Best hit for the money? If you compute in over clocking.... core i7 920 HANDS DOWN.You can air over clock them on store fan to at least 3.6 and it’s ideal.

Don't heed the man above me he is an Intel fan boy who doesn't identify an object about processors.Anyway if you can give it acquire the 965 BE, better for overclocking, but the 955 will provide you the same results, it's just the 955 is a bit less supple in overclocking.

The 965 be is not improved for overclocking. The 995 is more flexible in overclocking. It starts at a lower clock and attains the same max overclock. (Exclusive of the c3 stepping 125w 965. The other c3 stepping phenoms have shipped today.)

I would say the best CPU per buck is the Athlon II 620. There is also the Athlon II x3s. The Phenom II x3's and x4s. Are all very fines for the dollar? Particularly in a gaming system.I would wait further than an Intel system for your novel machine. Gaming machine with a tight budget=AMD.

I observed the Phenom II 965 at initial but after some study I saw it is a truly bad idea and in a nut case this is why:

"AMD Phenom II 965: Badly expensive evaluated to the Core i5 750 and Phenom II 955. Equal silicon to the 955 does not advance mitigating the cost premium. That the 955 has an unlocked multiplier that can be upped every time to create presentation equal makes this yet more outrageous." - Taken from another perceptive post on these forums.

I determined that the Core i7's are beyond my price range. The core i5 is still likelihood but for the instant from my readings I am still leaning towards the phenom II 955. After looking at the Athlon II X4 620 I determined it is possibly the best deal dollar for dollar but I am in search of something a bit better and it doesn't stack equal to the 955 in benchmarks.

If money is tight while, you can forever do what I did. Accept a phenom II 550 (dual core edition of the 955) and sulk the saved cash toward an enhanced video card. Since the GPU has more of an impact on gaming presentation, this is an actually good way of doing it. Most games only use 2 cores at present anyway, so you don’t even movable that much performance.

If you sense lucky you can yet try unlocking a 550 to a quad (as I did) and essentially get a 955 for the cost of a 550.

If you have the money for it though, if 750 is possibly the best processor out there. Amazing presentation for its cost. But if you require something cheaper, AMD is definitely the way to go.

Also yes I selected the 955 over the 965 because I read that they are the exact similar processor and the 955 can be overclocked able to the identical level as the 965 creation it not worth the extra . Just as a note to anybody posting in the prospect, let’s say in theory that I already have a good video card so I do not seem to save money for it. Thanks again everyone.

It actually depends, if gaming is your major thing then a 720 be a superior 785g mobo and a 5850 or 5870 would quite much handle all you want and provide you not only a great improve path (the six core thuban comes out on am3) but also overclocking headroom, you could also go for the Athlon II x4 620 for that extra core and enhanced multi tasking certainly the 720 be is easier to overclock but the 620 has an extra core that helps it a bit and expenses a little less neither card will be bottleneck for your graphics card.

Since the Athlon II X4 620 and the Phenom II X2 550BE are almost equal prices on newegg, the AII X4 would be certain 4 cores and no L3, while the PII X2 would be guaranteed L3 and probably 4 cores unlocked with the correct motherboard. I'm in search of a like super cheap build and at present I'm leaning toward the PII X2 550BE and hope to unlock all 4 cores.