hey i have a question, i  was looking at cpu's for the comp im gona buy and i was looking at core2due E6300 and E6320. it seems the 6320 just has a double sized cache so why didnt you get that one? well leme refrase that, why didnt you say you were gona get that one? cuz i think you said you went with an amd anyway right?

edit: and 6420 is only 22dollars above 6300 and that has more .3 more ghtz

GHz doesn't matter anymore. Just get a good CPU cooler and fancy mobo and you can overclock to craziness. E6320 is the one I intend to get. More cache is definitely good, and it's what, 50c more than E6300? I don't see much point in gettin' that one anymore lol. Anyways, I'd save the $22 from the 6420 and get a better cpu cooler with the monies. nforce 680i or p35 plus a good aftermarket CPU cooler and you can get an E6320 well over 3GHz w/out a problem. That's more than the $600 core 2 extremes at stock speeds! Getting a good mobo has, of course, other great benefits like overclocking your memory and GPU and having lots of room for future expansion. ANYWAYS it is my plan to build a ~$1k rig that can hold it's own against a rig someone spent over $3k on. I'd bet a fiver I succeed too. =D

EDIT: @ netham: #1, it's not eww amd, it's eww athlon x2. AMD is a fine company and has made ownage processors in the past even though they are getting owned by intel atm. I remember when every respectable gamer had an Athlon 64 and wouldn't dream of touching one of those icky pentium 4s. #2 E6320 core 2 duo is made by intel... you knew that... right? #3 And as for prices going down, I present to you the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115013 Not as much cache as the E6320 and not *quite* as overclockable as the conroe series, but still an excellent processor. I know some people got this one over 3GHz on an nforce 680i with one o' them nifty zalman heatsinks. Those are sexy!

I dunno what you guys are talkin' about current prices going down. $117 seems a damn good price for that E4300 to me. How cheap do you need it to be anyways lol. It ownz the comparable Athlon x2 4600+ ($115). And the E6320 is only $165 I believe too. Very nice for such a speedy FSB and all that cache.

nforce 650i > g965 imo. Though really the p35's and nforce 680i's are where it's at methinks. Anways, all those mobos support IDE/PATA and SATA hdd's I believe. You should look at their specs and see if they have enough of the connectors you need though.

EVGA's got a $160 version of the nforce 680i on newegg. Looks like pwnage in a can to me. =) Well... it's not in a can, but that sounded cool to say.

uhh... your hdd doesn't go in a PCI or AGP slot... those are for expansion cards. HDDs connect to an IDE/PATA or SATA connector lol.

Also, most new mobos don't have AGP slots (usually used for graphics cards) 'cause PCI-e x16 ownz it so much.

Oh yeah, and there are p35 mobos that can do SLI I think, they're just a bit more spendy than the cheap 680i's.

EDIT: oh yeah, I prefer the EVGA version 'cause it has bigger heatsinks, a heatpipe, and only one fan. 2*40mm fans on that xfx one could be noisy.

On Friday, I am going to order me a CPU for this. I feel so happy.


But after that, all I will *need* is memory.
I also should get a case, but who needs that.

Nice

Sweet
I couldn't resist adding that.