Decided on a cpu, what mobo/ram combo?

[tophee]

Hi folks,

I've been considering a hardware upgrade. Fancy four cores and four G of ram.
I think I'll be going with an Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail as it looks a good price performer.

As I've not been following hardware recently. What should I be spending my money on? Thoughts and suggestions appreciated.

Oh, I don't need anything other than cpu/mobo/ram as my current PSU, graphics card and case can and will be reused.

Ta,
Chris

 

[BillytheImpaler]

Will you be overclocking? What graphics card will you be reusing?

 

[tophee]

At the moment I am using a HIS Radeon 3850 256m ram.
I probably won't be o'cing initially - (mid way through a masters and don't have the time) but it's likely.

 

[BillytheImpaler]

This is my recommendation:

The motherboard is of good quality and it will overclock that processor well. The RAM is a good deal for 4 GiB and won't hinder your overclock. Keep in mind 4 GiB RAM will require a 64-bit operating system.

 

[tophee]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm already running vista ultimate. So no probs on the OS. Or Linux, depending, no this machine will be a windows machine.
I should be ordering by the end of the day.

 

[tophee]

Just been looking at the comments for the P5K listed above. Doesn't support RAID? Ah that might be the deal breaker. I need RAID1 support. Currently have my SATA drives in a mirrored configuration.

Other suggestions? I can probably afford upto about £400 total.