Jhow

I want to upgrade my cpu/mobo. I'm not an avid gamer but do enjoy it occasionally and I really do a little bit of everything. I like how the 8400 is 45nm but is a quad core better for someone who does a little of everything and a lot of multitasking. I'm also looking for a deal. I saw that frys had a good deal on the q6600 but did I miss it?

To the motherboard. I want a lot of expandability and I want this thing to last. Right now I'll have an sata dvd burner, 2 hard drives, and an esata port with plans of adding another burner and maybe more in the future so lots of sata ports. I have a 9600gt and although I don't see myself setting up sli in the near future I do want to have that option so I want 2 pci express slots. Will be using DDR2 Ram 3GB right now and want to be able to expand that at least to 4. It's ATX. For the mobo I don't want to spend anymore than $200 shipped and with tax but I lower is always better if possible and if it won't take too much away from it.

I want to get a really good deal too, if at all possible.

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AMD Athlon X2 5000+ (2.6ghz)
Ram 3GB DDR2
500GB Samsung Spinpoint/400GB Hitachi Deskstar
ECS 512MB Nvidia 9600GT
OCZ Gamexstream 700W

mortonman1

the P35 is a great motherboard.

for the CPU id get the E8400. but i dont know, its debatable. the q6600 could be overclocked to 3.0Ghz easy and be great. so i guess id get the q6600.
if you want a better mobo get the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131219

its expensive, but do what you want. also check out the benchmarks for CPUs and mobos. i dont have a link though

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Jhow

The second mobo costs a little too much and the first one doesn't have enough sata ports.

__________________
AMD Athlon X2 5000+ (2.6ghz)
Ram 3GB DDR2
500GB Samsung Spinpoint/400GB Hitachi Deskstar
ECS 512MB Nvidia 9600GT
OCZ Gamexstream 700W

ThatGuy16

i would get the E8400, i love mine

For the motherboard, if you want the SLI option, you'll need the nvidia chipset. The X38 boards are much better but support Crossfire (ATI) instead of SLI. Though the SLI board is out of your budget (780i). The 680i is an option, but would need a bios update for a E8400 before it will even post (so you would need a current supported CPU to flash the bios.) and they are poor overclockers.

X38
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813136045

P35
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128086

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MB: Gigabyte X38-DS4
Ram: 2x2GB G. Skill DDR2-1068
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oscaryu1

E8400 - Hardcore gamer

Q6600 - Heavy multitasking/many CPU stressing applications...

In between? Either would be fine.

__________________

Jhow

Well I'm more of heavy multitasker. Any good deals? Also, do I need to spend a little bit more on the mobo to get everything I want?

__________________
AMD Athlon X2 5000+ (2.6ghz)
Ram 3GB DDR2
500GB Samsung Spinpoint/400GB Hitachi Deskstar
ECS 512MB Nvidia 9600GT
OCZ Gamexstream 700W