I need a new mobo/cpu!

Hi,

re: "Can someone explain how the cpu will affect game performance, in comparison to the Q6600."

It depends on the game. Games that use a lot of CPU and no video will respond nicely to a faster cpu, games that use little CPU and tons of graphics will show little/no gains from a faster CPU. This article might help. It shows whether the game is CPU or graphics bottlenecked for a number of games. (sorry, doesn't have WoW, but does have Battlefield: Bad Company 2 which could help you predict BF3. ).

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/game-performance-bo...

Google a few articles on your video card, gtx465, and BF3 or WOW to see what framerates your card can deliver. Typically articles that test video cards have huge CPU and are not CPU limited.

re "get at least 30fps all the time in bf3"
30 FPS in BF2 is possible with your video card at 1920 x 1080. If you are not seeing it, it could be a cpu limit. http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/gefor... -- this is bf2 not bf3

"i5 2500k is the big kid on campus?" yup. i7-2600 marginally better at higher price.

"can someone explain how double GPU's work in regards to incrasing system performance? " Graphic processing is usually partitionable. Using two graphics cards can give you up to 2X performance improvement depending on the card, driver and game. Google will tell you how gtx 465 performs in SLI in the games you care about. You need a special SLI capable motherboard and two of the exact same video cards. You put a funny cable between them. There are issues (cooling problems, lack of DX9 support, etc.) but this is a great way to improve performance. your ASUS P5QC only has one x16 pcie slot and does not support SLI.

Suggestions:

(1) the q6600 overclocks really well. Figure out how to overclock it. It is easier than physically building a new system http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qXbwXOTaQg&feature=rela...

(2) your GTX465 is a good card. Figure out how to give it a slight overclock. Maybe 10% to shaders. Here's how http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/83832-overclocking-th... Here are some heavy overclocks. http://www.gpureview.com/gpureviews-gtx-465-overclockin... dont' go this far.

(3) Once you have the Q6600 at 3ghz instead of 2.4 then see if improved CPU (2.4ghz to 3 ghz is normal for a Q6600 and is a 30% OC) actually improves frame rates. If not then a new CPU/MB will not help much.

(4) Once you have the video overclocked see if your frame rates go up (they will, a little) then see if you see any playability difference (you might or you may not).

Based on what you see you can run overclocked for cpu and/or graphics or you can choose whether to get stronger video or processor.