re. dual vs. quad:
A duo will run cooler, and can overclock higher than a similar tech quad. If you are cpu bound, and do not run many concurrent tasks, then a duo is better. For games, there are very few games that will make good use of more than two cores. I do not see this changing for a few years. At that time, nehalem will be upon us, and this discussion will be obsolete. For that reason, I would take the higher clock speed of a duo for gaming today. If your game is flight simulator X, then a quad is better, because it is very cpu intensive, and uses many cores.
Overclocking:
Realisticly, at the level of a E8400 or Q6600, either will suffice for most of us. The vga card will be the limiting factor for games.
This forum is populated by enthusiasts who are into overclocking for it's own sake. Yes, you can run the cpu faster, but at some cost. First of all, you void your cpu warranty. You will reduce the life of your cpu, particularly if you overclock to the highest levels. It will cost you a bit more for better cooling, memory, and mobo. For most tasks, the added cpu power will not make a difference, the hard drive or vga card will be the limiting factor. If you are into folding or some other such activity, then the added cpu power is well used. My suggestion is to not plan on much overclocking, if any. See how your system runs, and later see how much a mild overclock helps whatever you are doing.
Motherboard:
What is the best performing C2D motherboard?
The answer is that they are all virtually the same if using the same processor.
If you read all of the reviews, there will be comparison charts from many different benchmarks.
The results will be within 1-2% of each other. This is particularly true for the application
benchmarks like games, or video encoding. Even across chipsets(X38,P35,P965) this is true.
For the synthetic tests like memory bandwidth, there might be more differentiation, but this
is of interest mainly to those looking for bragging level overclocks.
The buying decision then, has to be made on the basis of features that you want
like firewire, raid(not recommended by me), SLI(also not recommended by me), # of pci-E slots, # of usb ports, E-sata, # of sata ports, IDE support, ...etc.
Many of these boards will support penryn and fsb1333 processors. Check the mobo specs.
There currently is no value in DDR3 as compared to DDR2, and the latter is MUCH less expensive.
Only if you think that you might want a vga card faster than the 9800GX2 today would I consider a SLI board.
I would suggest a P35 based board, primarily because they have been out for a while, and the bios'es are now mature. A starting suggestion is the Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128086 Only if you want bragging level overclocks would I go with a X48 board. If you will have any add-in cards such as a tuner card or sound card(not initially recommended by me) the mobo should have the slots to accomodate them. Just look at the pictures on newegg to see what you will get.
CPU cooler:
The thermalright IFX14 is crazy, but I like it. With a good fan, you can keep your cpu cool with a low fan speed, thus keeping your system quiet. There are others out there, that will do almost as good a job and cost less. The best coolers are large, and often require a back plate to mount. Some mobo's like the gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128331 have a cooling backplate that must be removed to install something liks a IFX14. I would prefer avoiding that situation.
Case:
Almost any ATX mid-tower or larger will do the job. There is hardly a case out there that won't hold a DVD burner, 3.5 multi card reader, 2 or 3 hard drives, and a normal sized vga card. If you need more than that, then check out the case specs. Look for a case that is visually appealing to you.
I like in a case:
Is not larger than necessary.
Quiet.
Decent airflow. At least 120mm fan in back , and similar capacity in front.
Washable intake filters.
I do not like front doors, They make inserting dvd's a more fussy operation.
I am not a fan of lights and "bling"
The P182 is a great case on all those counts. There is a front door, but it is designed so it folds completely open if you want.
---good luck---
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