Here's an example. I was gonna build my daughter a 38800 X2 rig. Okay, so I finally decided to buy last week but not before pricing things one last time. Then i decided just for funsies to compare it to a Conroe set up. The only difference was instead of the 3800 I chose the E6400. Instead of the M2N32 mobo I chose the P5W DH. The RAM modules were different but prices pretty much spot on. All the other components stayed the same. So for $160 I could get a E6400 system. And since I was going to overclock anyway not only was the E6400 superior to the 3800 in stock form the E6400 also overclocks higher. Well, that sold me. I went Conroe. I could have saved a little more if i had chose a E6300 and the Gigabyte DS3 but $160 wasnt gonna break me. So shop around and look carefully. Prices on the E6300 & E6400 are now dropping and the E6600 is starting to get a better supply happening. Mobos like the P5W DH are starting to hedge down now too as their supply increases.
Last of the components arrived last night so now soon as I get a free day I plan to put the system together. Next week sometime looks like since I'm on vacation starting Tuesday (today is Saturday).
Btw, its not that the AMD dual cores are bad for gaming, they are great gaming procs, its just that Conroes are better procs currently performance-wise. Until AMD comes up with something that can beat the Conroe. Which probably wont be til sometime next year at the earliest. Their one hope is the 4x4 chips but no one is certain just how good they'll be for gaming or wether AMD can get them out in quantity in time for this year.