the E8500 edit: also, what OS are you goint to use becuase if you use XP you don't need 4 Gb of memory since XP can only use a max of 3 gb.
Or the E8600 No, XP 64-bit can address 4GB of memory, same with Vista. A 32-bit OS will adress around 3.25/3.5 GB of memory, while 64-bit will adress much more. The driver issues for 64-bit vista are more or less non-existent now anyways. The difference between the E8400 and the E8500 is the multiplyer. E8400: 9x E8500: 9.5x E8600: 10x But if you plan on overclocking, then might as well go for the E8400 as 3.6ghz should be easy (normally without touching voltages), and you can push it up to 4ghz on air cooling.
Then get the E8400/500. What kind of a question is that . There really isn't much difference, except the multiplyer.
Well shipping for most newegg items is relatively cheap/free. Then just shipping to you may be a bit expensive. But compare prices, may be cheaper overall.
well GTA seems to scale well with additional cores, but then again that game is a horribly coded port. my opinion is ------ similar though, don't bother witha quad, they're too expensive given their benefits... heckI'll be bold enough to say this, just grab a cheap e5200 OC it to hell, then in a year when quads are being dumped for dirt cheap, sell the e5200 and get a quad and be money ahead(and with a 45nm 4Ghz c2q insteed of a 65nm 3.6Ghz c2q) doesn't work well. Tariffs will make it more expensive.
Not to mention the exchange rate. Hell, Australia doesn't do too badly with retail prices. Compared to New Zealand which is literally a stones throw away, it's almost worth getting stuff sent from Aus to NZ.
End Result: Motherboard - G-B EP45-DS3L CPU - Intel E8400 3.0ghz CPU COOLER - Zalman 9700LED RAM - 4GB Kit DDR2 800 Kingston-HyperX RAM COOLER - Patriot RAM cooler GPU - ATI Radeon 4850 ASUS HardDrive - Western Digital 640gig DVD Drive - Pioneer DVR-212 Power Supply - Seasonic PSR550+ 550W Case - Thermaltake V9 Mouse - Logitech g9 Keyboard - Logitech g15 Monitor - 19” 2ms DVI WS Samsung 953BW OS - Vista Ultimate 64 bit With these specs how much OC is possible?
The Zalman cooler isn't really the ideal choice for overclocking. They're nice, quiet, relatively low profile coolers, but definately fall to the wayside to coolers like the Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120 and Ultima 90, or the Scythe Ninja, or even older coolers such as the Tuniq Tower. However, even with that cooler (Hell, even with stock cooling) 4Ghz is achievable. Better cooling, and an E0 stepping chip, and you can almost set 4GHz as your 24/7 clocks and work from there.
Well, that store has a particularly poor selection of coolers. I'd recommend buying the cooler elsewhere.