Col the retail version of the E8400 can be had for £109.27 from ebuyer:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139971 Good price?
i Have now decided not to get a amd processor at all but go with intel
so far i have decided
Processor = Intel Core 2 Duo e8400 (but may go for a Intel CORE 2 QUAD Q6600 1066FSB SKT775 RET.)
GFX card = SAPPHIRE HD4850 512MB PCI-E
Board = Asus SKT-775 P5Q DELUXE S/L 1600FSB (will this motherboard work with a Intel CORE 2 QUAD Q6600 ? any information much appreciated)
Ram = GEIL 2GB DDR2 800 CL5.0 16 CHIP BRUSH ALUMINUM (Will this ram work with my mother board ? )
Standard question; are you going to be gaming? As I know Col has been actively pushing the E8400 for gaming rigs.
Why? Whilst the Q6600 is a perfectly capable processor for games (I have one), the E8400's faster clock speed and larger FSB, plus the continued lack of multicore processing in games (the OS is expected to balance load across cores), means they out perform the Q6600's.
However, the 'Q' series are still a CPU of choice for people that use applications that
can properly utilise multiple core processors, e.g. video editing etc.
That motherboard won't have a problem with the Q6600 or the E8400. Whilst it won't run at its full potential with either (i.e. 1600 MHz), it does leave room for future upgrade.
That RAM will work fine, but if you want the best performance from your setup, go for RAM that matches the FSB of the lowest common denominator, in this case the CPU. The Q6600 gains ~5% when used with DDR2-1066 (aka PC2-8500) over DDR2-800. Therefore, on that motherboard, DDR2-1066 for the Q6600, DDR2-1333 (if you can find any) for the E8400. However, you'll be able to use anything from DDR2-667 upwards on that motherboard.
The other option would be to go for a DDR3 based motherboard, but the expense to performance gain over DDR2 is still poor. (NB a 'hybrid' DDR2/DDR3 motherboard delivers worse performance than a wholly DDR2 option.)
I'm also thinking of getting the Intel Quad Core Q6600 as Dabs do it for £113.25 inc vat & Pc world will match there price & +10% of the difference, incidentally pc world do it for £149.99
Motherboard my be the Gigabyte ga-73pvm-s2h
G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-8000C5 (2x2GB)
If PC world need a delivered price, ebuyer offer free 5day delivery on orders over £49.99. They have the OEM Q6600 for £109.96, and the retail for £116.73.
I've had two of gigabyte's mobos, for the price at the time they where slightly under spec'ed, but they have lasted - one is still in use, the other is mothballed. The only problem I had was installing to a SATA hard drive, but this was an issue with certain versions of the NF4 chipset. I'd also suggest looking at ASUS and MSI.
If going for 4Gb RAM definately go for a 64bit OS. XP, Vista and Linux all have 64bit versions.