Intel Core Duo Vs 2

It sounds like you want to get all the speed you can out of this thing but reconsider not overclocking your parents' computer. Overclocking is fine for someone who is doing stuff, like games, that aren't critical. But for a computer that is going to be used for, I'm guessing, archival video editing purposes. You don't want any errors to creap in and mysteriously start corrupting your parents' priceless videos, do you? I know it's temping to want to push it but do you really want to explain to your mother how your reckless abandon with her new computer that she purchased screwed up family memories? source

I wouldn't trust ECC RAM to do what you're expecting it too. If you just buy an adequate amount of good RAM in the first place and make sure it has no compatibility issues with your MB you won't likey have such RAM related crashes. For the most part crashes to desktop in games are not due to RAM errors. Memory errors in playing games are more commonly associated with flaws in the game script itself, such as "memory leaks" whereby scripted functions repeat even after they're no longer needed. That isn't to say hardware memory errors don't happen, but they aren't as common as game script or compatibilty problems. There are good freeware tools like Memtest for checking your modules. For the most part RAM modules function well and carry lifetime warranties. When I first heard about ECC RAM I asked a custom gaming PC builder what exactly it was and he described it as being an efficiency "expert" in an office that just runs around double checking for problems and in doing so gets in the way of the workers and slows them down. This is of course viewing ECC from a gamer's perspective. Make no mistake about it, one thing you WILL give up with ECC RAM is computation speed. It just can't do all that checking without some tradeoffs. Most that use it apply it to a work environment where there's lots of computation intense multitasking going on and critical data that can't be afforded any errors in. Most don't use ECC RAM for gaming, though there's a new type called EPP that has hit the market recently geared more toward gaming. Even it, however, is not what the manufacturer originally touted it to be and many find it's OCing features to be overly simplistic, limited, and unnecessary, especially considering what it costs. source

Power, heat, and noise wont be a concern as it will be colocated. The only thing im worried about is if the quad will be cooled enough in a 1U case. source

Please edit and get rid of the "WTF" in the tread title. I know its picky but it is considered by the higher ups to be cussing in the thread title and thus not allowed by the rules. A common mistake, no bigge, but if you would clean that up I would apreciate it. source

Please edit and get rid of the "WTF" in the tread title. I know its picky but it is considered by the higher ups to be cussing in the thread title and thus not allowed by the rules. A common mistake, no bigge, but if you would clean that up I would apreciate it. source