Motherboard and processor advice

lornj

Distinguished
Mar 13, 2009
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im looking at getting the biostar tpower I45 LGA775 intel p45 atx motherboard. i already have an 8800gts and 8 gigs of corsair dominator ram and a 600w PSU ill be using. i was looking at the q6600 or q8300 for a processor and wanted to get peoples advice on these items ive chosen or if there is a better option. I know the new I7 stuff is the *** right now but isnt exactly cost effective for me at the moment. any help would be greatly appreciated.
 

Mondoman

Splendid
The PS isn't the best brand but should be OK. Personally, I'd go with the q6600 to have 2MB of cache per core (8MB total). It's also a proven OCer.
Of course, if you don't have an app in mind that needs/can use 4 cores, I'd go with an e8400, which is fast whether OC'd or not, has the new SSE4.1 instructions (like the q8xxx), and cheaper to boot.
 

bager85

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Jan 24, 2009
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I just bought a q8200 and really like it, but the q6600 and E8400 are all good choices, its really about how badly you want quad core and if you want the 45nm or 65nm dies. You also may want to consider putting something like a E5200 into the board and later upgrading to the q9000 series down the road.