1. Both run at 2.66 GHz. You won't really get 5.32 Ghz of speed out of it because virtually all applications and games at the moment will only use one core at a time. But it does mean that if you have crap going in the background, it's highly unlikely to interfere with a game. The game will get put on one core, the other crap will get shoved to the other.

Some advanced video and image editing applications will use both cores at once, but I know next to nothing about those.

2. Yes. And the slot type you are looking for is LGA 775

3. No. The FSB is quad pumped, which basically means that each clock cycle 4 instructions get sent through. The real FSB clock speed is 333 Mhz, making the processor multiplier 8. I don't know the specifics of that particular processor, but it's very likely the processor multiplier is locked at 8, meaning you would have to boost the FSB to overclock. Not that it's at all necessary with that good of a processor. I don't bother with my 6420 which only runs at 2.16 Ghz, and it's fine for everything.

Wow thanks, that helps a lot. I'm trying to get A+ Certified, I've read through one book and about a fifth of the way through the next, but I got all confused when it came to FSB's and stuff. Thanks for your help, back to studying I suppose.

If you have a Illudium Q-36 mobo then it shouldn't be a problem running 2-4 processors simultaniously.

Also, that MOBO allows you to run quad video cards. Check it out

Falon, didn't think you'd fall for the Illudium Q-36 bit. It's from a couple episodes of Loony Toones when Marvin the Martian (from mars) wants to look at Venus but Earth gets in his way of the view. So in an effort to alleviate this problem he takes a Illudium Q-36 to Earth to destroy it, but Bugs Bunny keeps on foiling his plans.

It's a fun joke to play every once in a while when people are talking about really technical things.

Haha Fist, yea well seriously there is something from NASA called the Illudium Q36 and its supposed to be beast. Zargon thanks for all your info, I feel a little bit more secure about my build now. Too bad it won't come to be for another...4-5 months...

np. Of course, in 4-5 months you're very likely going want different parts than you would want today, but the knowledge of what to look for and how to judge one part against another will still be applicable.

saying apps wont use more then one core is absoulouty wrong there are several apps and games that are even using quad cores to thier full potential if it has a core2 duo logo or a quad core logo that will tell you if the game supports it or not and you will see a huge diffrence in the games performance ones from the top of my head are supreme commander supports quad and dual core uses all the cores so does wow it supports at least dual core right now i think crysis uses the cores

the q6600 beast the other 2 specially if you get the stepping model G0 if you unlucky and get a stepping core BX then you wont be happy with the q6600 i got mine from tigerdirect cause they tell you what core stepping your getting on thier site i could prob hit 4 gig with my q6600 if i wanted to up the core voltage but i staying at 3.4 gig at stock voltages so its all good

Yes, there are some apps that use more than one core at a time. Most don't. Pretty damn sure tf2 doesn't (but I never checked). In the future, it's likely more apps & games will support multiple cores, but there will always be lots that don't due to the greatly increased difficulty involved in the programming.

few things i noticed...
yes tf2 supports multi-threading...sorta...

HL2:EP2 introduced limited multithreading. it only splits the load about 50% and only between 2 cores. ie instead of core 1 being 100% all the time, it'll look about 75%/25% and quad-core CPUs see 75%/25/0/0. of course background apps and windows will add cpu cycles across all cores.

true multi-threading will see quad-core CPU resources 25/25/25/25 for that specific game. it also means the game devs can code specific game engines for a seperate core and greatly enhance performance. ie all software-based rendering, like some GFX, all physics (unless you have a PhysX card [side note: multi-threading makes them pretty obsolete], all sound if you have onboard or small amt if external card, etc can be split up between the cores to streamline processing power.

zargin is right in basically all his statements.

right now the best buy is still the Q6600 or the cheaper Duo E8400 CPU. the 8400 is a really nice dual-core thats faster than all previous dual-core 6000-series CPUs besides the Extremes ($900 and up MRSP).

any current-model or newer board will suffice as long as it's a good, name brand. Asus, abit, gigabyte, msi, evga, and xfx come to mind. for Intel chipsets look for a P35 or X38 chipset. P35s are more than capable for a non-overclocked system and are very cheap these days. good P35s can be found for under $150. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128083
X38s are over-kill for most people but do offer better overclocking and crossfire performance.

for nvidia chipsets, look for the newer 750i or 780i boards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131232 looks like a good board for the price. boasts SLI (dual gfx card support usually isnt found until $200 and up for current model boards). while 750i technically is a new chipset, it's really a 650i with PCI-E 2.0 and 45nm CPU support. there's also an MSI 750i board on newegg for a little more $.


if you're not seriously going to overclock, dont buy in the the hype and flash of the expensive board. they have high-quality capacitors, much better cooling systems, 3-way SLI/CrossfireX, and some even have wireless cards built in and generally much more R&D time invested that really stacks the price up. if you arent going to overclock or use 2 or more GFX cards, it wouldnt be a wise investment. could put more $$ into the CPU/GFX card or elsewhere.