I'm at the point where my IC7-G mainboard is outdated to hell.

I found this on tigerdirect.

Asus P5K3 Deluxe WiFi Motherboard CPU Bundle - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor 2.40GHz OEM at TigerDirect.com

I was thinking I could just get that, get like 4gb of ram, it's got a dual core processor on it and and intel isn't too bad even though it's not the core 2 duo.

So I could just get that and a good video card, and it would be good, no?

Anybody have any input on this? Or similarly price ranged MB/processor bundles??

I use my computer a lot - so I need stability, though I do like to game, and have never had the ability to run even light games on heavy graphics settings (currently have a P4 3.0ghz w/ 1gig ddr, and a rage 5500 gfx).

So any info or other "bundle" suggestions would be appreciated.

I'm going to reuse the case/power supply/hard drive (Maxtor SATA 6Y200M0)/CD-Rom drive (and when I get the $$ get a CD/DVD writer), gonna use the onboard NIC and sound cards, and the case I have is a thermaltake has plenty of fans - and from that video on tigerdirect it seems you can overclock this thing quite nicely while still remaining very very stable.

So any info is greatly appreciated.

Here's my case for reference of cooling capacity...



It was originally made as my gaming computer - but 4 years later I can't really game on it anymore, lol. Though I wanna hype the gfx a bit because I do want to do some new gaming...but damn, I have a radeon rage 5500 and I don't have any PCIX cards (IC7-G MB), only AGP, so I don't want to invest $ into an AGP card that'll go as soon as I dump this MB.

Mine's a bit toned down, doesn't have the neon in the back, nad has a billet front instead of that checkered, but same principle case - it has lots of fans.

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In case the above doesn't make any sense, note that I don't know anything about computers.

"Horsepower sells motor cars, but torque wins motor races"
- Carroll Shelby

what do you mean it's not Core 2 Duo? It's better, it's got 4-cores (quad core), Core 2 Quad, and that processor is a fantastic overclocker and the MB is apparently very good aswell

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Oh, I kinda missed the whole "QUAD" in big letters :-P.

So it's ONE 2.6Ghz 4 core processor?

I'd think two ~3.0Ghz dual core processors would be better, no?

I can see the 4 core running a lot of shit at the same time without the heat starting to amp up, but I also see it having a lower max output than say a 3.0...or something else?

I don't really understand processors so feel free to explain it to me. Though from what I gathered vs. what I see, it seems like that'd be good for like a server, where it's trying to do a lot of minimal stuff at once, but maybe not so much a hardcore area of one thing. Though like you said, it seems to be very overclockable (and does the MB).

Anybody else, thoughts??

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In case the above doesn't make any sense, note that I don't know anything about computers.

"Horsepower sells motor cars, but torque wins motor races"
- Carroll Shelby

looks pretty good to me...

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no, 2.6Ghz over 4 cores - also has massive overclocking potential, an easy 3Ghz some would say - Quad core is same concept as Duo, just 4 instead of 2

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Living life to the fullest it can possibly be!
AMD Phenom Quad-Core 9500, OCZ 4GB PC2 -6400 RAM, GeForce 8800 GTX Ultra 768MB, 150GB Raptor. 500GB WD HD

If you add the price of the motherboard and cpu separately, you get 559.98, which is less than the bundle.

ya dude, think of the duo 3GHz as 6GHz total, and the quad2.4GHz as 9.4GHz total. plus that quad core i've heard clocks to ~3.6 which 4X = 14.4GHz total lol. so ya that quad processor kicks ass

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it doesn't really work like that, but in theory (and in time), it will - look at Crysis 4 example, that is using more than 2 cores, and has a much better performance on quads.

Have you thought about Phenom

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Living life to the fullest it can possibly be!
AMD Phenom Quad-Core 9500, OCZ 4GB PC2 -6400 RAM, GeForce 8800 GTX Ultra 768MB, 150GB Raptor. 500GB WD HD

crysis uses more than 2 cores? do you mean it CAN use more than two cores? cause i know a quad can multithread like a mofo, but it seems like a duo would be able to run crysis just fine.

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yh, a duo can run it fine, i think a single could run it even - I'm just trying to point out that dual cores are being used more now and most 'current apps' take advantage of the two cores, but there isn't mich out there that can make use of 4-cores, but Crysis is one of the apps/games that does

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Living life to the fullest it can possibly be!
AMD Phenom Quad-Core 9500, OCZ 4GB PC2 -6400 RAM, GeForce 8800 GTX Ultra 768MB, 150GB Raptor. 500GB WD HD

ya, but buying a quad core will keep you ahead of the game. lol then when more apps start to use them, they will practically be brand new!! man, have any of you guys heard about the shooting here in nebraska? not sure it its "national news" but 9 people were killed, and 5 injured at a mall.

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Q6600 is a known overclocking beast! 3.0 on after-market air, even more if you want to go liquid.

ya thsi guys said he got the good ole kentsfield up to 3.635 or something like that.

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or if your waiting a while a Phenom... , the Phenom 9500 is now reported to be reaching 2.9Ghz, unverified but it would not surprise me - I'm on 2.7Ghz with the stock cooler, so who knows, 3Ghz+ possibly on the way

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Living life to the fullest it can possibly be!
AMD Phenom Quad-Core 9500, OCZ 4GB PC2 -6400 RAM, GeForce 8800 GTX Ultra 768MB, 150GB Raptor. 500GB WD HD

As for the dude that said I can buy 'em both separately for cheaper. Though how much cheaper? I got a big issue putting processors/heat sinks on boards due to the paste and the consequences of too little or too much paste. So if it's like a 40 dollar difference, to me it's worth it. I don't know what the difference is though...

The way I understand core distribution is: It's like having 1 big hand (single core) say 3.5ghz - or 2 smaller hands (say 1.6) and trying to pick up legos out of a box full of legos with each. Dual cores can't handle as much, but can handle more of smaller things.

Nobody's been able to give me a straight answer on it though so I stopped caring about trying to figure it out, which is why I'm making this thread.

So people think it's a good deal?


I don't plan on playing incredibly heavy resource games such as crysis, but I'd like to play a few older games on full gfx (ie. need for speed underground 2 and most wanted), and a few newer games that come out...not like crysis, but whatever else has "decent" gfx.

It's not a gaming computer - but I do wanna game on it - if ya get what I'm saying.

__________________
In case the above doesn't make any sense, note that I don't know anything about computers.

"Horsepower sells motor cars, but torque wins motor races"
- Carroll Shelby