Best MOBO / Processor combo???

[Rockrz]

I bought my PC in '06 and it has the Asus A8N-SLI Premium motherboard
and it has the AMD Socket 939 Athlon 64FX/Athlon 64 processor.

It performs decently, but I'm considering upgrading to a more powerful processor and motherboard that can handle more power. I'm currently running XP Pro, but eventually I'll be upgrading to Vista or even the new Windows 7 when it comes out.

So, I'd like to have a motherboard / processor combination that can handle
having at least 8gigs of RAM, 1200+ front side bus, and large cache.

Anyone have suggestions for high end motherboard / processor combos to look at? And, is Intel now the king for fastest processors?

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: Rockrz
I bought my PC in '06 and it has the Asus A8N-SLI Premium motherboard
and it has the AMD Socket 939 Athlon 64FX/Athlon 64 processor.

It performs decently, but I'm considering upgrading to a more powerful processor and motherboard that can handle more power. I'm currently running XP Pro, but eventually I'll be upgrading to Vista or even the new Windows 7 when it comes out.

So, I'd like to have a motherboard / processor combination that can handle
having at least 8gigs of RAM, 1200+ front side bus, and large cache.

Anyone have suggestions for high end motherboard / processor combos to look at? And, is Intel now the king for fastest processors?

Yup, Intel is currently the "king" with i7. However the C2D quads and possibly AMD Phenom II (available sooon) are very competitive in some areas and probably better values, unless i7 has some specific features/capabilities you need.

Originally posted by: Rockrz
So, I'd like to have a motherboard / processor combination that can handle
having at least 8gigs of RAM, 1200+ front side bus, and large cache.

What made you come up with this? Large cache and high FSB does not necessarily make a top-end CPU.

 

[Rockrz]

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle
What made you come up with this? Large cache and high FSB does not necessarily make a top-end CPU.

But, it's part of what a fast and powerful system can do.

I noticed that when looking at some of the very expensive gaming rigs.
They all had large cache and FSB specs, so it must help out somehow

 

[jscedaz]

Originally posted by: Rockrz

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle
What made you come up with this? Large cache and high FSB does not necessarily make a top-end CPU.

But, it's part of what a fast and powerful system can do.

I noticed that when looking at some of the very expensive gaming rigs.
They all had large cache and FSB specs, so it must help out somehow

And the higher numbers make us feel good

 

[Rockrz]

Well it does happen to be relevant, as you look at computer specs.

The faster the computer, the higher cache and FSB seems to go

 

[perdomot]

What's your budget look like for upgrading?

 

[Rockrz]

I'm trying to stay around $1000, or so.

I'm leaning towards the new Intel i7 processor, a high end Asus mobo, and about 4 gigs of DDR3 Ram (I'll still be running XP Pro, so no need for more ram)