[LuckOfTheDraw]

Newegg usually has good pricing. How much are you willing to spend?

Also, there are many many sites out there that do product reviews. I suggest comparing performance and price and finding the best value. Usually, you can find something where performance drops off quickly if you go just a little bit cheaper but price goes up quickly if you go for a little better performance.

Anyways, I wouldn't settle for anything other than an Intel Core 2 right now. Also, the newest release of CPUs from Intel, just recently, are actually a good amount cheaper and a (little) bit better than the first generation Core 2s. These newer chips' product numbers end with a 50, instead of 00. For example, E6700 and E6750 are both 2.67 GHz Core 2 Duo processors, the latter being the newest release, and cheaper. Also, the newer line has a slightly higher FSB.

I just built an entirely new computer from the ground up yesterday. Ordered from newegg on Sunday, had it built and running by yesterday evening. I bought an Core 2 Duo E6750, which I found to be of excellent value. However, the newer p35 chipset is used with the higher FSB and are a little bit more expensive than motherboards with the p965/p975 chipset. Mobos with the p965/p975 chipset would support the older generation of Core 2 CPUs. Using a 1333 MHz FSB CPU on the older chipset would require overclocking , though, this I'm not really positive on. I think I've read that some p965 mobos are built to run on a 1333 MHz FSB, but they could just be overclocked by the manufacturer, I really don't know.

I ended up going with a Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R mobo. It has a nice little added bonus of supporting either DDR2 or DDR3 RAM, though not both at the same time.

So, just look around at various reviews. Don't take one site's word for it either. I like to compare reviews from various sites to get a form a better overall opinion.