AMD Athlon 64 3800+ / 2.4 GHz processor

Now, I'm not one who knows that much about CPU's before i begin but i can say a few good points about this.

The AMD 3800+ is the last of their single core cpu's that fit the 939 pin socket. In case you do not understand, when you get a computer, you have to buy a motherboard with a matching size socket for your CPU. This is 939 pin. The newer ones are AM2.

This cpu only has a single core but at least it is a nice quick one clocking in at 2.4GhZ. It can be over clocked but I do not do that nor do I recommend unless you have a fair bit of experience. I can honestly say it is fast enough to run ANY current game and I have an X850XTX graphics card which is about two years old now. So clearly its not outdated and if you are budget it does fine. HOWEVER!- If you have the money to spend, go for a newer AMD dual core cpu. The reason why is that most applications now are being written in single thread which means they don't take full advantage of dual cores but all this is soon to change, especially now the "Next Gen" of computer gaming is out with DX10 and all.
You can actually get a 3800+ X2 which is this but with dual core. I hear it is a pretty nice chip. It is the end of the single core and begging of dual core this chip.
Now I cannot really explain this as I said I'm not really a cpu expert but as far as I know it has 512KB of cache… All I can say is it works a charm so I suppose this is a good thing. It is also 64bit and I think basically what that means is that it can access the memory faster as to older 32bit processors but I believe all processors have made the jump to 64bit now anyway.
To install it, you can get a company such as PC world, or if you know what you are doing yourself it does include a manual. Also included are a heat sink with fan and cable to apply power to the fan. The actual chip is already coated with a heat transfer material even though it says for some reason you should buy some. It was a very tight fit but I suppose all cpu's are latched on very tightly. The noise output isn't very high at all and it maintain a nice temperature and has never overheated on me. My computer has been stable ever since I've gotten this. I get no lag, crashing or any signs of instability which is excellent.
Overall, if you on budget its superb but if your going to want to get a computer that will handle games for a few years to come, get dual core- really. This CPU wins for is value mostly coming in at only around 80£! Compared to the most recent of processors which are near the 200£ mark and the AMD FX series which care near the 500£ mark you can see the value.