Build Advice How to determine bottlenecks

I was wondering how you guys determine whether something will be/is a bottleneck or not, without testing other CPUs- unless there is no other way.

My friend wants to build a $454 system:
CPU: Core2Duo E8400
RAM: 4GB G-SKILL DDR2-800
GPU: EVGA GTX260 896MB
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L G41 MicroATX
PSU: 500W

I think it's a great deal- what do you think?

And my actual question: Will the CPU bottleneck the GPU? I would think that it wouldn't, since i've heard that as long as you have a decent dual-core CPU with a decent amount of cache and an FSB of 1066MHz or over, it really doesn't matter, and games will really only be affected by the GPU.

 

That looks like a nicely balanced system actually.
The only bottleneck here will be the mechanical hard drive, but then most of us can live with that, especially without spending some serious money

Though i'd be interested to know what PSU (brand/model) he is intending to use. This can make all the difference (esp. to system stability), almost as much as supposed wattage.

 

Yer, the Hard Drive will be the bottleneck
Btw... Micro ATX Motherboard

And also, the CPU will affect your frame rate depending on the game, some games rely heavily on CPU so will be affected by the CPU, some are written to take advantage of quad cores, some are GPU intensive, it just depends on the game