Help me build my new rig

[MrMet]

Looking to build a new gaming system and am undeceided between conroe and AMD. Please recommend the best bang for the buck CPU and Mobo for 350.00 or less Memory and video card will come later. Thanks in advance

 

[Skott]

Okay, just a fast reply. Right now I'd say the Intel Conroes are best. Prices are pretty competitive. The Conroe/mobo combos OC better, and most of the 965 and 570 (this includes the newer 680i) mobos are Quadcore compatible which leads to a better upgrade path. To get the best bang for buck it just like with AMD. Get the lowest/cheapest chip and OC it up. The E6300/E6400 chips OC better on the 965 mobos and the E6600+ chips OC better on the 570 mobos. As for the 680i, So far its looking like the lower multipliers are OCing better on them but the mobos are still new and being tested by the enthusiasts. The 680i BIOSes still need maturity from what I'm reading so far. They are good OCers but not as good as the P5B mobo as far as fsb settings go. Again, its still too early to tell for sure. Newer BIOSes could change this and so far there are just a few nVidia reference mobos out. ASUS and others could possibly do better but we have to wait and see. And DFI has a launch just around the corner so stay tuned.

Right now the best bang for buck OCing proc/mobo is either the E6300 or E6400 and the ASUS P5B-D/E. If you arent into OCing then there are lesser Conroe mobos for just stock performance.