CPU - Phenom 955 or C2D E8400

Dual Core is decent for now but if quad core fits your budget then go for it for future purposes, and maybe even some of the games you play now will benefit from quad core. More and more things are becoming quad core optimized so the Phenom II is the smarter move.

Just make sure you take a look at i5 as well and see if that fits your budget.  

not that hard Quad over dual. ANd since the bench says it more powerful why consider a dual core for $10 cheaper? but yea go with the phenom, or if you want the i5 is good too.

I hear the i5 is a dead end though, and that alot of the mobos have "foxconn" problems

Foxconn is a brand of mobo.

Stay way from that and you'll be fine.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/268403-28-1156-owners...

This is what swayed me away from LGA 1156

look just do what i did ........... p2 x4 955, later u can overclock it to 3.7-4.0ghz  

Sounds good man, I'm pretty much set on the x4 955. The benchmarks don't lie (hopefully =p)

Again, if anyone has any comments or suggestions I'm open to them =)

you do realize most major vendors use parts from foxconn right? the only motherboard brand that does not is EVGA and i heard even then its 50/50. stay away from i5 period until they get this crap sorted out.

Yup, that's what I read

Though i might wait till after XMAS and try and get an i7. think they will be down closer to $200 by then?

If u read the foxconn debacle more carefully, it should be clear that foxconn is responsible for making the faulty 1156 sockets which were used by major Brands like MSi, Gigabyte , Asus...

So as werxen said, "stay away from i5 period until they get this crap sorted out"

@ llmercll

Phenom II's are a good bet since the price cuts.

Ic, guess I should have looked it up myself.