I want to pull every single hair out of my head.

I spent ALL DAY yesterday researching, and have been for weeks before this, and just can't seem to make up my mind. Do I get the cheap 4300 and OC, or get the awesome and stable 6600 and OC up to 3.2 ghz? But then there's the 6420, which seems to be a good balance, especially with the 8X multiplier.

I have G. Skill F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ 2X1 GB RAM, Antec Sonata III case, earthwatts PSU 550, EVGA 7900GS GPU, Vista Home Premium (reluctantly). All that's left is the stu*%d processor and mobo.

Really, I will buy today if I could actually make up my mind. I'd rather spend less money of course, but I want something that will last me a while.

This is my first build and my first OC. I really don't want to spend ALL summer tweaking it, so a rather stable, user friendly BIOS on a mobo would be nice. I would like eSATA, Firewire, optical audio out, and lots of USBs. And I want to keep it for a while. I couldn't care less about SLI/Crossfire.

Specifically, I was looking at the MSI P6N Platinum, ASUS P5N-E, P5B-Plus, EVGA 680i, P5B Deluxe (a little $$), and the ABIT AB9 QuadGT. Maybe even the new ASUS P5K for $145 from Directron.

Every board has good and bad reviews, "get this" and "stay away" type advice. Is it best to stick with an Nvidia based board because I have an Nvidia GPU?

Every processor seems to be the BEST. No clear winners.

I will be doing mostly multimedia type stuff (burning DVDs, music, photoshop), MS Office, and some gaming.

There has to be an obvious choice of processor and mobo, right? RIGHT????

you should evaluate a better ram too, 1066 mhz can run with better latencies, if you plan on overclocking and you switch your cpu for a better one, if you really want to get 800mhz ram, you can find some really cost effective without any heatspreaders... patriot signature 800 mhz

for the mobo, aim for a chipset... p35 boards just came out, it could be a good choice in order to get a good evolutivity toward ram and cpu support.

the cpu to get could also be a quad-core. after the next price cuts...
depending on your use of the computer and how much time you'll keep it.
quad core isn't supported righ now, it'll be supported as soon as apps will be core-scaled... then, any program will be able to use as much cores as you have... ( probably until a limit of 8-16-32 cores... )

The RAM I have is the RAM I have, period. It's DDR2 800 mhz, highly overclockable. It was the most highly recommended RAM I could find for overclocking on a budget.

Does it matter that I have an Nvidia GPU?

I'm aware of all the price cuts, but there's no way I can wait until the end of July to get a CPU. I start school again a couple weeks after that, and I'd never have enough time to get it all tweaked and set up to be functional. Plus, I have no use for quad core CPUs at this point in time. Nor does anyone else who uses a computer for normal, day to day operations from what I understand.

my advice would be:

E6320

Gigabyte P965-DS3

follow this guide:
http://www.legionhardware.com/docu [...] id=606&p=2

enjoy the 3.5Ghz love

Does it matter that I have an Nvidia GPU?

Not in the slightest.

Stay away from the E4300 because it will top out around 3.2Ghz but you can't use a 8x multi so there is no real point.

The 6420 should do perfectly @ 8x400 and a little more.

Just remember that the actual CPU you will be buying will not be from the same batch (or perhaps even same stepping) as those you've read about. In addition, reports of less dramatic OCing are less likely to be posted for obvious reasons. You may not be able to overclock your CPU as far as your paragraph above suggests, so buy something that you will be happy with even in the worst case where it can't be OC'd very much at all. In any case, you won't go wrong out of those three.
As for MBs, ratings at places like newegg are just about worthless. Instead, take a look at the manufacturer's tech support forum for each of the boards you're interested in. I know you'll see a lot of complaints/issues for at least one of those boards you've mentioned.

Does it matter that I have an Nvidia GPU?

Not in the slightest.

Stay away from the E4300 because it will top out around 3.2Ghz but you can't use a 8x multi so there is no real point.

The 6420 should do perfectly @ 8x400 and a little more.

Since it's his 1st build, why not the E4300? It's an affordable CPU, and he's over clocking (his 1st time) which voids the warranty. If something should go wrong with the CPU, at least it won't be something he spent over 200 (E6600 in mind) bucks for.

I don't understand why you say you can't use x8 on it. It uses speed step, and when disabled, you can specify the x8 multi, since it's stock multi is x9. So you can decrease it, but you can't go above x9.

Now I haven't tried OC to 3 ghz on my dad's PC, nor does it run DDR2 800 memory. I did find someone off another forum comparing the E4300 to the E6400:

Core 2 Duo e4300 vs. e6400: performance on Air and Water Cooling

Now the guy says you can get more performance from the E6400 (even more perhaps off the E6420) but the point I'm showing here:

Meaning he did use the x8 multi, instead of x9.

Since the OP has mention he has DDR2 800, I won't argue that an E6420 would be better suited for it. But as far as the E4300 is concerned, it should be able to handle it with the right settings and hardware.

Edit:

Of course, it will depend on what the OP's targeted speed would be. But then even at 3.0 ghz, that's not something to sneeze at since its just as equal to a E6800 stock speed, when your looking at price/performance wise.

