Made my mind up on finally rebuilding my system somewhat. I am going to get a GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3L http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128345 My question is will this motherboard support the newer 45nm CPU's? and if it doesnt all i would have to do is update the BIOS to allow it to support it? Would i be better off getting a C2D E7300 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115132 Or a C2D E8200 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115038 and im not looking into overclocking
yes, that mobo will support 45nm E7XXX series doesn't support VT,... get the E8200 why not overclock? it's easy and safe fyi,... Intel i7 (Nehalem) are expected to come out Nov 17.
VT = Virtualization Technology Nehalem is faster, better. the first ones out will be expensive of course, then the mainstream/cheaper CPUs will follow, probably Jan 2009,... plus price cuts for the current Intel CPUs. i just mentioned that out becomes of two things: 1. if you are planning an upgrade path, you are pretty much stuck with what's out right now. that Gigabyte board uses LGA775, Nehalem uses a new socket, LGA1366 so it won't be easy upgrading the cpu because you also need a new motherboard with that socket 2. you can take advantage of any price cuts if both are non-issue, the E8200 w/ that Gigabyte board should be fine.
i'll skip the lecture if you don't know what is it for or what it does,... you probably won't need it. let's leave it at that nevertheless,.. at stock speeds, the E8200 is about 7% faster than the E7300 on most apps and games
You don't need VT to run vm's, unless you plan to run 64-bit guests. Else 32-bit guests can be created will work perfectly fine. There are some optimizations in VT procs that will save cycles, but you won't notice a difference when the vm's are running on a laptop or desktop. The biggest bottle neck in this environment will be I/O.