Finding a cheap LGA775 socket CPU?

[DonQuigleone]

Recently I accidentally overheated and destroyed my Core 2 Duo E8500 CPU. I want to buy a replacement for it, but everywhere I look LGA775 CPUs are either out of stock or priced well above current gen CPUs.

I'd like to have a CPU that's as good as or better then my previous one, and not too expensive, will I be forced to change my entire motherboard, or is there a model out there that isn't too expensive. I wouldn't mind getting another E8500, but everyone I've seen cost more then I payed for my original 4 years ago!

I'd appreciate any help.

[mavroxur]

The reason the higher end 775 chips are so extremely high is that people know that even at inflated prices, it's still cheaper to pay $100+ for an (overpriced) Core 2 Duo CPU (and some Core 2 Quads are $250+ which is absurd) than it is to but a newer CPU, motherboard, and memory necessary to make the jump to a new socket/platform. The prices are still climbing, too. You might jump down to maybe an E6750 Core 2 Duo. It has less cache and is a little slower, but a LOT cheaper. I picked one up a while back for like $30, and it runs just fine in my son's computer at stock speed. I bumped it to 3.0GHz just for a little extra umph, but at stock, it's just fine.