Best CPU under $300 for gaming?

Are you upgrading or building a whole new system

It will be a new system. My current system is just too old to upgrade. If there is a best option for the money that might be the way to go as well. I just don't want to sacrifice a lot of performance to save $50.

Strictly CPU that would be the i7 920 imo $280
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

+1. But shouldn't there be a i7 coming out on the i5 platform?

Give us a budget for your whole system in the "New Build" section.

Sept. 6 for a ~$200 i5 CPU, but no solid benchmarks so far.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20090525220145...

So the quad core is the way to go now a days for gaming? I only ask because the last system I built the quads had just came out and everyone's opinion was the Dual cores at a higher clock speed were far superior to the lower speed quad cores for gaming.

Dual Cores for gaming. Quad cores for gaming + virus/adware scans.

^+1

Agree on the 2 cores for gaming, 4 cores for games and virus/adware scans. Or if you don't mind buying AMD, you can get one of the 4 core processors with a locked core for 3 cores at a lower price than a 4 core.

If you only play single player games, then it would be entire feasible to have two separate accounts. One where on startup it would be networked and have virus/adware applications running, and one where on startup it would have networking disabled and not start virus/adware applications. You might be able to squeeze online games onto two cores, but I'd probably disable virus scanners then and trust a proactive firewall like Comodo.

Me likey my triple core!

Me likey my octo-cluster! haha