$300? Best CPU/MB/RAM for the money?

Tell the wifey to give you a little more? 

I just went through a new build (eg yesterday) and found some great prices, but the parts might be little out of your range at $300.  I'd strongly recommend this CPU, though - i7 920.  clocks in at 2.67 but you can overclock on AIR to 4ghz... oh, and btw, you won't need to overclock to 4ghz for performace.  Very solid.  Here's why I'm an even bigger fan: on new egg its about 288.  At microcenter, its 199.  So, you can get one of the best processors out for 88 less than one of the best prices. 

Anyway, I'm really exicted about the deal you wanted.  There are surely great deals to be had in the $300 price range, but I thought I'd share from my experience (and as someone who gets a new pc pretty much yearly (I sell my old pc parts and then buy new)).

This motherboard/RAM/CPU is about $400: http://www.hardware-revolution.com/hardware-revolutions-1000-gaming-build-version-2-0/

This one is just barely under your budget: http://www.hardware-revolution.com/600-gaming-pc/

The more you spend the longer it will last. Personally, I have the i7-920 but I think the i5-750 is probably the best deal for the price.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103680    <<<< CPU

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131398  or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128411    <<<< MOBO

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145251    <<<< RAM

I sell a LOT of rigs using this combo and not a single customer has had a complaint. it may come up to just a few dollars (maybe 10) more than your budget but it's all great stuff.

Thanks for the advice so far.  I have been doing some more looking myself and it seems the RAM is going to be between $100-110 for 2 x 2GB ddr3 ram no matter what manufacturer.  I guess the real struggle is the processor.  It pretty much boils down to a dual core with a little better performance (3.0 ghz +) or a quad core around 2.6-2.8ghz.  Will more cores make that much of a difference in terms of the longevity of the system or is the speed of the processor a bigger worry?

Teelman, the processor i linked to is actually a quad-core with 2 cores disabled. with many of these processors and either of the mobos i linked to, you can unlock the dormant cores giving you a quad-core 955 cpu. i've done this myself  4 or 5 times for customers and only one time did the processor not 'unlock'. usually, i build the rig and tell the customer it can be done and to search for the details online. i know a few of them have done it with success. i can think of 3 who tried and were unsuccessful but nobody has complained about the speed of the rig with either a dual-core 550 or unlocked 550.

actually, i just sold another rig, maybe 2 depending on whether or not his wife wants one,  using this exact combo (w/ asus board) today.

Buy a Good Case. one thats big and you can use for years. I recomend coolermaster as a brand.

next you wana invest in a motherboard and cpu.    Go for a corei5 cpu and make sure your getting a motherboard thats compadible with the cpu. this mean you need to look for a p55 mother board.

once you have these things you can look to see what you already have in your computer to harvest. like your dvd drive harddrive, powersuply.  your ram probly wont be worth a damn, unless its DDR2, but really you want DDR3 ram check the mother board you buy specss to see whats compadable.

if your power supply is anything lower than 700w id buy a new one. atleast 850 - 1000. this will insure that you have enough power for everything you add to your computer. sense you want a gameing rig. most GPUs(graphics cards) that a great use alot of power. make sure powersuply is compadible. dont buy a cheap power supply! this is the heart of your computer!

last you shold buy a GPU. make sure its compadable with your mother board. get PCI ex 2.0 with DDR3 speeds with atleast 1 gig memory.  this will be expensive.

if you want send me a messageand i will help you build a computer from scratch. It wont be cheap if you want a good gaming rig. And if your on a buget i recomend saving atleast 500 to get started.  but building a good comp from scratch insures that you can use that computer for a lot longer. Basicaly you just replace old parts.

you may say well why cant i upgrade my computer now?   well if you dont have a PCI express 2.0 your doomed to have a poor gaming experience as newer more demanding games come out. and if you want to upgrade your operating system your going to want more and faster memory to handle everything. with an old mother board you may not beable to upgrade anything worth your money.

