Hi blast9999,

You can use any Intel Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad CPU you like! They all work very well.

Thanks, that's good to know. As for the video card, locating that one can be difficult. I've found one for a decent price, but it's a 512MB. Any idea if this one would work ok? Gigabyte (GV-N95TOC-512H) nVidia Geforce 9500GT 512MB DDR2 Dual DVI PCI-Express 2.0

Now I've found a GIGABYTE GEFORCE 8600GT PCI-E-GV-NX86T256H-ZL
What does the ZL at the end mean?
The part number is the same otherwise. Any real difference?

They seem to be 2 different models with slight differences. Take a look here and compare them :

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/...ProductID=2577 - "Normal" one.

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/...ProductID=2613 - "ZL" one.

Guess main differences are with the HD output and support.

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www.8bitpeoples.com
Home of Old-School

[[ 犬も歩けば棒にあたる ]]

 Mac OS X 10.6.1 AMD Turion 64X2 1,6Ghz, 2GB 667Mhz, SB460, Mobility Radeon X1600
 MacBook White 13" C2D 2.0Ghz, 4Gb 667Mhz
 iMac 21.5" C2D 3.06Ghz, 4Gb 1067Mhz, GeForce 9400M

I notice which rev 2.1 ,rev. 1.0 ,rev. 2.0 , or rev. 1.1 from GA-P35-DS4? which one is cheap?

OK, I see the main difference: the normal one (without the ZL) is the heat pipe cooled one which is fanless. The ZL one has a fan, and you can clearly see that in the thumbnail pic. Maybe that's the only difference?

The normal one uses Silent Pipe II technology, it supports Multi-View, it has Dual DVI-Link with support for huge resolution, it seems like it has SLI support, and HDTV adapter. Well, it seems like that`s all of the main differences. Guess the "normal" one could be a little faster aswell.

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www.8bitpeoples.com
Home of Old-School

[[ 犬も歩けば棒にあたる ]]

 Mac OS X 10.6.1 AMD Turion 64X2 1,6Ghz, 2GB 667Mhz, SB460, Mobility Radeon X1600
 MacBook White 13" C2D 2.0Ghz, 4Gb 667Mhz
 iMac 21.5" C2D 3.06Ghz, 4Gb 1067Mhz, GeForce 9400M

That silent passive cooling is complimented by the DS4 mobo which has the same thing.
I don't see a difference wrt resolution and monitor support between the two. If you scroll down to the end of the specs, they both say the same for monitor support:

Display Support
*Dual integrated 400MHz RAMDACs for analog display resolutions up to and including 2048x1536 at 75Hz.
*Dual-link DVI capability to drive the industry's largest and highest resolution digital flat panel displays up to 2560x1600 at 60 Hz.
*Integrated HDTV encoder provides analog TV-output (Component/Composite/S-Video) up to 1080i resolution....

I've looked around here and any Gigabyte video cards are kinda scarce. I'll keep looking for a deal on one.

Alright, I talked myself into buying the ZL version. I couldn't locate the other one anywhere practical. I did manage to get a used GA-P35-DS4 so we'll see how well they work soon enough. A nice addition to the recommendations would be a detailed guide of the different variants of the Gigabyte P35 boards. This page shows what the part numbers mean, and help with shopping for these discontinued boards, and may help a little...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte_Technology

Can I use an older P4 cpu with the 775 socket in my mobo? I'd like to run it until I can get a Q6600 to replace it. Intel dropped support for the P4 cpu's with the P35 chipset, but Gigabyte lists the P4 cpu's on their compatibility list. Will it work?