Which one should I get? AMD FX62 or Windsor 5200+

I'll admit i'm an amd fanboy. I haven't bought any Intel stuff for years. And i'm relatively new to overclocking. Core 2 is better right now huh? What chipset would you recommend then as oppossed to a FX62 or 5200+? Here is my current setup:

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 2.2GHz 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Proc
ASUS A8N5X Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard
CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)
-Timing 2-3-3-6 -Voltage 2.75V
SAPPHIRE 100149 Radeon X1900XT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16

The main reason i'm upgrading is because I have to build a computer at work and i'm selling some of the parts out of my exsisting computer to fund new parts.

You can always upgrade to an existing S939 dual core CPU, the fastest is the FX-60 which is essentially a S939 X2 5200+ with unlocked multipliers. I don't recommend this though, as the FX-60 is quite costly (as are all FX chips), and you can easily get an Opteron 165/170 to 2.8GHz anyway, for 1/3 the price.

Anyway, if you intend on selling parts of your current system and building a new platform from scratch, Intel is superior at the moment.

The $315 E6600 is slightly faster than the FX-62, plus it has much more overclocking headroom (~3.5GHz overclocks are quite common) and it runs much cooler at stock speeds(65W vs 125W). It truly is a better buy any way you look at it.

I can understand you being an AMD fan, many people are, just don't be a fanboy.

The architecture of the Core 2 chips is superior to that of Athlon X2 chips, so they perform faster while running cooler and at slower clock speeds. This is not to say that Athlon's are bad, just that Core 2's are better. IN your price range, an E6600 is probably the way to go. You'll also need DDR2 RAM, have you thought of that?

If you want to stick with your choices, I'd go with the 5200+ and overclock.

AMD fan - I'd wait. Either AM2 processor could become very obsolete in a matter of months... and in fact they're still using outdated 90nm technology which AMD is quickly ramping out of. I'd wait for Barcelona confirmation benches to show up. You've also made no mention of DDR2 RAM. AM2 currently depends on fast DDR2 to perform well. But that might change with Barcelona.

This is an excellent motherboard for Core 2's, and it fits nicely into your price range.

it would probably be a good idea to upgrade your psu.

maybe not right at first.
but upgrade as soon as you can after you get your new sys. going.

Hmm, the ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP LGA 775 mobo looks to be pretty nice too. So which one sounds better to you guys?

ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP LGA 775

or

EVGA 122-CK-NF68-TR

I do like having the wireless built right into the mobo helps free up a pci slot and less clutter in the box AND it's $30 cheaper.

Here is what I finally went with:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775
ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP LGA 775 Intel P965 Express
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro (cpu fan)
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
COOLMAX CW-650T EPS12V 650W Aluminum ATX v2.01
Sapphire ATI x1900xt 512mb video card (already own)
Cooler Master Centurion 5 case (already own)

What do you all think?

I'm a firm believer in thermal paste, artic silver 5 for me. thanks for all the good advice. Anyone have any good overclocking/stepping advice for the E6600? I haven't overclocked much.

Stepping won't affect final clocks that much, not that you could change it unless you bought several copies of the CPU or found a defective one. Pretty much all E6600's are capable of hitting 3.3GHz with little to no voltage increase. The main consideration when overclocking a C2D is keeping it cool and using minimal voltage to attain the desired speed. Keep a log of what works and what doesn't so that you know what to fall back on.

Take it slowly, and every time you up the voltage check CoreTemp before and during a stress test to make sure the CPU doesn't exceed 65C. I recommend Orthos for stressing both cores simultaneously. Pass both the "Small FFTs" for 3 minutes and "Large, in-place FFTs" for 1 minute and you can up the frequency a notch. If you get an error, up the voltage a notch if CPU is still under 65C during load. Pass both tests for 20 minutes and you have a pretty stable configuration.

If you use a completely internal video card (I realize you don't - the x1900xt exhausts to back of case), then additional stability testing with 3dmark would be recommended. Also as an option, you can benchmark various FSB-CPU settings to balance memory with core performance.

Remember that performance per watt of your CPU subsystem is inversely proportional to the square of Vcore applied. Not everyone needs to run their CPU inefficiently at 64.9C load and > 3.6GHz.

For more general advice about FSB, memory ratios, and the 965 chipset options, there are quite a few well-written guides on the web that can be found through a Google search.