Help selecting a mobo and ram to pair w/ E8600

So I currently have a PC that I want to upgrade the motherboard and processor on. I currently have an ASUS P5WD2 Premium board with 4Gigs DDR2 800 and a Prescott P4 640.

When I built this machine three years ago, it was pretty awesome, but I really didn't fully understand clock speeds and so on, so I may have been able to make a better choice at the time, had I been more well informed.

Now I'm looking at keeping everything I've got except the board, processor, and ram.

I am a gamer, foremost, and desire better gameplay. I am also interested in overclocking. So after quite a bit of research, I believe my best bet at this time is the E8600, given the E0 stepping which apparently is the OC'ers dream.

Since the Nehalem chips are coming soon, I expect that in a few years I'll be ready to buy one of the Core 2 Quad Extreme's currently floating above $1K. I prefer to stay a few years behind in order to be able to afford this hobby.

So if I get an E8600 which operates at 1333MHz, it seems, to my admittedly dull mind, that I would be best off getting a 1600/1333 FSB and DDR3 1333 ram. ON the other hand, this adds a hundred bux to the cost of the Mobo.

So my question is this: if I opt for a DDR2 board to save a bit of money, what kind of ram would I get to match the 1333 mhz processor? 667? My god. It seems DDR2 only goes to 1200, so I'm limited there and can't match the FSB and Processor speed.

Or should I really spend the extra 100 dollars now so I can get the DDR3 1333 ram, knowing that in 1.5-2 years I will be upgrading to one of the quad core extreme chips, and will have to buy a bigger, better board then?

Honestly, I'm just a bit confused by the 1600/1333 FSB boards that only support DDR2 ram, because of the difficulty to match the speeds. I'm sure I'm just missing some really obvious thing, and many of you are probably slapping your palms to your foreheads, but I'm doing my best here.

Thanks very much in advance for any assistance you can offer.

If I were you, I would pick up an E8400 instead of an E8600. In my opinion, paying $110 (65%) more for .33 Ghz in a dual core is just not worth it.

As for the RAM, the above poster speaks the truth- 667Mhz RAM will match the FSB of the 1333FSB E8x00 Processor. And, again, 800Mhz RAM is better if you intend to overclock. When I turn my FSB up to 1600 on my E8400, the DDR2-800 gives me a nice 1:1 ratio.

Most P35/45 make excellent overclockers (my p5k-e is happy at fsb 1400)

As pointed out, RAM won't run much slower at a slower frequency and will match the FSB well, instead look out for modules with lower latency, probably in the region of 800MHz.

Thanks to everyone who took some time to reply to me. I appreciate your feedback!

@ The_Blood_Raven: That ram is a total winner. I love the styling. I have OCZ ram in my machine now, and have always been pleased. I'll definitely get this ram for the new layout, but I'm not so sure about the board. I have had such good experiences with my present ASUS board that I have been eyeing the ASUS Rampage Formula. Thoughts?

@doomsdaydave11: To tell you the truth, I want to get the 8600 not only for the increase in clock speed, but also the guaranteed E0 stepping. Am I being a fool here?

@br3nd064: First - THANK YOU FOR THAT EXPLANATION. It's concise. I like concise. Basically, the 800 RAM is gonna drop itself to 667 if the FSB is left to stock on the chip, but when I push the FSB forward to 1600 (fingers crossed) I match the 800 (x2) for the total of 1600. Do you see the lightbulb? Also, my goal is 4GHz but I am air cooling with a 120mm fan cooled Cooler Master cooler right now, so we'll see what I can manage before I have to switch to something more robust. I am excited about the E0 Stepping for this reason, obviously.

So would I be doing okay for a couple more years if I go E8600, ASUS Rampage Formula, and DDR2 800 OCZ Sexzy Ram? I think so, but your input is highly valued here.

Now, thank you for not asking about the video card. I upgraded it a year ago to a 256MB XFX GeForce 8600 GTS adapter when DX10 was spanky new. Got it to go along with my purchase of Bioshock. Needed that X10.

Of course it was at this time that I began to clearly see and understand the limitations of my aging processor. SupCom LAN games are a joke after the first 45 minutes and I become distinctly unpleasant when 1 second of game play time is in the 5 to 8 real-time seconds range.

So that's been the wall for a while, since it is a significant outlay, even if I am still trying to lag a bit behind the front lines.

Anyway, the video card will be next.

Thanks again for your responses and input - TH rocks the house!