Core 2 Duo E8400 ~ $1012

mrthemike

Distinguished
Apr 16, 2009
2
0
18,510
How does something like this look?

CPU: Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA 775
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
GFX: EVGA GTX 260 896MB GDDR3
MOBO:GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W
HD: 2x WD Caviar Black 650GB
ZALMAN CNPS9500 Heatsink
Case: Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX
Lite-On CD/DVD SATA
Windows Vista 64Bit Home Premium


 


Nice build. :)
 
The build looks pretty good. The motherboard you picked supports crossfire. If you think you'll ever want to add a second GPU later, I would look into a 4870 1GB or 4890 GPU. If you won't ever add a second GPU, you could downgrade to the GA-EP45-UD3R.

Looking at the benchmarks between the E8400 and Phenom II 720 would be worth your time. The gaming performance is pretty close between them and the Phenom has an advantage in video editing and other multi-core optimized tasks.