Help Choosing

[PoorBoy]

Personally I would get the E6600 if you go with the Core 2 Duo just to get the extra 2mb's of L2 Cache it has. The Price difference is not all that much between the E6400 & E6600, I picked up 3 of the 6600's for around $260 by doing some searching a few month's ago, they didn't have the Fan included but I didn't want the stock fan anyway so it worked for me.

I would also go with at least a 550 Watt PSU or even a 650 Watt just to be safe if it's going to be a Gaming rig, you never know you might want to go with SLI down the road & you'll need the Power then a 450 Watt might not give you.

From what I'm seeing the Core 2 Duo's don't have that much advantage at the PI Seg Project over the Higher end AMD's but they do kick butt at most of the BOINC Projects right now anyway ...