Recently my cpu/mobo fried, not sure which, and they are well past RMA and can't really find a place to buy the same components (q6600). So figured it was time to update. Currently running AMD 64 x2 4200 and DDR400 and man is everything sluggish.

Looking for best value for dollar upgrades. How do these look together?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157176

ASRock M3A770DE AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104242

Kingston HyperX T1 Series 8GB (Might be able to shave off a few more dollars if I went 4gb)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103808

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition

The most intense thing I do on my PC is gaming so put that into consideration. Also have a Zalman 9700 cpu fan, which I believe is compatible, so overclocking shouldn't be much of an issue. Thanks.

I am running the AMD 4200+ X2 Toledo socket 939 also with DDR400 LMAO! Mine still blasts through games fine using a 9600GT.

The 965 is on sale, $5 less than 955 if you are buying before weekend is over.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727

Great, thanks letting me know about the sale.

Looking at cpu benchmarks for gaming as well as general apps, the i5-2500k sandy bridge is too good to pass up. And will probably last me longer before the next upgrade. Not to mention I lost the AMD clip for my Zalman 9700.

If cost is an issue you should be able to pick up the AMD CPU and Mobo for less than the price of the i5 2500k CPU on its own, if not the i5 will give you better performance.

Buying AMD now seems like a bad idea with the new AMD processors coming out very soon.

Man, playing BF3 beta is kinda harsh with this setup (amd 64 x2 4200 @ 2.5ghz, 2g ddr400). The graphics card is crazy throttled, 460 gtx 768. But it's somewhat playable at low at 1080p. 15-25 on the open world or heavy fire fights. Still looks good though. Realized yesterday that this processor is like 8-9 years, slows down even during youtube hd videos.

Can't wait til next week, should have the new cpu/mobo/ram by then.