Looking for hardware suggestions

[CurseTheSky]

I've done plenty of these for other people, so now it's my turn to be needy. 😀

Basically, I'm upgrading someone else's computer. This is going to be a birthday present for them, and I'd prefer to keep it decently cheap. $500 is a lot on a limited budget. 🙁

With that being said, I'm trying to get a stable, but overclockable, system for some light gaming (Call of Duty / Command & Conquer Generals, nothing insanely graphics intensive). They'll be running a 6800GT, Audigy 2 ZS, 200GB HDD, and 500w PSU.

The requirements are:
-MUST be Intel (they dislike AMD)
-MUST overclock to 3.0GHz (as far as they know, more GHz means more power, no matter how many times I've talked about AMD's Athlon 64 and Core 2 Duo; they just won't be happy if it has less MHz than their old Pentium 4)
-MUST not break $500; less is better
-MUST include 2GB of memory

Right now I'm looking at the following:
-Core 2 Duo E6300, or E4300
-Gigabyte P965 DS3 or S3
-Some decently-overclockable 2GB DDR2 kit

Any suggestions on cutting down or cost or getting the full performance?

Thanks. 🙂

 

[jpeyton]

Core 2 Duo E4300 $170
Freezer 7 Pro $20
Gigabyte DS3 $125
2 x Super Talent 1GB DDR2 667 $122

Total: $437

Newegg.com

 

[CurseTheSky]

Wow, nice find on that memory. I didn't realize DDR2 had come down so much.

Unless another good deal surfaces, I'll probably look into that exact build. In the mean time, other suggestions are still welcome. 🙂