Probably not. The difference can go towards a video card, or more Ram.

That's my logic too.

I should say buy AMD
 

If you are on a budget, a little one, I should say look for a AMD with ATI graphic card they go well together.

EKL Alpenföhn Brocken + Scythe Slipstream 800

http://www.kingwin.com/products/cate...rs/xt_1264.asp

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/cpu-zcpu.png

$450!!! You won't be happy. You'd be better off saving your money then buy these cheap cpu's everyones recommending to you. Gpu's are nice but if you play alot of sims then you NEED a good cpu. Cod and games like dcs a-10 use more cpu.

I'd say save your money cuz with $450 i'd be disapointed. Oh and sandy balls if you had the money...ie 2500k

It sounds like your not building this on your own?? Micro ATX is alright as long as you dont need the other PCI slots that the video card may block. Somw Micro atx have 2 PCI slots I think which depending on your vid card at least the first is blocked by the fan. See how much you can get with a higher end AMD setup, maybe you can get a phenom II for that price. The rough equivalent amd tothe i3 540 is the athlon II X3 445 and up cpu's.

Well, i've pretty much settled on a 1055t/1090t X6 based system. Does anyone have any experience with those?

They seem great for price vs performance, and benchmark marks are high.

If hexa then 1090, it's BE and overclocks pretty well if needed.

Which mobo?

Yes, probably a 1090t, as they're pretty close priced anyway. I'll start looking at mobo's tonight, although someone at the ubi boards (oldbuzzard) recommended ASrock. But I need one with firewire (for sd video transfer).