So I chose some parts for a friend. I felt iffy about having him invest in LGA775 though, but then again, I couldn't find any LGA1366 parts that would've been within budget. Cheapest mobo I could find is over $200 and processor over $300
so for about
$980 CAD final total, including shipping, taxes, etc. I got him this:
Gigabyte EP45-UD3L motherboard
Intel C2Q 9550
1GB HD4870
4GB G.Skill PC2-8000 (F2-8000CL5D)
1TB WD10EADS Caviar Green HDD
Corsair TX750W psu
Antec Nine Hundred Mid tower case
Solid build you think, for the price?
I know some might suggest the E8400 instead of the Q9550, but he multitasks and does a lot of multimedia stuff on top of gaming. Plus, the Q9550 gave us free shipping for the entire order!