Gasp! I bought an intel core 2 duo today. It is my first intel cpu purchase in over 10 years.

Of course I had to buy a new mobo to go with it. And the old dell case that someone gave me has crazy plugs for the front panel that would not fit the new mobo so I have to buy a new case because I am too lazy to wire wrap the pins.

I have a feeling that this is going to be a money pit.

I wish you luck MT! I recently upgraded my computer too. I had a dell and didn't even bother trying to fit the new motherboard in the dell case. Hopefully you will not need too many other parts to synch with the duo. Hope you enjoy your new purchases!

My intel experience was short lived. The cpu/mobo combo package came with an open box mobo. Open box is always bad when it comes to electronics.

I did not know the mobo was dead until I tried it out in the new case that I bought for $75.

I took the mobo back to fry's and they wanted the whole combo, so they got the cpu too. (good thing I called first)

For one dollar more than the original $158, I could get an amd dual core 4200 with a much better mobo so I went with that deal.

Of course the improved mobo needed improved memory ddr2 only. One gig of 800 mhz ddr2 ram, $79.

The improved mobo also came with a pci-e video card slot. I don't have any old pci-e video cards laying around so I bought a cheap nvidia 7600 wit 256 meg of ddr3 ram for $179.

I am pushing $500 and I still have no monitor, sound card or speakers.

Oh Well, at least I have fun playing with the things.

I will stick with my athlon 64 4000 until I see something demanding that really needs a dual core of FX cpu.

Though the core 2 duo is suppose to bet alot better than anything amd has to offer and probably for along time.

Newegg is a good place to order from on the internet.

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The beast in me Is caged by frail and fragile bars”

You have to remember that we get hit with a service tax or charge or something, and Fry's is still quite a neat store to shop in!

Sounds like a pretty good setup so far MT. As vayne said, newegg.com is a good place to look for the rest of your stuff. I upgraded my computer solely through zipzoomfly.com. Also check out tigerdirect.com and mwave.com - they've got pretty good prices too. But I must say $159 for AMD dual core 4200 and mobo is a pretty sweet deal! Last I saw, tigerdirect had sales on monitors.

Yeh the Fry's I was in was a pretty good size like a huge department store or something. On newegg the small is stuff has very low shipping like less then 10 dollars.

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The beast in me Is caged by frail and fragile bars”

I just bought the dual core because it was cheap. It is really, really fast. It loads q4 maps in seconds. I did not get the avi to dvd program running yet but that will be the real test.

I used to buy everything from newegg when they shipped via fedex. I am not to happy about the ups shipping. I will probably get the monitor from newegg. My check book is a bit sore right now though.

Checkbook health is really important!! I have the AMD 3800 dual core and have to lower the resolution in the game for it to load at a decent rate. I was being cheap and only bought a 128mb video card

I thought the 7600 was a cheap video card when I bought but I am really happy with it. That ddr3 ram is fast. I didn't check all of the specs on the card but I imagine the pixel rendering is really high too.

It is really not like me to buy a video card on a whim like that but I seem to have gotten lucky. Tomorrow I will try to compile an avi file to dvd. That will be the true test.