P5LD2 mobo - Need good cpu recommendation?

Currently I have:

mobo: ASUS P5LD2
cpu: P4 630 3.0 Ghz HT
gpu: PNY Geforce 9800GT 1GB
mem: 4 GB 800mhz DDR2 RAM
psu: 500W Thermaltake

Currently I'm playing COD4/Half-Life 2/ Team Fortress , and it runs pretty smooth but I think my cpu is bottleneck...

Monitor : 19" 1280 x 1024 Resolution

Since I will be buying Modern Warfare 2 in a couple months, and I'm wanting to buy Crysis and Far-Cry 2, I need to upgrade my CPU...

Which of the CPU's on this page should I go with?
http://support.asus.com/cpusupport [...] ct=1&os=17

I'm willing to try overclocking... But haven't done it before... I'm trying to be really cost effective right now without having to buy a whole new system... I also think it's dumb to spend $300 on a cpu for this computer when I will probably spend some money to build a whole new computer in 2 years or so...

Thanks a lot for your input.

E7400 isn't on the support list. It will only support 65 nm CPUs. Some of them are hard to find, so look on site and local store for a clearance Pentium dual-core E2xxx, Core 2 Duo E4xxx, or Core 2 Duo E6xxx parts. Be careful not to buy the 45nm E6300 part, as it has the same name but won't work.

Some parts will have an inflated price since they used to be a high end part and never got a price drop at the store when they got outdated. Use your judgement and buy a cheap CPU, because they really aren't worth very much.

You should also have a good experience overclocking it. I'm running the same motherboard with a Pentium D, which runs very hot and doesn't overclock much because of that. All of the parts I listed for you are 65 W parts that are known to overclock well.

A e6400 or a e6600 65nm conroe will do wonders or you could try to track down any e2xxx or 4xxx 65nm conroe with a 8x or higher multiplyer. I use a e6400 my self and its over kill for some things except for encoding and emulation besides GTA IV. Note that I have a better board so you might not be able to overclock like me but that wont matter much since even at stock speeds it will be like night and day compared to that p4. On the plus side you will be able to run a x64 os while being able to use all 4gb that board supports.

The e6600 can be bought on bid though auction used for about $80 used. I am a regular at ebay so I know the typical prices over there. If you are lucky you can land a q6600 for $150 but we both know that cpu wont work with your board. e6700 isn't worth it and don't get any thing with a 1333fsb.

Core 2 Duo E4300 (1.8GHz,800FSB,L2:2MB,65W,rev.L2) 2.01G 1702

Core 2 Duo E4400 (2.0GHz,800FSB,L2:2MB,65W,rev.L2) 2.01G 1702

Core 2 Duo E4400 (2.0GHz,800FSB,L2:2MB,65W,rev.M0) 2.01G 1902

Core 2 Duo E4500 (2.2GHz,800FSB,L2:2MB,65W,rev.M0) 2.01G 1902

Core 2 Duo E4600 (2.4GHz,800FSB,L2:2MB,65W,rev.M0) 2.01G 1903

Core 2 Duo E4700 (2.6GHz,800FSB,L2:2MB,revG0) 2.01G 1904
beta
Core 2 Duo E6300 (1.86GHz,1066FSB,L2:2MB,rev.B2) 2.01G 1207

Core 2 Duo E6300 (1.86GHz,1066FSB,L2:2MB,rev.L2) 2.01G 1702

Core 2 Duo E6320 (1.86GHz,1066FSB,B2:4MB,rev.B2) 2.01G 1804

Core 2 Duo E6400 (2.13GHz,1066FSB,L2:2MB,rev.B2) 2.01G 1207

Core 2 Duo E6400 (2.13GHz,1066FSB,L2:2MB,rev.L2) 2.01G 1702

Core 2 Duo E6420 (2.13GHz,1066FSB,L2:4MB,rev.B2) 2.01G 1804

Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.40GHz,1066FSB,L2:4MB,rev.B2) 2.01G 1207

Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.66GHz,1066FSB,L2:4MB,rev.B2) 2.01G 1207

Core 2 Extreme X6800(2.93GHz,1066FSB,L2:4MB,revB2) 2.01G 1207

Any of these will be your best bet.

This mobo only supports 65nm cpu's - I suggest you look for a 2M 800Mhz FSB cpu out of the list and overclock it ... the 4Mb cache cpu's are quicker but have a higher FSB (1066) which are still easy to overclock.

The 65nm Conroe core2 cpu's run slightly hotter than the newer 45nm core2 cpu's but are comparable (only slightly lower IPC) and therefore chucking one of these into a rig which has a netburst (Pentium4) cpu in it will give you a nice increase in performance.

Aim to get the cpu just slightly over 3Ghz and you will have quite a good result for your effort.