Choice is really dependant on what you do with your PC. If gaming then duo core, if video encoding of multitasking then quad. If you are thinking about OC then duo core is easier.
Both Duo core and Quad Core play all games. ATM developers do not fully utilise quad cores and thus clock speed is the key. For modest budgets Duo cores overclock better and if gaming is the main function then I would suggest a E8400 which can overclock to 4.3Ghz with air cooling. But make you get a good motherboard that is stable with high FSB. Another reason why clock speed is important is because it has an impact on high performance graphics cards and the graphics card is the biggest contributor to gaming performance. Naturally for futureproofing (i.e. when developers do exploit the full potential of a quad core) then i7 920 is a better choice but this is costly due to the LGA1366 mobo and triple channel DDR3 memory. ATM (for gaming) you are better getting a E8400 and investing the difference in a high end graphics card e.g. 4870X2 or GTX 295.
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