looking to upgrade my system

[DirtyD86]

i've been thinking it's about that time... i'm currently running the system in my sig and have been playing flight simulator X a lot recently. that game makes crysis look like pacman in terms of system requirements. i definitely want to go with a quad core because i figure it's a bad idea to be buying a dual core CPU at this stage in the game.... the q6600 is a great CPU and they are cheap nowadays, but i was wanting to go with 45nm as my system runs hot enough as it is. i don't think i will be overclocking it anytime soon so that isn't really a factor. i haven't been keeping up with hardware as much as i used to, so im just wondering what the sweet spot is for around $250 +/-

thanks

 

[ScOuT]

I have the Q9300 and I'm happy with it, runs nice and cool! I wanted a 45nm proc also and this was the one I chose. It has a locked multiplier of 7.5...but I don't do any extreme overclocking anyway. You can get it for $260 at Newegg right now. Here is a shot of my temps running Prime95 for about an hour, nice and cool

___________________________________________________
Case : XION II w/12” green cold cathode
Motherboard : Asus P5N-E 650i @ 1532 FSB
CPU : Intel Q9300 @ 2.875 GHz
CPU Cooler : Cooler Master Hyper TX2 / lapped w AS5
RAM : Corsair XMS2 Pro/pc6400/ 4x1GB/ @800 MHz
Graphics : Evga 9800 GTX @ 740 MHz
PSU : Antec Neo Power 650w / modular cables
OP: Vista Home Pre 64 bit

 

[just a noob]

i wouldn't get the q9300 over the q6600, the 6600 is actully the better processor(8mb of l2 cache) vs. 6mb on the q9300, i would say the q9550, if you're looking to spend quite a bit more

 

[fade2green514]

i wouldn't get the q9300 over the q6600, the 6600 is actully the better processor(8mb of l2 cache) vs. 6mb on the q9300, i would say the q9550, if you're looking to spend quite a bit more

agreed.

but, that won't help your video gaming much right now. get a better video card and your fps will increase. a dual core at 3ghz is very good for right now... im upgrading mine because i do some other things like video editing and converting that will really utilize the quad core's potential.