CPU Choice gaming

Well now you can get a 955 BE for 179.99 at newegg- thats very good bang for buck, and it is better than the e8400 and q6700, not to mention an AM3 socket.

If you want very, very good bang for buck, get the Athlon x4, or the x3 (the x3 would be better for gaming due to higher clock).

BTW those athlons are under 100 USD

Well first of all the i5 problems are rare so i wouldnt be afraid to build one. But i have to ask is there any reason you'd prefer Intel?

I can see where your coming from, but you have to understand what happened to you is very rare and can happen with either AMD or Intel - but like i said i can understand why you'd prefer another company after that, but it still isnt right

And if both your ram and cpu didnt work, you should have just RMA'd the mobo since it was most definitely the problem.

That would have been a very good system though

Well the i5 pins not contacting could be a big problem, but i was thinking about some other faulty mobo issues

The e8400 would perform better in games that the q6700, due to higher clock. But the quad is probably better at multi tasking. But i just have to tell you again, at these prices (besides the i5 for 190 USD) AMD is a much smarter decision and would give you more performance. I just had to say that again cause i feel regret when recommending someone to get one thing when they could've gotten better. Plus theres the fact that the mobo for the e & q cpus is 775 (no future upgrades)