[Ken Bennett] "So, do I really need a new MOBO or can this one still survive? My goal is stability, speed and HD output."
If you're looking for stability, you may just need a new motherboard with your existing processors. That's the problem with PC's. Some motherboards are just flaky. All of the specs can match and they still don't work right. I have a secret formula that hasn't failed me yet... I buy
Intel motherboards for my
Intel processors. Call me crazy, but my workstation has been solid as a rock for 5 years now.
[Ken Bennett] "What does Sandy Bridge give me?"
Right now Sandy Bridge is the only architecture with 6 cores. The new Ivy Bridge has only 4. If your Xeon's are Core 2 technology then you'll be moving up to the faster Core i technology. There should be a significant speed boost.
The problem you have is that you already have 8 cores so you would need to build a system around two Xeon X5650's to get 12 cores if you're looking for more power. Unfortunately, this is older ”Westmere” technology and not Sandy Bridge.
If you want Sandy Bridge then take look at the Xeon E5-2600 series. These go up to 8 cores (so two of them would give you 16 cores with 32 threads!) You could get 12 cores (two 6 cores) using the Xeon E5-2630 which is 2.3Ghz for $612 or 2.5Ghz for $885. If you really want the latest and greatest and money is no object then a single Xeon E5-2687W 3.1Ghz 8 core will set you back $1800!!! (that's $3600 for two of these) of course you could get a Xeon E5-2665 which is 2.4Ghz/8 cores for $1440 each.
Intel pretty much has a processor at every price point so you first should figure out how many cores you want and what you want to spend. Then select a processor at that price point, select an Intel motherboard that is recommended for that processor and only buy memory that Intel has tested and approved for that motherboard and get 2GB of memory for each core. That's how you build a stable system (at least that's how I do it) ;-)
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com
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