Mobo Upgrade from ASUS P5W DH DELUXE

[zilonox]

Hello,

I currently have an ASUS P5W DH DELUXE mobo with a Core 2 Duo E6600 processor. It's starting to get a bit long in the tooth, and with tax return money burning a hole in my pocket, I was wondering what a good successor might be. I love the features of this board, and have contemplated simply upgrading the processor to something like the Core 2 Quad Q9650, but as the Core 2 line is discontinued, it's a bit dismaying to see I could get a newer processor for what these are going for.

I'm not tied to the Intel line, btw. I'd be just as happy with an AMD system. I also have and still use (don't ask) an internal floppy drive, so a modern mobo with a FD connector would be great (though it's not a deal breaker if there isn't one, external floppy drives aren't *that* expensive).

So, thoughts? Should I stick with this mobo and get the quad core? Or if I scrap the whole PC and build a new one, what mobo would be a good replacement for what I have now? (Doing that would require new memory, so that lowers my spending threshold for mobo/CPU.)

 

[zilonox]

I just found the ASUS P8Z77-V PRO via another thread in this subcategory. Looks like a nice choice for a successor, but when you add the cost of an i5 3470 to that, it's a bit to swallow.