Weird. I honestly can't even get my computer to boot @ 200x8, it won't have it. I was apparently wrong to make a generalization and that is my fault. I apologize. I tried everything on my board to get other multi's to work and it just wouldn't have it.

The reason I say stay away from the E4300 is experience in OC. The Allendale core require more voltage to stay stable at the same speeds as a Conroe core. At 3.2GHz you will likely need to run between 1.45-1.5vcore, which for a first timer may be a bit "scary." However, a Conroe core should be able to do that on stock voltage.

I too was also on a budget, but I went for the ASRock ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 board along with 2GB of ram at 667mhz and the E4300. This is the best choice if you don't plan on overclocking but since you are, I would suggest you pick the Asus P5B board instead.

In my own opinion, the E4300 does fine.
The people that get the E6600 are the overly computer obsessive people that care about every inch of performance or those that have money to blow.

You know, I had the same problem with my dads system. I was trying to force the DDR2 667 to run at DDR400 speed (200mhz x 9) manually. The damn thing wouldn't boot. But for some odd reason, it did ended up booting, when I was trying to reset the bios without hitting the MB reset switch (it doesn't have a jumper on the MB). So, on the MB I have to hit the power button 4 times to force the bios to run at stock speed to get back into the bios. My freaking jaw dropped after the 2nd power off/on. I should have done a CPU-Z validation, but I thought naaaaaa, lets just get this thing 1:1 at 533.

Later on I tried forcing it to run 533 speed (blank screen). Not exactly sure what was going on, but I think after just leaving it off after the 3rd try, for at least 30 secs, it booted. . o O (wat... 10 secs not enough time?)

So.. I guess the MBs out there will respond differently when you change settings.

Money to blow?

E4300: 114
E6600: 223
X6800: 980

E6600 builds are generally the midrange, E4300 are budget conscious rigs, X6800... now those are people with money to blow.

boxed e6420 $160 or so as part of a Fry's bundle!

The prices are amazing out there.

I still think the E4300 would be the best value though. I'm still considering the E4400 since I like even numbers, but I thought why not just wait and get the quad later on this year for myself.

Only thing I see the E6420 has over the E4300 in MHO, the 2MB extra LS cache for 5% performance on certain games/apps if OC to the same speed.

I guess the main question would be, what would be fast enough when your over clocking? 2.8, 3.0, 3.2, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, or higher?

Wasn't there a thread (gah can't remember where) on the extent to where you reach a certain speed, the performance actually starts to decrease because of the FSB strap? Can't remember the exact speed achieve where the performance stopped increasing, or if I'm having a brain fart.

You are right that question needs to be answered.

As for the second paragraph, I have no idea what you are talking about. What I do know is that as you approach the change over from one strap to another your memory becomes unstable and then the bandwidth takes a small drop once the switch is made.

None of this applies in my case because DFI lets you specify the strap.

The glories of the RD600 hehe, I just couldn't resist.

I guess I was having a brain fart.

I couldn't find the thread I thought I saw. All I remember was someone noticed that the performance wasn't increasing once they hit a certain speed (3.8?), and pushed it even farther.

I guess it really doesn't matter anyways, since over all, over clocking was just a way to save money by buying a low end, and make it perform like the big dogs, and not have to pay a pretty penny.

I mean I debated on how fast my dads pc should be, and came up with 2.4 ghz to match a 6600 stock.

Over clocking can be addictive, since I did get the jitters in thinking.. bwhahahah, how fast can this puppy run, but refrained. It was my dad's b-gift. So far he's a happy camper.

Yet I'm... broke, but yet have hopes in having a quad, and OC to 2.8 ghz, with a 650 or 700 PSU, 8800 GTS, with the Corsair led ram.... . o O (Ahhhhh make the thoughts stop!!! I can't afford it )

I feel ya. OC'ing can be addictive, so is raw power. I very much want to see a quadcore under my hood with a 8900GTX.... o the dreams.

Damn dreaming is expensive.....
*smack*

Back to reality.

E6600,cache my man,had for cheap now also.

I'd like to get at least 3.2 ghz out of it. With my 800 mhz RAM, set at 400 mhz, and set the 6420 to 400 mhz and 8X multiplier, I should be able to get 3.2 ghz, right?

I just don't see the need for the extra multiplier on the 6600. And like someone said, if I got the 4300 and got a bad batch, it wouldn't OC nearly as much as everyone says it does, and then I'd be disappointed. So for the money, in my mind, it seems the 6420 is at the sweet spot.

As far as mobos, the P6N platinum is looking nice to me. I also like the new ASUS P5K, and the EVGA 680i AT, both at $150. Or the ABIT quadcore PRO...but that board seems to be hit or miss. Any thoughts? Since it's my first time OC, I'd like something pretty straightforward and user friendly. I won't have endless amounts of time to figure out why my computer won't boot when that happens (and I'm sure it will and I will want to throw it out the window!)

Edit: OK, so now I see the 6600 is only $36 more than the 6420. NOW WHAT? Is it worth it for the extra multiplier coupled with my RAM?