Hd5870 - $299

[strange|ife]

yah, a q6600 at 3.6 is still one of the top processors out there. Much better if you have it on an x48, x38, or p45 rather than a p965, 975, or p35. Only a few processors are more competitive or near that level... high-end denebs @ 3.4g+, E8xxx @ 4.0g+, high-end yorkfields @ 3.4g+, and i7's @ 3.0g+. These are all top of the line processors, so your Q6600 @ 3.6 should be good for quite some time, and will hang in there with the denebs, nehalems & yorkfields, and likely outlive the E8xxx's.

Im just transferring to a p45 board i got on the cheap, Gigabyte UD3P. the IP35 Pro is getting retired, and will be kept for a long time..it was afterall the last good ABIT(rip) board. A keeper

its hard to believe these chips came out in late 2006..and are still ticking like champs on most set ups for people.

will hold me off until early 2011 when westmere is out, or that rumored AMD monolithic 12 core beast..drool

might be able to squeeze a bit more with the Gigabyte over the ip35. The 4phase on the ip35, and the vdroop problems kept the chip back a bit.