help with dual core build

[FasterThanSatan]

can you guys recommend parts for an upcoming dual core build? its gonna be mostly for gaming. some photo/video editing perhaps. budget would $2000 max but if you can save me some money it would be very much appreciated... thanks

i'll start this with a question... what should i go for? a pentium or an athlon dual-core?

[Alaron]

It makes it much easier if you choose Intel or AMD first. Both dual core CPUs are very powerful, you would be happy with the performance of either one.

For the AMD route, the Asus A8N5X paired with an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ and higher is a good combo.

For Intel, the Asus P5LD2 or Abit AW8 and a Pentium D 930 or higher is a good combo.

Are you interested in SLI?

Do you need a monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, OS ?

[MakeYourslf2012]

If you plan on taking the AMD route:

With the recent release of AMD's AM2 socket, it might be worth waiting a little bit to see which one of thier board comes out on top (I think Asus may be the only one to have relased one so far).

There really no performance difference with this new socket, however AMD needed to release it in order to take adavntage of DDR2 memory, which is becoming the standard and slowly replacing regular DDR.

So I'd say if your going to be spending that amount of money, it would be worth it to wait a month or so to prolong the life of your PC.


OR and Intel build will solve this problem -

Your choice!