Incremental upgrade, CPU next but which one..?

[miseryguts]

[hood6558]

Re: Incremental upgrade, CPU next but which one..?

Here's the list of LGA 1366 processors supported:

Core i7 920(2.66G,L2:4x256KB,L3:8M, rev.C0,130W)
Core i7 920(2.66G,L2:4x256KB,L3:8M, rev.D0,130W)
Core i7 930(2.8G,L2:8M, rev.D0,130W)
Core i7 940(2.93G,L2:4x256KB,L3:8M, rev.C0,130W)
Core i7 950(3.06G,L2:4x256KB,L3:8M, rev.D0,130W)
Core i7 960(3.2G,L2:4x256KB,L3:8M, rev.D0,130W)
Core i7 970(3.2G,Smart Cache:12M, rev.B1,130W)
Core i7 980(3.33G,Smart Cache:12M, rev.B1,130W)
Core i7 Extreme Edition 965(3.20G,L2:4x256KB,L3:8M, rev.C0,130W)
Core i7 Extreme Edition 975(3.33G,L2:4x256KB,L3:8M, rev.D0,130W)
Core i7 Extreme Edition 980X (3.33G,shared cache:12M, rev.B1,130W)
Core i7 Extreme Edition 990X(3.46G,L2:6x256KB,L3:12M,rev.B1,130W)
The top-of-the-line 990X goes for 1000 USD CompUSA.com | BX80613I7990X | Intel Core i7-990X 3.46 GHz Extreme Edition CPU
Even the best CPUs in the regular line still go for 650 USD Amazon.com: Intel Core i7-980 Processor 3.3 Ghz LGA-1366 (BX80613I7980): Electronics
The best CPU in your price range would be the 960 http://www.amazon.com/Intel-i7-960-P...el+core+i7-960
The 970 (600+ USD) is almost as high as the 980 (they both have the larger "Smart Cache"), so that's no good. Whether or not it will overclock to where you want it, I don't know for sure - too many variables - but I'd say "Yes" Keep in mind that the RAM you have now may not be up to the task so you may need faster RAM to achieve this overclock.