Need advice on cpu/mobo/ram

Hello, I am considering of building a system for online gaming, There are however some special considerations.

Unlike most mmorpgs, this one still uses CPU rendered sprites. From my understanding very little if nothing is offloaded to the GPU(s).

The network packets are tcp and not udp also and it is a single threaded game.

I am considering on using a Xeno killer Nic ( I have one and it works ok) and a dedicated sound card to offload some of the work from the CPU and plan on having a good sata2 30mb cache 1tb hd.

Right now I am stumped on what would be a good combo for this system. The very least would be a dual core though. Any advice would be most welcomed.

Low end C2D setup, Mid AMD 9XXBE, High end i7

I think your best bet though would be the AMD Phenon II 550 BE coupled with an AMD or nVidia integrated chipset (AMD 790GX/nVidia 8XXX) for now. If you find you want more power then buy a video card if needed if not save the money.

to the forums.

My advice would be to forget the Xeno nic but since you have one I guess you could use it. Just dont buy the new version if you dont have it already.

What game are you talking about?

Any c2d would most likely be fine for you as well as mid level AMD phenoms.

What is your price range for this system?

I would go with either an AMD 550 and overclock it till it squeeks (~3.8-4ghz), or if you can afford it nothing beats a core i7 clock for clock, and most of them will do 3.8-4ghz also.

Personally, i would be surprised if that old of a game needed a really modern CPU. Do you know what it's basic requirements are? Or just tell us the name of the game so we can look it up.

Instead of the AMD 550 I would recommend the 235 or 240 (as low as you can go), the performance difference (less than 10%) does not justify the price difference which could cover 4GB of 1066DDR2 or half of a cheaper mobo.
You could also go Intel the 5200 and the new 6300 clocks close to the AMD 2X0 or 550 and performance is also similar under games.

Instead of that waste of cash NIC I would rather go quad. A q9550 would cost only 100 more than the 550 would, clocks higher and is faster clock for clock than amd quads. With this motherboard it would cost 300-350.
An amd quad would also be roughly the same although slightly slower, both a better choice in the long run than duals unless you find it fun to OC processors, because by the time these quads would fall under 100$ what's the difference between an 550 and a quad you will likely need a better cpu than what we have these days and with building a quad you wouldn't have to bother with a new cpu for a quite a while.

under 200 dollar solutions

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.212718

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.211676

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.212718

not sure what your price range is, but these combos are affordable and can fit a variety of cpu's, worth a look.

im looking for a cpu,motherboard,computer RAM,hard drive,and so on that can be good for gaming like wow