Wouldn't he be better off using 1066 7cl vs 1333 9cl, that 550 is a c2 no?

george, did you notice the budget of 300 bucks?

rothdave, he could indeed go with the 1066 instead of the 1333 but he's still going to be spending around 100 bucks for the memory. he could also go for 1600 for a few dollars more but that board/proc combo will do no faster than 1333. plus, he likely wouldn't be able to install a second kit of 1600 whereas he can install a second kit of 1333. and yes, the 550 is a c2 proc but most likely can be 'unlocked' to a quad. it's just a simple setting in the bios with the correct board/chipset.

Right-o but with a C2 proc isn't the integrated mem controller 1066 which will kick up the clocks on 1333 if he doesn't go into bios and set them on his own? Just asking because back when I had a c2 965 bios saw my 1333 crucial 7cl as 9 cl and setting clocks manually would cause that fudging hypertransport sync flood error. the new c3 965 has 1333 mem controller and doesn't give me those problems my thought was he may/should get better performance out of a 7cl stick. (but i'm a dope and may be off track. )

rothdave, you have a point. with the memory i suggested, you do have to manually set the values. i'm just trying to keep his costs as close to 300 as i can, tho. btw, parts were ordered today for 2 such rigs.

With ya 100 percent, quality hardware and sound advice, just trying to throw in something helpful. (and those setups should let him upgrade to a thuban in 3-4 months that and i was plssed off to no end trying to figure out my I couldn't get my 7cl ram to run at 7cl for the two weeks it took me to find out it was a cpu limitation)

Have you looked into a AMD setup?

Hey maddeez,

Thanks for the help so far.  That processor and MB look sweet and FAST.  Can't compare to the old amd 3200 I have now thats for sure.

pay attention, kona. we've been talking amd all along other than the posts made by people who ignored his 300 dollar budget.

Not mentioned yet, but the cpu can probably be oc'd to 3.5-3.6 with the stock cooler. 3.5 quad 98 bucks. That's nice.

Sorry. I'm a bit tired today.

You could pick up an i3 and an h55/57 mobo, with memory thrown in it would probably be around $450, but the cpu would be nehalem-based... about as future proof as you can get right now

I'm not a fan of the Core ix's in these types of applications. As awesome as they are, they have a much higher price to performance ratio and that performance isn't needed. I'm assuming he's not planning on running autocad or CS4 based on what OP said. Gaming, farting around interwebs, general computing (office etc) AMD is the way to go. More involved computing Intel, nvidya are necessary.

Simple...

Lie about how much you spend...and/or wax philosophical about how you help the economy as a purchaser...and how it's a business expense....then go for 3 thou instead of 3 c ...;)

So He's the guy.....been wondering who/where that smell was coming from....

With that budget the best bang for your buck would be to go with AMD. I was hoping to go with a socket AM2+/AM3 mobo so you can get a cheap deal on memory but looks like they just upped the price of DDR2 RAM. So I went with an ASUS AM3 mobo. For the CPU I don’t think you can beat the X3 720. Its fast enough stock to run you all games no problem and it will perform better vs a dual core in games that utilize more than 2 cores. 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131603

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134792

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103652

And with Intel you are kind of stuck with going with a socket LGA 775 platform. Not to say that its bad or anything but its Intels older tech. Still you get great performance from that socket. Gigabyte makes some good motherboards and they overclock well. The CPU is fast for games and clocked at good speeds. Plus they are known to have high overclocks (if you are interested). And the RAM was just the cheapest I can find on newegg. There’s even a MIR with the motherboard.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128372

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115056

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231226

If you have a Fry's or a Microcenter nearby I would highly recommend checking any of those two places before you make a purchase online. Both stores have some great weekly deals. Now if you could save up about $100 more you could go with a superior intel platflorm.

@Jafo

Considering my wife's position is she gets to spend in cloths whatever I spend on my computer....its really costing me $600 to upgrade.  And trust me, if there was any way i could "mislead" on money...I would.

@taco

There are no fry's/mircocenters anywhere close at all.  The only electronics store I have around is best buy and a few mom and pop stores that are equally expensive as best buy.  So, I am pretty much limited to online and the best i've found is newegg, unless anyone knows any other good sites?

For $300, I would stay away from Intel and go AMD like MadDeez mentioned.  You'll get the same preformance as the Intel processor iCore processors at a better price.