Choice A.Intel Pentium D 805 Smithfield 2.66GHz - 60.00 bucks on newegg, and can go to 3.2 easily.Choice B.Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Conroe 2.66GHz - currently 317.00 on newegg, but could go down on the 22nd of July.My friend has the Pent. D and it goes great with the zalman fan, I think he had it up to 3.4 Both are dual cores the core 2 duo has more cache, perhaps twice I believe. I am interested only in processing power/price. Thanks for any help...Danon O.

As good a bang for buck deal that choice A is, it is probably slower in FS than your current CPU (even overclocked), so pass on that one.Choice B is therefore best and will cost you $183 after Jul 22nd. This CPU should overclock to 3.2GHz+.Seeing that you are value orientated, consider adding a choice C of an E4400, which will be $113 after July 22nd and should overclock to at least 3GHz.I'd pick Choice B myself.Gary

I have been leaning towards the core 2 duo, but can attest the my buddies pent. D oc'd to 3.4 destroys my old amd at 2.6 - either one is going to smoke what I have. I guess I just need to know if the core 2 duo is worth the xrta 200 bucks or so, or if they do drop as low as you estimate - the xtra 100 bucks, that would be nice....Danon o>

There is something wrong with your setup if a Pentium D @ 3.4 is smoking your system. Yours should be at least as fast, and more likely noticeably faster. Are you sure you are comparing apples to apples (ie. are both FS installs roughly the same or are there significant other setting or hardware differences)?In any case, the C2D is at least 50% faster at the same clock than a Pentium D and a lot more power efficient (you'll save $200 on your electricty bill :-lol)Gary

I think we are talking about the same proc's here.The legendary (amongst overclocking gamers) pent. D is a dual core overclocked from 2.6 to 3.4 and yes..it is quite faster than my old athlon single core, which has been overclocked to reach 2.6 - from its base 2.2 speed. I'm not sure why you think my old single core would hang with it at all. Just in core clock speed, there is a massive difference between 2.6 and 3.4 - well I think so anyway, and have seen his system move...its not bad atall.But..all things aside, I will be going the way of the core 2 duo, twice the cache and the xtra futureproofing are easily worth a hundred and fifty to me. With my motherboard capable of alot more than that (the one I am purchasing) it will be a good combo.Danon O.and thanks for the help... :)

>The legendary (amongst overclocking gamers) pent. D is a dual>core overclocked from 2.6 to 3.4 and yes..it is quite faster>than my old athlon single core, which has been overclocked to>reach 2.6 - from its base 2.2 speed. I'm not sure why you>think my old single core would hang with it at all. Just in>core clock speed, there is a massive difference between 2.6>and 3.4 - well I think so anyway, and have seen his system>move...its not bad atall.Whilst that may be your specific experience, my personal experience and that well documented in reviews on the internet show the complete opposite - your overclocked A64 should be soundly beating the Pentium-D (even at 3.4GHz) in nearly all games out there that are not dual-core optimised (example review http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/displ...cpu-games.html). And whilst FSX is touted to be dual-core optimised, turning off the second core makes about a 10% loss in FPS at most, so even that doesn't put the Pentium-D ahead.The reason I am stressing this point is that it is far more likely you have a system configuration issue than a slower CPU, so you may be best served trying to fix what you have rather than spending money when you possibly don't need to. FYI, I was getting pathetic performance in FSX for a while (ie. single digit FPS on approach with mid range sliders on my system) and stutters galore and it turned out to be drivers (mainly video and sound) that were causing the problem. I can now run most sliders to the right with 20+ FPS after fixing it.>But..all things aside, I will be going the way of the core 2>duo, twice the cache and the xtra futureproofing are easily>worth a hundred and fifty to me. With my motherboard capable>of alot more than that (the one I am purchasing) it will be a>good combo.Good move!>Danon O.>>and thanks for the help... :)Gary