Gah.

Ok, what's the best CPU for under $300?

What Mobo would you put with it?

I am going to buy a CPU/Mobo/PSU/Memory/HD. ( I will keep my 7800 GTX until the new crop of cards comes out) 

I don't want to spend a ton of money. 

I guess I will go with Vista (I just threw up a little in my mouth). I have an MSDN license, so all MS software is free to me, I just hate Vista.

Oh, and will I notice 4 gig of ram over 2 gig at this point?

Is that $300 for the whole lot or $300 for the CPU?

Some things to consider.

No SLI for Nehalem (Core3) CPUs - Intel/Nvidia scuffle. Furthermore its a dead end upgrade patch with LGA775.

AMD Southbridge 700-750 has built in overclocking for the black edition phenoms.

Now what were you just saying about not needing a 360 if you have a PC?

Seriously now that sucks. I can't help you with processors as I'm in Australia, but Vista has been getting SLIGHTLY better. Some recent benchmarks have it performing as well as or exceeding XP for higher-end games.

As for RAM, I have 4gb, and I feel (what I think is) the difference.

Just remember that 32 bit versions of XP and Vista will not see any ram past around 3.4 GB. If you want to use 4 GB and actually use it all, you have to go 64 bit.

If you're gonna spend $300 just on the cpu, you've gotta have this guy:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115042

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103249

A Phenom 9850 black edition and a biostar motherboard for $235! Thats pretty sweet, all you need is a quiet CPU cooler and you're good to go.

You also have an upgrade path to the AM3 AMD cpus if you want it.

You didn't just try and compare the reliability of a PC to a 360, and call the 360 a winner did you? I have not upgraded my PC in 2 years, and it's on 100% of the time, stuffed in a corner. I would be on 360 #4-5 by now if I did that with it ;)

So if the LGA775 is a dead path, what socket should I be looking at?

Also I meant 300 for the CPU only.

What do you think about quad core? 

It just means that when you upgrade next you're going to dump your motherboard/CPU/Ram because they all won't be compatible if you pick an intel platform at present. You just have to consider you usage patterns and how much you upgrade.

How will you use your PC? - Games/Rendering/Programming/Encoding

Do you value silence?

Are you going to SLI/Xfire?

Do you need abosolute high performance?

Edit: do you overclock?

haha, I knew what you meant by dead path, I just don't know why you think it is. Doesn't AMD change there socket every 15 minutes or so? I find it hard to trust them to keep anything standard for a while. (I have an AMD CPU right now, and have that issue).

Also you said AM3 AMD cpus, but newegg seems to call there sockets AM2+. is that the same thing?

I don't over clock (never saw any real world advantages when I did), and I just want the best performance for the money. Not the best performance.

I don't think will do SLI, and I don't value silence (most of the time I am playing games I have headphones on anyway, as my GF is trying to sleep upstairs).

so this vs this, the AMD is better?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103249