Hello boys and girls!
 
I´m in the process of building a new computer since my old one does feel a bit old and slow, not to mention that stupid northbridge-fan that keeps breaking.... *sigh*
 
Anyway, I´m mostly going to be playing and doing some minor programming on it and occassionaly doing some Photoshop work with it.
I´ll be running XP pro 32-bit for some time yet, but i will eventually move to Vista in the near future.
 
 I´ve (more or less) decided to use the following component in my build:
 
CPU: ?
Mainbord: Asus Maximus iX38 (the DDR2 version)
Memory: 2x 2048Mb DDR2 OCZ Reaper HPC 8500
Graphic: Asus 8800GTS 512Mb, not SLI (yet)
 
(Case, PSU, DVD etc is already taken care of, will use existing parts from the old machine)  
 
Regarding the 4Gb of memory, I know that a 32-bit OS will only give me 3-3.5Gb of memory despite having 4Gb, but i like to think that more-is-better in this case.
 
And now the question is, what CPU should I have?
I´ve been looking alot on the Q9450 CPU, but now, after doing som reading in the forums etc, I´m not so sure that I need 4 cores, maybe I´ll do just as well with 2, at least for now.  
 
Any suggestions regarding my thoughts on choice of CPU is greatly appreciated.    
 
 

Well, you mentioned "Graphic: Asus 8800GTS 512Mb, not SLI (yet)".  
 
If you want to go SLI, then you need to get and SLI capable mobo.  X38 only supports CrossFire.  If you think you may do SLI in the future, then you need to look into the 780i or 790i mobos.
 
As far as CPU goes, if I were you I would look into the Q9450 or the Xeon X3350.  Since you said that you occasionally use Photoshop, and you game a bit, it will be worth it.   More and more games being developed are being coded for multi-threading.  I think you'd be happy with that.  It may be a little more expensive for now, but cheaper later on when you don't feel the itch to upgrade to a quad.

go for quad if u'll do multitasking. im using the q6600. n couldnt be happier with this cpu. it just gets everything done for me.  
 
im not sure about those new quads. but ths Q6600 is really good catch. of course, if u not into multitasking. u can get any of the core 2 dou processors. up to ur budget. either the E6750 /higher or the newer E8300/higher.

OK, i agree with the other 2 posts, go with a quad, i think anything like a q9300 would be good, failing that get a e8*** series CPU.
 
 
if i were you i would go to vista while your here or you will never get around to.
 
especally considering how cheap ddr2 is.
 

q6600 is very good option..

but the q9300 is a better option if availble.