Hello Everyone
 
This is my 1st post here and i am looking for a little bit of advice.  I have $600 U.S. dollars to spend on an upgrade on my computer. This is what I want to replace (cpu, motherboard, memory and maybe video card).  I mostly game and do no video encoding, just gaming and dvd ripping.  I dont plan on overclocking, because I dont know how, but it is something I would like to learn.  I want an Intel cpu and motherboard that can overclock if I decide to do so.  Im thinking of replacing my video cards, because I think they would be a bottleneck on the new build and I only have a 19" lcd monitor with a native resolution of 1440x900.  This is my current system.
 
cpu  AMD Athlon 64 3200+ single core
motherboard  ASUS A8N-SLI
video card  NVIDIA GeForce 6800 XT  x2 sli
memory 2 MB Generic Ram
Power Supply 500 watt ultra
 
Yes I know Im going to get slammed on my power supply, but it works and has never caused me problems and until then I am not replacing it.  Everything else i can reuse.
Thanks for all your help.

Your will half to decide if you want a quad core or a dual core. Dual cores clocked higher than quad cores do better for most games, but future games are sure to take advantage of quad+ cores. overclocking can easily get a quad core to perform closer or better than the dual core, but you can also overclock the dual core pretty far too.
 
E8400 3.0ghz Wolfsdale $175
           
           or
 
Q6600 2.4ghz Kentsfield $199
 
GIGABYTE GA-EP43-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail  $94
mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996557 - Retail $69 after $20 dollar rebate
 
Your Choice  
 
9800gtx ($200) or a hd4850 ($175)
 
You may want to improve on the motherboard if your looking into ever running two video cards, but with that monitor, it be a total waste (you really only need two video cards after you hit around a 24 inch monitor at 1900x1200)
 
If the power supply pops and wipes out your system (usually just the mainboard) dont cry
 
 
Spunks
 

E8400 3.0ghz Wolfsdale $175  
             
           or  
 
Q6600 2.4ghz Kentsfield $199  
 
not sure about this, but im leaning towards the e8400
 
9800gtx ($200) or a hd4850 ($175)  
 
Im looking at the hd4850
 
 
GIGABYTE GA-EP43-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail  $94  
mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996557 - Retail $69 after $20 dollar rebate  
 
I'd love to know where you found that deal.
 
Thanks for the help.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820146731 (memory)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128347 (board)
 
 
 
 
Hope that helps,Spunks