Okay, so Farmer Ed wants to build a Gaming PC, but it's gonna be his first time doing so, so he lacks experience. I'm a Console Gamer myself, so I really don't know any better than him either.
However, I know alot of you guys are into PC Gaming, and have even built PCs of your own. (House comes to mind here.) At first I was going to post this question on GameFAQs, but I'd rather not deal with the elitists making fun of me for not knowing or trolls telling me to buy something over-priced or crappy, so I'd rather ask people I trust who won't make stupid comments ("They teach this kinda stuff on Blue's Clues!") or trolling me.

So, like I said, Farmer Ed is building a Gaming PC, but he's doing it on a budget, and really only has up to $80 to spend on a processor right now. So what would be the best processor to buy that's in that price range? We're not trying to go all out just yet since this is more or less going to be a prototype practice run sorta thing, but we would like it to be able to run modern games with decent settings.
Also, if you can suggest a good populated motherboard with a great processor built into it, then that would also be greatly appreciated as we also need a motherboard. (Hell, any and all suggestions you could make would be a big help as we're really going in blind here...)

Thanks in advance.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103846&cm_re=amd_phenom_II-_-19-103-846-_-Product


I use this processor and can vouch for its power, coupled with a powerful video card and 4 gigs of ram I can max out Mass Effect 2 and most other games coming out. If you need help picking out parts, message me on Steam.

Thanks, man! This is a big help. I've heard the Phenom II was good myself, so this should be just what we need.

I'll message you on Steam if we have any further questions.

Make sure you get an AM3 motherboard if you're getting DDR3 ram, because it won't work with the AM2+ socket.

House hasn't built his own PC

And yeah, I have the 6-core version of that. I second Kscorps suggestion. Processors don't actually contribute to the games ability to run very much. Most games are still designed for use with a single-core, and actually, most of the processing power goes to the video card when you are referring to gaming. So if you are specifically going for a gaming computer, honestly the 2 most important components would be a video card (splurge on this), and to make sure you have a power supply strong enough to support it.

Also, before you buy a processor, make sure it's compatible with your motherboard. Motherboards are either designed for Intel or AMD processors, so double-check and make sure the motherboard supports it. If it doesn't, you may need to find the Intel counterpart. Intel parts don't give you the "bang for your buck" AMD processors do, but if you already have an Intel-compatible motherboard, it's still cheaper to get one anyway.

Thanks, (guess I had House confused with you) and by the way... How's the Athlon II? Is it comparable, because it's only $53.99 vs $87.99, and like I said we're kinda on a budget, so if the Athlon II is anywhere near as capable as the Phenom II then it would probably be a better choice for us at the moment.

The Phenom II line of CPUs are great, plus the overclocking is really good too. It's as easy as changing a few settings and buying a new cooler, and you can squeeze a MONSTER amount of speed out sometimes. I went from 3.1 to 3.6GHz and I never had to play with voltages. I could go much higher than that, but this thing is already fast.

And yeah, right now a fast dual core like the Phenom II X2 is probably the best for what Farmer Ed needs to do.

Okay, but what of the Athlon II? Would it be a decent alternative?

I'm not sure. Which Athlon II are you looking at? I know they don't have the L3 cache, because the dual core model at least is basically a Phenom II with the cache locked out.

It's this one...

http://www.amazon.com/AMD-Athlon-3-1GHz-Dual-Core-Processor/dp/B003XOV090/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1310155220&sr=8-3

I dunno, a lot of the reviews on that product say that it's more suited to an HTPC, which isn't really a gaming PC. If he's just playing stuff like TF2, it should be fine.

Hmm... Anyone else know? I don't place much stock in Amazon reviews since they're usually riddled with gross misinformation. *Thinks of the time an art book was called porn for having nudes in it, a softcore porno was called art, Dragon Age 2 was compared to Call of Duty by Amazon reviewers, and I was recommended gay porn for buying Cultural Anthropology books off the site.*