Upgrading my comp to play AOC..

Go with the E8400 the multiplier on the E8500 is just .5 higher wich make it a bit faster. But I'm running my E8400 at 3.6 and its hella fast and can go above 4 no sweat on air. As for the Mobo it all depends on prefrence. I have had no problems with EVGA and am running the 780i, OCing is a sinch on this board, plus it has onboard HD audio. I know the price is a little high but I feel its worth it to have a nice Mobo. As for RAM all DDR2 is really cheap. If you plan on going over 4Ghz I would go with PC8500 it will give you more room to OC.

It works fine on my board. You just have to make sure the board you are getting supports PC8500 sometimes you have to mannually set timings and voltage to the proper specs. Anyway DDR2 800 is just as good and can be found with tighter timings. I would also recomend the 8800GT like jtt283 suggested. Its a great card.

BTW AoC rocks. On my system I can play it on 1650x1080 x2AA on highest settings. ZOMG Nipples!!!

nvidia 7 series chipsets are hit or miss it seems. theres a data corruption problem with them that causes ur computer to lock up when watching videos.

some people have this problem, some dont, its weird. EVGA boards seem to be effected the most.

this is whats keepin me from buyin a 780i board right now, that and the fact that the xFx and EVGA boards chipset heatsink blows air right onto the videocard. this can be fixed w/ a new 60mm fan, but ude have to glue/tape/screw it in place due to the awkward shape of the heatsink, and i think this will void the warrenty.... not good since the board has other issues.

so i crossed xFx and evga off my list completely atm. the 750 780 and 790i boards have the same issues. (790i seems to have fixed the chipset heatsink issue) (still has data corruption problem)

there is a $300 780i asus board, where so far i cant find any data corruption complains. ontop of that the chipset heatsink runs hot, but dont blow hot air onto any specific parts.