I don't think an X2 will be having much trouble yet, and DDR3 is not worth it at this time in my opinion. It costs a lot more but doesn't do a whole lot more!

DDR3 is equal in price to DDR2 now.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010170147%201052315794&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&Order=PRICE

For an X2 recommendation I would say the X2 545 or 550.

I can still run all current games on my socket 939 with 2 gb DDR1, 8800gts, at almost highest graphical detail.

That said, you don't necessarily have to shoot over the moon.

If you want AMD, I'd recommend going Core i5 instead( unless you hate Intel,) it kicks the shit out of even the 965BE at only 200 bucks, and you can find a decent motherboard for about 130-140 usually. 1333 DDR3 is also not that expensive if you get the 2gig modules.

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!

You should go for DDR3. It's very fast compared to DDR2 and it doesn't cost very much more compared to DDR2.

3d gaming gives you a huge headache.

Okay... I've been researching PC building pretty heavily recently, and here's what I'd recommend.

Generally, after the $800 mark or so, you're going to run into heavy diminishing returns on your home-built PC. Keep this in mind as you're selecting your parts. If you spend $800 now and another $800 two years down the road for upgrades, you'll be spending much less than the guy who springs for a $3000 Uberbox and keeps it for 4-5 years without upgrading, with maybe slightly less performance.

With that in mind, here's what you should do.

CPU: Quad-core processors, as it currently stands, barely have any advantages over a tri-core in terms of performance. (Certain games may list a quad-core under their "recommended" specs, but in most performance tests quad-cores only barely beat out tri-cores.) In addition, AMD has Intel beat by a mile in terms of price:performance ratio. The best "bang for your buck," therefore, will be an AMD tri-core. The Athlon X3 435 (2.9 GHz triple-core) will let you run modern games for a few years at insanely good framerates, and it's under $100 on Newegg.

MOBO: I recommend the GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P. Packed with features, incredibly expandable reliable, and - again - under $100.

RAM: DDR3 is basically the new de-facto standard, and it's only slightly more expensive than DDR2. Get thee 4GB of DDR3 1333 RAM - anything with a higher speed is a waste of money.

GRAPHICS: ATI currently has the best price:performance ratio of the two major manufacturers, unless you're REALLY interested in the PhysX gimmick. A Radeon 4770 or 4850 should allow you to display modern games at insane framerates for the next few years at your monitor's resolution. I'd use something like this XFX HD-477A-YDFC Radeon HD 4770 512MB. But if you're still dead-set on NVIDIA, just know that - where graphics cards are concerned - anything over the $130-$140 mark is a terrible waste of money.

HDD: You'll want at least a 500GB one, for obvious reasons. Just grab whichever one has high ratings and a reasonable price on Newegg.

CASE: The standard "cheap-but-effective" case seems to be the COOLER MASTER Centurion 5. I really wouldn't recommend going any more expensive than that unless you absolutely need a whisper-quiet system.

PSU: Contrary to somewhat widespread belief, a good 500-550W PSU is all you'll need for all but the most powerful (read: that $3000 Uberbox) gaming PC. I recommend the Antec BP550 for both value and effectiveness.

COOLING: Not terribly familiar with this one, but I've heard several people on other forums recommend the Sunbeam CR-CCTF.

And there you have it. :)

Not here it isn't... I sometimes forget how spoiled people in the rest of the world are with cheap hardware!

I so love America for that reason lol.

Before you waste money on AMD, check out the i5 by Intel. They are faster for the most part than the phenoms (especially for gaming), and very comparible in price. I got my i5 for 149.99$ at microcenter. The new 1156 motherboards are very cheap also in comparison to the older i7 boards.

I got a MB, 4gb 1600 DDR3 OCZ ram, and the i5 for 340$. MUCH better than anything you can build from AMD for that price, especially since AMD still uses DDR2 (if I remember correctly).

i5's overclock extremely well also :) I've had mine up to 3.6ghz on stock fan with absolutely 0 heating issues. They can go to 4.0ghz on air cooling with a nice heatsink and still run stable so I've read, but I'm to cheap to try it lol, like you I was looking for a budget PC to upgrade for gaming.

My old build was this:

Q6600 socket 939

2gb ddr2 Ram

8800GTS 

ECS board

now I'm on:

i5 750

4gb ddr3 1600 ram

260 GTX core 216 

Gigabyte Board

It is complete DAY AND NIGHT difference from my previous build, which could also run most games (as somebody else said) with nice settings, but it couldn't do things like AA at high resolutions, or even at low for that matter very well. The previous guy who says it runs close to max settings is lying if he says he was running AA. 

Also I wouldn't go by newegg's pricing anymore, it seems my local stores are kicking there arse constantly.