Does anyone know anything about desktop processor chips?

Its not just a cpu thing its a graphics card thing as well and how modern a game are we saying?

IMO so far Intel are the better bet when it comes to chips unless you want a single core unit or certain dual core ranges since they are normally more efficent for power consumption but are worse for clock speeds since they are slightly behind.

As for Dual or Quad core, Quad core is "better" since its the same as dual core with just well, double the cores however very little software uses more than 2 processors at the moment.

core 2 duo is faster then quad core but at the same time quad core will better for future proof, try to get a q6600 as this can be overclocked to 3.4ghz

dont bother with dual core they were the first dual chips and are slow

I lol at your wrongness.

Thanks everyone - what sort of graphics card should I be looking for then?

Im not sure, but I think they're healthier done in the oven

go on then,

core 2 duo is quite a bit faster in gaming compared to the quad, as i have both and get better frame rates with the duo

if ihad the money i would go for the latest nvidia 295

Depends on what pc you have, its not too technical but the best ones take up 2 spaces on the motherboard(only plugged into 1 slot but is the size of 2) like a HD4870 which is around £100

To run that however you need a good power supply which again is at least £40

But its all down to the sort of games you want to play, the resolution and if you want every graphics feature enabled to make it as "shiny" as possible.

as for psu try to go for at least 600w and a good brand, cos if it blows it could well take out the whole system

Id only go for a 600W psu if they want a powerful card like I mentioned otherwise something like 400W is suitable.

Thanks for your comments. Ideally I want it to be future proof (at least for a couple of years) and to be able to play most modern games without it grinding to a halt. If the graphics have to be turned down a little I guess that would be OK.

Thanks again.

depends if they want to start overclocking aswell

also go for ddr3 as its cheaper at the moment then ddr2, so watch what board you go for and dont forget a decent size monitor

I dont think the OP has the technical know how for that if they are asking the difference between dual and quad core etc!

Well it all depends on you budget.Well for games the most important factor is the GPU. So if you want to play first person shooters your looking at £100+ for a GPU (ATI 4870, nVidia GTX260 upwards). As most games only support 2 cores then a high clocked two core processor is the way to go.