Yeah, good call freestyler, since when did the E6600 become a budget cpu? If you're really on a tight budget like 400-500 dollars, a skt 939 system will work out fine for you or a low class AM2 processor. If you have around 600-800 you can consider an E6400 or lower. For 1k+ you can settle for the E6400 or E6600, the kentsfields are just rediculous unless you plan on keeping photoshop/indesign/bf2/cs:s/+ a bunch of other apps open 24/7, otherwise for normal users you really won't see a difference in performance.