if the Q6600 is overclocked to match the Phenom IIs clock speed or even if the Q6600 is overclocked higher than the Phenom II, the Phenom II has the advantage in Wprime.
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=77369
Not sure how to respond to that considering that TPUs results show the Q6600 is slower than the old Phenoms and the new Phenoms in Wprime. The old Phenom 9950 is cheaper than the Q6600 in the UK.
madmanjohn's Q6600 was in a unique situation, he was operating his computer outside in rough conditions, 98 degrees in the shade. I doubt your bedroom or office is that hot.