Yup, I agree. Save another couple hundred and get yourself a better system, ideally, one based around a Core 2 Duo.

Qft, agreed.

Also, why AM2. Im an AMD fan yes, for the tried and tested 939/40 socket NOT the AM2 series. Go Core 2 bro, they spank AM2 atm. :(

or even get an Fx series 939 and a better GPU with that cash. The whole system on 5-hundie, nope, sorry.

If you can stretch to $600, go for the Core 2 rig in my spoiler. I understand you may be an AMD fan hell I am although I like Core 2's performance, but AMD's price/performance rating against Intel's is somewhat low now.

B@SE, socket 939 may be tried and tested but it's dead now, so finding an FX-Series 939'er will be like finding 600 needles in a haystack the size of Mars.

Simply put if you want high-performance and fairly low costs, Core 2 is the answer.

You can get an FX-60 on eBay for roughly 500USD. But an AM2 X2 5200+ is just as fast (as long as you don't mega-overclock) and a quarter of the price.

Core 2 Duo is markedly better in a price/performance ratio, but a comparably equipped high-end SLI/Crossfire board for s775 costs nearly twice that of a sAM2 board.

Yes true, but, the C2's here anyway, are a crazy high price, just stupid to fork out three times as much, for what? Depends if youre going to use the pc for something very important like your job, server admins etc, if its just for a odd home type stuff and gaming a lower end FX or Optron would be better.

The Core 2 Duo's are not expensive.

Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail

Core 2 Duo E4300- $115

Intel is being extremely competitive with AMD on the price point of their processors.