i agree that amd may be the way to go for him. although, im one to not think its wise to buy into amd right now since the current am3 socket is about to be replaces, and since the athlon II and phenom II cores are a bit older, id say its not money well spent. but if that all the OP wants is something to get him by over the next year or 2, then a athlon II quad core would be nice. and the cpu and motherboard would be cheaper than an intel set up, but with a loss in performance.