Best price vs performance processor/mobo/ram combo? (upgrade for gaming)

[Jengo]

Hi guys,

I was thinking about upgrading

I currently have:

Athlon 64 X2 3800+
1gb PC2 4300
Crappy HP Asus nforce 430 mcp board

What do you guys advise as far as updgrading goes?

I was maybe thinking about scrapping that setup for an Intel setup, but im not sure... i havent been completely out of the loop as far as processors go, but there are just so many to choose... not only that... but now there are dual cores vs quad cores and im just lost.... ive tried looking up reviews, some say quad is better some say dual is better.. just like when there was a switch from single to dual.

Im a pretty big gamer so im looking for performance in that area. Im not rich but im not afraid to spend money if its worth it, as long as its worth it... lol

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[mmonnin]

Intel P35 based motherboard with a Core2Duo processor. For price/performance for a gamer get a dual CPU. Somewhere between 2.66 GHz and 3 GHz stock would be a good starting point.

Hardly anything beats this kind of deal for DDR2:
http://www.spoofee.com/forums/showthread.php?p=454610

[Winfrey]

For gaming your not going to see a big boost by getting a quad. Like Marc said your best price performance is gonna be the Core2Duo with a good P35 board. They OC really well and give great performance.

If your gonna be folding quite a bit as well as gaming, then maybe check out the Quad, its definitely not "bad" for gaming and gives you the option of running 2 smp clients for a lot of PPD.

my .02

[stoopid]

Third the intel core duo upgrade. At this moment in time, for the best bang for the buck, AMD is not actually "it". I only use AMD products because they're good enough for me, but if I were to build from scratch tomorrow it would be Intel and probably Nvidia (I do have a 8800GTS in the HTPC). No fanboy here, I just use the best product for the best price :).

[Leonardo]

If it's gaming, I'll pile on with the other guys here: Core 2 Duo and Nvidia. If it's mid-range specification for gaming, then Core 2 Duo and Nvidia or perhaps Core 2 Duo and ATI.