Planning my next PC

[Moofaa]

Ok, so im planning to build a new system this year. I dont want to wait, because, well, I'm impatient and have a couple thousand burning a hole in my pocket.

Just from a quick shop on newegg, this is what I come up with

Part Type Cost Location
Case TT VA8000BNS 144.99 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1389579&CatId=1510
Motherboard EVGA nForce 680i SLI 249.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813188009
Proc C2D E6600 316.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115003
RAM OCZ DDR800 2gb 289.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227185
Heatsink ZALMAN CNPS9500 53.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835118223
PSU HIPER HPU-4S730-MS 154.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817128009
DVD/CD RW Samsung 46.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827151141
Sound Card ?
Graphics BFG GeForce 8800GTS x2 799.98 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143081

HD 74gb Raptor x2 159.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136033

Total = 2377.89

What do you guys think? I didnt price compare with other sites yet, right now im more concerned with picking the right components. Thats also costs without rebates.
Im thinking about sticking with air cooling. Im more familiar with it, and watercooling is expensive and scary when im putting this much $$ into a rig.

I chose the case because it fits well with a mod I have in mind. I'll prolly add a 80 or 120mm fan to the side with the custom window I am going to cut into it. I assume 2 8800s will fit in there. I didnt include a sound card because I will most likely take the SB Audigy I have in my old pc, and let whoever I give the old one to use the onboard sound.

[Silenced_Coyote]

Somewhat similar to my recent build. Glad to see someone else sport a SATA burner!!! Funny, because I opened up the EVGA motherboard and I thought it was cool that they included rounded IDE cables. But it was cooler because I didn't have to use them. HAHAHA!

By the way, I would recommend doing this to the Zalman heatsink mounting bracket. (http://www.evga.com/community/messageboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=21045)

And cleaning up the thermal paste on the north/south bridges. Replace with Arctic Silver 5. (http://www.evga.com/community/messageboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=24455)

[Moofaa]

Cool. Thanks for the advice + rep. I almost went with the Asus Striker Extreme, but saw some benchmarks recently between it and the EVGA and the scores were close enough I couldnt justify 420$ for the Asus.

Might start ordering this stuff in the next week or two.

[Foxtrot9000]

hey good luck on your new computer! only thing i can see that i might do differently is get an ASUS mobo. my good friend works for a computer shop and swears by them. say nvidia mostly accels in videocards. either way I'm sure your chosen mobo will work awesome, just something to think about.

[Durrthock]

Ive heard it said before that if your doing sli you should get just one of the upscale model and buy another later. So you should buy like one gtx and buy another one later.

[intergalacticman]

nice setup man
i would wait a month or so untill ati unleashes their gfx cards and then compare them (though personaly im an Nvidian).

dont waste money on a soundcard unless your an audiophile with an insane sound system, but for the usual headphones and speakers, the integrated sound will not be a problem.

ps are you goin to have more than one HDD other than the 74 gb? for storage and stuff

[Ronyx]

74gb is a bit of a squeeze...
i've so far used up 100gb of my 320gb HDD purely on the installation of a couple of games and programs. No videos or anything...

Oblivion is 15gig....
Medieval II is 5 gig... all other crap is 80 gig lolz
and i only have like 200mb of music and all my videos are on my dads comp.

[Canadian Eh?]

good luck...i like that case.Have fun!

[public_eyesore]

more ram and I'd say it's pretty darn good. Also like said above, get the gtx and then get another later

[Moofaa]

Yeah, im gonna wait a bit and see how prices change. I might go with a single GTX and get a second one later when they drop in price.

As for storage I dont think that will be a huge issue, at least not anytime soon. Unfortunatelty, where I live there is no broadband access, not even satellite is an option because I live in a tree-filled valley. So I dont fill my HD up with downloaded music and movies. 56k FTL :-(

I have a 60gb drive right now, and its only got about 3gb free on it, but I have several games installed I havent played for like a year, I figure im actually only needing about half that for the games I do play (WoW, some free game called Wesnoth, Starcraft, and AoEIII).

Also later perhaps I can nab up some 200gb+ drive for storage. Also same thing with RAM, i'll buy some more later when I really need it and its cheaper. Maybe get it as a christmas gift...o wait, how much does Vista take up on the HD? I wont have Vista right away, but it will be a pretty much mandatory switch towards the end of the year.

[monoflap]

That power supply looks kinda cheesy. I would definitely get one with 4 pci-e rails for an sli set up. Each card takes two and the psu you listed only has two. You really really don't want to cheap out on the psu when your running high end hard ware. For that setup, I would expect to buy at least $200 psu if your going to run dual gtx's and what not.

[Silenced_Coyote]

That power supply looks kinda cheesy. I would definitely get one with 4 pci-e rails for an sli set up. Each card takes two and the psu you listed only has two. You really really don't want to cheap out on the psu when your running high end hard ware. For that setup, I would expect to buy at least $200 psu if your going to run dual gtx's and what not.

What do you mean by 4 pci-e rails? Do you mean 4 independent 12V rails? If so, that is just marketing.

Here is a good PSU by Corsair.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817139002

[Durrthock]

I would get vista for dx10 saw some comparison screens definately worth it.

[monoflap]

What I meant was that you'll want 4 independent pci-e connectors for an sli set up down the road. If you look at the requirements for gtx it says "Two 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connectors". You can use molex but it takes four connectors for one card. That's just ridiculous. Why not save yourself the trouble and drop an extra 15 bucks for something like this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817256009).

[Moofaa]

I actually wasnt planning on getting that PSU specifically, I just grabbed one off the list based more on wattage so i could get a ballpark figure on price.

The suggested ones look good, I might go with one of those.

[Silenced_Coyote]

That Silverstone one is a good PSU. But... who knows what really is down the road. 8-pin PCI-e power connectors maybe? PSUs with 6 4-pin PCI-e power connectors for those who want to be ready for 3 cards?

[armadilloben]

for 160$ more id add another 74gig raptor and raid 5 all three of em you lose one of the drives but ull have parity and it will be screaming!