[Help] Mobo for i7-920 and some performance questions

[ravicore]

Hi guys,

currently i have:

q6600 at 3.5 (cheap air)
asus p5e64 WS Evolution
4gb patriot ddr3 at 1600 7-7-7
4870 toxic 512
750w corsair
32bit xp (getting 64bit os for the new hw)

PC is used for gaming (just old simple WoW) and nonproffessional 2D/3D graphics stuff (photoshop, maya, AE...)


Ok so iam planning to buy i7-920 (cant get the better ones atm), some cheapish 1.65 3x2gb 1600 rams and a mobo and keep the current vga. CPU will be air cooled.

Question is then, which mobo to get for some decent OC on the i7? (After great experience with my current mobo id very likely grab the Asus's "Revolution" one myself.)
And what about the i7 itself, will it outperform the q6600 hugely when it comes to 3D graphics applications and rendering (Maya, 3d max) even when the frequency probably wont be as high as the q6600's?
Also, how was it with the i7 steppings? Huge differences?

Thanks in advance if you decide to help!

 

[BoBzzz]

I may be very wrong here but I was under the impression that Maya and 3D Max primarily benefited from workstation GPUs (ATI FireGL and Nvidia Quadro series).

 

[ravicore]

I may be very wrong here but I was under the impression that Maya and 3D Max primarily benefited from workstation GPUs (ATI FireGL and Nvidia Quadro series).

Yep i guess they do, but i cant afford proffessional cards and the pc still serves as a gaming station as well. And the stuff iam doing is mostly complex photoshop compositions or lowpoly model animation + composition in 3D and i think thats more about cpu and memory rather than vga. I may be wrong tho.