Looking for motherboard/processor combo for ~300$. Intel vs AMD - any suggestions?

Hi there and thanks for visiting this thread. I'm currently in the process of upgrading my computer and am looking for suggestions which motherboard and processor would you recommend for up to 300$. I am a novice overclocker and as such would like the board to have O/C options in BIOS as well as O/C-capable processor. Also, from what I know a chipset on motherboard is also important, but I have no experience in that matter and would welcome any opinions. My current config is as follows:


Processor Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 2.66GHz (overclocked to 3GHz)
Cooler ARCTIC COOLING FREEZER 7 PRO PWM
Mainboard Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L
Memory Kingston 2x2GB 800MHz DDR2 Non-ECC CL5 DIMM
Video Card Asus Radeon HD 5770 1GB RAM 128bit
HDD Samsung HD502IJ 500GB SATA 3GB/s 16MB DRAM
Sound Card Sound Blaster Audigy Player
Power Supply Corsair CMPSU-550VX


In your opinion, should I upgrade any of the components if I'd like not to touch my PC (upgrade-wise) for the next 3-4 years? Are there any significant bottlenecks and should I bother at all with upgrade at the moment or wait for some time? I heard some good thing about Intel i5 processors, but I would really prefer to hear opinion from somebody who knows what is what I would appreciate any suggestions and opinions on processors and mainboards available in the ~300$ price bracket. Thank you!

 

Looking for motherboard/processor combo for ~300$. Intel vs AMD - any suggestions

I found this post. I think that that choice is within 300$ (CPU + MOBO combo, that is).

For myself, I chose Intel because I am not an overclocker at all (on the CPU, anyway - IMO Intel offers the better out-of-the box thing), but a 965 Black Edition CPU would be great for overclocking - it is based on the latest AMD socket, it has a great clock and is Black Edition, which allows you to change practically all clock-and-otherwise performance related stuff. Hope this helps to ease the pain of choice

 

Looking for motherboard/processor combo for ~300$. Intel vs AMD - any suggestions

I waa going to say keep the same motherboard and upgrade to q6600 quad core socket 775 cpu overclock it easy to 3.6ghz with a 1600mhz system bus frequency, but I just checked you motherboard it's not the best only supports upto 1333mhz system bus frequency. If it where me I would head for a core i7 motherboard, core i7 920 and 4gb tripple channel kit of ddr3, but try upping your budget to around $400

 

Looking for motherboard/processor combo for ~300$. Intel vs AMD - any suggestions

thank you kindly for all your answers. After some consideration I will keep my system as it is right now and maybe make another leap once new generation of video cards will come out (nVidia w/physx & DX11), at a reasonable price though. I will change my processor, motherboard, memory and gfx card all at once. Thanks once again!