Building an AMD PC... a few questions

[Aiemond]

Newer games are making more of a focus for quad core processors, so if you want to get high fps in the newer games a quad is going to be a necessity. Expect this to take off in the near future. The 955 is a good one but you are right, it costs a bit much and will use power. Though, if you want a quad core you are going to be using power. Another option is this:

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

You have a pretty good shot at unlocking this to a quad or tri core with the right motherboard and if it is stable, the performance should be equal to the x3 or x4 (depending on which tcores unock :P). The downside is none of them unlock, and then you have a dual core (but its cheap so its still a good deal). Also, if you want to wait a bit, a new x2 is coming out soon and it will unlock at even higher rates than the ones now do.

If you do go down that road, you will have to buy an aftermarket heatsink. You can get good ones for about $30-$40 and if you are planning on overclocking then you would need one anyways.

And, the good part, if it unlocks, you get a tri or quad at $199 :)

As for motherboard, this is my suggestion unless you plan on SLI:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131398

$100, good overclocking headroom for its price (and good bios options) and unlocks phenom II cores with ease after a bios update. It is AM3 (so ddr3) so you won't have to worry about socket compatibility if you want to upgrade your processor in the next couple years.

For memory, something like this should work:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231180

For GPU, use a 260 until Fermi comes out and then upgrade to that. I saw that you want to use the 3D technology, so the new ATI cards are out of the question. If you change your mond though :P Those TVs are expensive.

Hope this helps!