Tech question for the tech guys there :)

Here is the actual system i have:

Intel Quad-Core Q6600
Asus P5LD2-SE-C V2.X motherboard
430W Cooler Master power
4 X DDR2 1024MO PC533 DANELEC -D2D533- memory
a dead now nVidia 8500GT Silent/HTP/256M ASUS video card
2 X SATA 320 Go HD
Pionner 110 DUAL double couche DVD
Elite 330 case

Windows XP 64 pro
Windows XP (dual boot)

It's a 5 years old system, i was thinking about upgrading/changing it when my video card just died. I guess it's time to do something...

So do you think i could keep some parts of the actual rig to put in a new one?

I would like to go for a I7 (don't know which one though)
I would like also 8 Gb memory (and to be able to add 8 more later on), so i know i have to change the mother board as the one i have now is limited to 4Gb.
Obviously i have to change the video card, but i don't know which one. I would like a not to expensive, but with good response in term of preview for Poser, Modo, Reality. I'm not a gamer guy.
Also i would like to go for Windows 7 pro 64. No more dual boot though.

Another question: is it possible to have 2 cpus in one computer? Could i use my actual Quad and add it to another one?

I'm pretty sure you need to go with workstation harware to use 2 cpus in one computer and for that I think you need workstation cpus... but I' not that techy

There is a thread running at the moment where 'shvrdavid' has given a spec for a dual CPU system while the other posts list some of the options.  Might be worth a look.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2854041

The only things you will be able to re use in the tower are the case and the drives.

The power supply will need replaced due to age and capacitor swelling, it might very well have killed the video card by putting out "dirty power".

430 watts is not really enough power output in a newer system anyway.

The Q6600 can not be used on a multi cpu board.

DDR2 will not work any any new motherboard worth buying. Newer motherboards will hold 16 to 32 gig per cpu for the most part, but use DDR3 or RDIMM/UDIMM modules.

As far as a decent card for use with Poser, most of the newer cards will work fine for it. Memory is very important in a video card. 2 gig of GDDR5 is what I would recommend.

ATI (Radeon 7850 if your new mobo has PCIe 3.0 or Radeon 6950 with PCIe 2.1) or Nvidia (GTX560) based on your preference.

If you are interested in a multi cpu system there are pleny of entry level priced motherboards and cpu's. Westmere Xeons and motherboards (atx style) that will fit in your case are available. There are Opterons and motherboards that will fit as well. The Xeon based machines will be faster when it comes to rendering due to the number of floating point units in the cpu's. 

Stay away from the 16 core Opterons, they will not work so well for rendering due to a severe lack of floating point units in the cpu. (They have less than the 12 core does) The 16 core Opterons were designed more for I/O operations than number crunching.

Thanks for your answers :)

I guess i will go for a complete new rig then.

shvrdavid - Would you recommend I7 or another cpu? If I7, is there any special one?
I will probably go for 8 gig of Ram for now, but plan to go 32, so i will make sure to have a capable motherboard.

Here are some specs that seem to be around 1150 € / $ 1423 :

Antec VSK-1000 case    40 € / $ 49

Asus DRW-24B5ST DVD    20 € / $ 24

Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 - 720W    113€ / $ 139

Corsair Force Series 3 - 120 Go    110€ / $ 136

Gainward GeForce GTX 560 1 Go Golden Sample    173€ / $ 214

G.Skill Kit Extreme3 2 X 4 Go PC10600 Sniper    48€ / $ 59

Intel DH67BL-B3 OR Intel DH67CL    96€ / $ 118

Intel Core i7 2700K    316€ / $ 391

Windows 7 Pro 64 bits SP1    150€ / $ 185

Seagate Barracuda SATA III 6 Gb/s - 500 Go    65€ / $ 80

What do you think of those ?

Is there a difference between the Intel DH67BL and the DH67CL ?

And i also saw a i7 3700K...