The CPU alone is the same price, so basically a free MB.

PoorJohn said:kinda a mismatch between spiffy CPU and low-end budget motherboard. 100Mb ethernet, DDR2, one PCIE-16 are all features I'd want better of. Sometimes Fry's offers higher-end mobos in these deals, but it's been a while.

Agreed, anyone who wants this CPU should have nothing to do with this mobo, its like putting chrome 22's onto a 1986 corolla.

trailzrunner said:Is this CPU overclockable or is the 2.4GHz version better for OC ?

get the Q6600 if you want to OC. Although the Q9300 is a 45nm cpu, the high fsb and low multi make it hard to oc.

RDMustang1 said:cuoreesitante said:PoorJohn said:kinda a mismatch between spiffy CPU and low-end budget motherboard. 100Mb ethernet, DDR2, one PCIE-16 are all features I'd want better of. Sometimes Fry's offers higher-end mobos in these deals, but it's been a while.

Agreed, anyone who wants this CPU should have nothing to do with this mobo, its like putting chrome 22's onto a 1986 corolla.

While I'm not a big fan of ECS (and actually don't know anything about the quality of this particular mobo), I have to disagree...

1) I find on board gigabit ethernet on any of the motherboards I've seen to be slower in throughput than my preferred NIC (Intel Pro1000MT).

2) While I've never used DDR3, all the reviews I've read said that currently DDR2 is just as fast (and sometimes faster) than existing DDR3 implementations.

3) If you're using a Q6600 in a computer for gaming then you're one of those people who like to show off their hardware even though it doesn't give you any performance gain (in other words you waste your money). The only sound reason multiple PCI-E slots would be beneficial if you're using this CPU is if you are a hardcore graphics designer or using a very specialized piece of software (in other words an extremely small percentage of people).

The Q6600 is a great CPU for a small business server and as long as the motherboard is stable then extra features are just a waste.

*Note: I'm sure there are exceptions that I'm not aware of/listing here but I'm fairly certain that they account for a small percentage of people also.1. Without any actual data for my claim, I'd guess that *any* Gb ethernet, even built into a motherboard, is faster than the 100Mb ethernet built into this mobo.
2. Point taken.
3. More than two displays are handy for less gamey things such as video editing, and that dictates more than one video card (minus a few examples, with their own downsides)

RDMustang1 said:
3) If you're using a Q6600 in a computer for gaming then you're one of those people who like to show off their hardware even though it doesn't give you any performance gain

I believe the "new" Nvidia/ATI physics processing technology will benefit from quad-core CPUs. They're going to try to process instructions on the GPU, but some (most likely all of the load) will be deferred to the CPU. So, IMO quad will catch on in gaming too.