ADVISE? Intel Processor + Motherboard

[Rawkus]

Hi All,

I've just got myself a BFG gtx280 OC and im now thinking of getting myself a new processor.
I'm seriously considering getting an intel Quad core to replace my AMD 5600+ X2 and a motherboard to match.

I've got a budget of around £160 for the processor and MAX of £120 for motherboard.
Anyone got any ideas what I could get and where i could get it?

Cheers

[Biscuit]

www.scan.co.uk or www.ebuyer.com are the main ones. I occationally use microdirect.co.uk as its quite local and there is also www.novatech.co.uk who are pretty good.
Genrally tend to stick to scan due to their fantastic customer support and competetive prices (sound liek a salesman )

I personally would get

Q6600 of the CPU
and a Asus P45 mobo. You could hover get a cheaper motherboard which would be fine here is a list of all the P45s.

[Webby]

Are you planning on overclocking? What memory do you currently have? and finally what CPU cooler?

The only 2 Intel Quads in your price range are the Q6600 (£150, 2.4GHz, 8MB Cache, 266FSB, 65nm) and the Q8200 (£155, 2.33GHz, 4MB Cache, 333FSB, 45nm) if we re-jig your budgets a bit you could probably stretch to the Q8300 (£190, 2.5GHz, 4MB Cache, 333FSB, 45nm). Personally I would find it hard not to pick the Q6600 from that that selection if I was overclocking.

Motherboard wise if your overclocking then the DFI DK P45-T2RS Plus (£100) and even if your not it is a great board. If you wanted something a bit cheaper and were not planning on overclocking then one of the cheaper P45 or P43 boards would do you nicely.

Hope that helps, oh the reason I asked about memory is that if overclocking the 45nm quads with their 333FSB you will need fast DDR2 (probably 1066MHz to get the most out of the CPU) for the Q6600 800MHz will be more than sufficient. If your not overclocking the 667MHz or above will be fine.

CPU cooler again is based on overclocking if you are then getting a decent cooler is a must.

[Fraz]

I still find it amazing that after what must be nearly two years since its release the Q6600 is still the processor of choice. Amazing CPU. I think my Q6600 is worth more now than I paid for it 18 months ago.

[Webby]

Fraz yeah I know what you mean it is just priced so competatively the price plummeted to counter the original Phenoms then when it became obvious that they were not a threat the price drifted back up (the latest price increases are due to the falling pound though ) So that meant that Intel didn't feel the need to price the newer quads at the same level which basically means its still the best bang for buck you can get for an overclockable quad some of the cheaper Phenoms (9500 i think for ~£85) are bargain quads if you are doing multi-threaded apps on a tight budget. But for most people the Q6600 is the quad of choice.

With the release of Phenom 2 tomorrow perhaps that will change who can say for sure, guess we will have to wait for pricing and performance.

[Rawkus]

Judging by what i've heard, the Q6600 is definately the way to go
Loving the look of the DFI DK P45-T2RS Plus as well
Will probably end up overclocking at some point when I really need to but right now im runnin g crysis at max detail 2x AA at 30 FPS (just using this as a performance benchmark).
Just looking to give my rig that little extra oomf. Plus, would make video and music production studios run so much more smoothly

[Biscuit]

Yeah its frustrating when you get to a point and realize your hard drive is the bottleneck when your rendering :@

[Blitzen]

I still find it amazing that after what must be nearly two years since its release the Q6600 is still the processor of choice. Amazing CPU. I think my Q6600 is worth more now than I paid for it 18 months ago.

Great isn't it
I bought my Q6600 G0 from the 'For Sale' section here a year ago for £125 and its fantastic.

I keep looking but there is absolutely no reason for me to change it