Hi everyone im new to these forums, hope you're all well and happy.

Ok, it was my 18th yesterday and my grandparents are going to buy me some new pc parts, they have given me £150 already as a deposit. i wanted your opinions on what to get. Especially which PROCESSOR?

I have (and will be using in this build):-
-Antec p180 case
-7800gt
-sata dvd burner

I am going to get:-



However would i be best off getting an e2140 or a q6600 GO? I could get the e2140 and then buy a penryn, i am really unsure... Additionally this is my grandparents money, so i dont want to be spending too much especially considering prices in this market drop so rapidly.
The pc will be used for gaming and i want to play crysis on it.

Please give me some advice! Any constructive comments are welcome.
[Sorry if this is in the wrong place]

Crysis will benefit from 4 cores, and so will a lot of games in the future. Get the Q6600 if you have enough cash. That should last you for at least two years, and you can spend the next gift on a new video card rather than a new CPU.

^I agree with that.

^ Third

Can't go wrong with a q6600, though, you could get e6750 for ~100$ less (50 pounds) and put it toward your video card.

Get the Q6600. Make sure the RAM you get is on the RAM compatibility page on Gigabytes web site. It may make your life a lot easier.

I can tell you that RAM worked with Gigabyte's 965 based boards.

Any plans for overclocking? Your cooler seems particularly weak for that task. An e4400 isn't a bad idea if you want to OC. I took my e4300 from an 800MHz bus to 1466MHz bus without trouble, dropped the multiplier to 8x and it runs 2.93GHz all day, temps are ~60C in the core max load (it becomes unsafe above 75C) - 45C max. load according to BIOS.

To play crysis, you will ned a better graphics card if you want any sort of quality. Whether you can afford that on your own later or not, its up to you. I'd pick an 8800GTS/320 for price/performance. Going with anything cheaper has a disproportionate drop off in performance (eg, 10% less money but 30% less performance), while nothing more expensive is worth it (eg 30% more money, 10% more perf). Roflcopters.

Thanks for all your advice, joe i was looking at getting the 8800gts already but cant afford it atm, ill get it when crysis comes out or when the new 9800 series comes out.

Im still unsure about the quad core thing tho; if my 7800gt will bottleneck it. I might just get the 2140 and see how it overclocks.

Whats wrong with the zalman 9700 cooler? It looks ace and the reviews seem good too.

The Zalman 9700 cools well, but I hear it can make annoying noise under load. I don't have one, so take this with a grain of salt, but several reviewers mentioned it. I think you can get a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme for about the same money and get better cooling and less noise.