Processor Vs Mobo

[Ashley Long]

basically im looking for a new processor and mobo combination for around £200-£250.

currently i have an AMD Athlon 4200+ which is overclocked slightly. i have upgraded the rest of the system and mobo/cpu is the only thing left to do..

Memory:8gb PC2-6400
Graphics Card(s):ATI Radeon 4870 512mb
Power Supply:Corsair 650W

Uses: Gaming, programing, uni work etc
Overclocking: will be...

i have narrowed it down to a few processors and a few mobo's interested for some opinions on what ones...

a local shop is selling;
Intel Core2 Duo E8200 2.66Ghz 1333FSB @ £127.22
Intel E7300 Core 2 Duo 2.66Ghz 1066FSB @ £106
Intel Core2 Duo E6550 2.33 Ghz 1333 FSB @117.44

or from OCUK
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 2.80GHz (1066FSB) @ £113.84
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz (1333FSB) @ £151.79

for the mobo i was thinking:
Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 @ £116.14 with one of the cheaper chips.
Gigabyte GA-EP43-S3L Intel P43 @ £74.74 with one of the expensive chips.

And a,
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler @ £19.54

what im trying to decide is it worth buying a cheaper chip and the P5Q pro which is a good overclocking mobo and getting the best performance out of it or getting the cheaper board and a better chip. i will be looking to upgrade the processor to a quad core in a year or two.

Also is there any better cooler (within my budget)? i currently have the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro PWM CPU Cooler running on my AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ which seems to be doing a good job atm (i will lose that when i sell my mobo and processor to my brother).

thanks for your help in advance...

 

[Ducky Spud]

If I was you I'd definately go with the E8400 CPU, though with your budget it would mean going for a lesser mobo.

Can you not wait a bit longer until you can get that CPU and a P5Q board (whichever you went for in the end, I'd say P5Q-E at around £125) as those 2 together would be great! should get some stunning overclocks

 

[Audigex]

I'd take the E8400 and the gigabyte board unless you want to double up on the graphics card. The extra performance gained from the 8400 over the 7400 should be more than the loss from dropping P45->P43

Sure you can't stretch to £270 for the 8400 and P5Q?