I'm looking to put together a new gaming rig (once im out of the deser.) I have been out of the swing of things for at least 6 months. I know the intel extreme's are the best right now, but as far as price compared to performance, am I getting money's worth? I just need some guidance. Would the E8500 do for just general gaming purposes? Any ideas? Thanks!

Even an e8400 would do

Another vote for an e 8400

I am going to put my vote in for the Q9450. It is quad core so when games come out that are more quad friendly you will be set. The Q9450 overclocks well too. The Q9450 is more future resistant in my opinion compared to a dual core which seem to be going out of favor quickly.

William

first if you use intel use a q6600 for 3.6ghz - it run 65-75c and last 7-10 years

second if you run nvidia 700 series chipset run a q9450 set to 3.3-3.55ghz - it requires lots of tuning a research use only asus striker and set ldt to 4x and boost gtl voltage

third if you use a 45nm dual core get an E8500 and set it to 4.0-4.2 ghz with air

remember to keep 45nm voltage lower then 65nm

voltage
nvidia needs more since the droop is big

memory
use 4-4-3 ddr800 or q6600 or a qx9650 4ghz

for a q9450 or e8500 use 1066 plus

research what i say and you find it will lead you on the correct path - not only do i preach this but i have shipped all of these systems
4.2ghz water cooled qx9650
4.2 air cooled e8500
4ghz e8400

we have shipped many many 3.6ghz q6600 g0 intel systems - shipping 3.6ghz systems for 1 year in 2 weeks:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/244351-28-61ghz-1ghz

you find the new bios for asus nvidia chipsets, likes 45nm but not 65nm quads
use old bios for the q6600 or new bios for the q9450


good luck

need advice warpedsystems.com contact

ps: wait for the q9650 it will run 4ghz on air with a good cooler!
use these coolers:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] tic-forgot

ps2 - here is some photos 4.5ghz water cooled quad:

i prefer 9950 black edition + 3870x2

Tbh id rather a hd 4850 or 4870 than a 3870x2.

Buy the cheapest Core 2 Duo you can find and overclock the **** out of it!

Then get a decent GPU like the 4870.

Depends upon how much you're willing to spend and exactly what you want out of your rig.

Personally, the most attractive setup to me right now is something like an ASUS P5K EPU or other Intel chipset mobo along with a Q9540, 2x2gb G. SKILL DDR2 800 MHz RAM, a 750gb 32mb cache Samsung HDD, along with an HD 4850 or 4870 or two in Crossfire which sounds like a great setup for a previously unheard of price.

+1 for the Q9450. you're gonna be playing games, but you're gonna be using windows and other stuff for the majority of the time too. Quad is just a more pleasant experience in my opinion.

It sounds like you're on a budget so I'd really avoid the E8500 or the Q9450. You'll get pretty much the same bang for your buck with a E7200 or an AMD 5000+ black edition. Also some of AMD's older quads are really cheap now. I just picked one up (9600 Black Edition) for $130. If overclocking is very important to you I'd go with the E7200. You can get it just as high as any of the more expensive dual cores but it has less cache. If you check out most of the benchmarks you'll get a marginal performance decrease with the E7200. If you're not going to overclock much or don't want to take the risk I'd go with AMD.

As for graphics the HD 4850 can't be beat on value. Check the deal forums like Ben's bargains or fat wallet. You can usually pick one up for $150 after coupon codes and rebates. You should be able to squeeze a quality gaming rig for under $600.

You should not be talking about CPU until your Graphics situation is settled and you determine a budget.

I got the Phenom Phever with that deal from The Egg

Yup. What he said. If you are gaming at 16x12 and up there is a big bunch-o-options where your monitor and video card(s) > the microprocessor.

Q9300 and overclock

Agreed.

Also, if there any intention of OC'ing, power requirements, type of cooling.