Help with Asus P5N-E Build

[osme02]

I NEED HELP! one of my friends gave me his p5n-e for free and i am in the market for a new cpu, ram. I currently have a p4 system so ive been out of the game for awhile.

Whats CPU/RAM that overclocks well with this Mobo?

Im looking to spend less than $150 on a cpu - should i go with a e6300?

And I have no clue what kind/speed DDR2 RAM to get!

Please help, thanks in advance

 

[CallMeJoe]

I have a P5N-E SLI. E6300 overclocked to 375MHz FSB (2.625 GHz), 2 GB OCZ DDR2-800 memory (PC2-6400) @ 4-4-4-15-1T, run synchronously. All done on stock vCore & NorthBridge voltages, memory voltage @ 2.0 V. You could likely get better OC with some voltage tweaks. Also, using a Sunbeam SilentWhisper (SW-CR-775) on the CPU in an Antec Solo case, SeaSonic S12-430 PSU.

edit: If I were doing it again, I would probably get memory from the Asus Qualified Vendor List for the peace of mind.

 

[osme02]

So would you still recommend to e6300 or the e4300 for the price?

 

[CallMeJoe]

I would consider the E6320 or E6550 for the larger cache (4MB vs 2MB for the E6300) at about the same price, recognizing that the extra cache might limit the potential overclocking of the chip. I haven't researched the E4xxx series, and have no recommendation there.