<<< NEED ADVICE >>>
MOBO: ? <NO CLUE!> ?
HDD: ? <Raid 0 with enough for dual boot XP/Vista> ?
SOUND: ? <ONBOARD or OTHER> ?
COOLING: ? <NO CLUE!> ?
3rd DISPLAY: ? <22" 1680x1050; IPS Based?> ?


>>> NEED FEEDBACK / THINKING <<<
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping Kentsfield 2.40GHz - $280
http://www.clubit.com/product_deta [...] =CA1938452
RAM: (2x) OCZ 2x2GB Kit / DDR2 PC2-6400 NVIDIA® SLI™-Ready Edition (OCZ2N800SR4GK) - $55 x2
http://shop4.outpost.com/product/5439699
VIDEO: (2x) EVGA GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 (512-P3-N841-A3) - $330 x2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130312


>>> HAVE BOUGHT <<<
CASE: Antec P182 Gun Metal Black - $45
PSU: Ultra X3 1000w PSU (ULT40064) - $200
DVD: SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner w/ LightScribe (SH-S203N) - $30
FDD: Ultra 3.5 Floppy Drive w/Multi Card Reader Black (ULT31799) - $30
DISPLAY: Two X2Gen 22" 1680x1050 (MW22U) - $220 x2
THERMAL: Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound 12g - $16

Budget: $1,000-2,000
Purpose: Graphic/Web Design (Photoshop), Gaming, 3D Modeling (Never had a computer powerful enough to learn)
Want: Something powerful enough to handle 2-3 monitor gaming (racing/flight sims), and of coarse Crysis , something that will handle future games, system upgrade ability for future (I don't want to pay a premium for a system that I will have to replace everything to upgrade, I might as well buy low/midrange and buy two $1k PCs every 2 years rather than a $2k PC every 4 years) Also, if I can spend less now I might be able to use the saved money for a LCD HDTV (would be awesome!). I do not know the first thing to overclocking but I have friends that should be able to offer good guidance with that. I would like to order and build now but could wait 1 month if something worth waiting for is coming (or big price drops).

THANKS FOR ALL THE INPUT! I really, really appreciate it!

I'm not sure about the RAM.

To get all 4DIMMs to operate at full speed, you will likely need to crank the voltage all the way up to 2.1v.
( I recently bought 8gb of OCZ RAM, slightly higher graded set, and when I asked OCZ on their forums, they said they would work just fine at 800Mhz and 8gb but that I would need to set the voltage to 2.1.)

w/o a heat spreader and their close proximity to each other, temps could be an issue.

If you get a fan blowing right on them, you may be good.
Great if only using a single pair.

Not positive, just a word of caution. Good Price though.

ABIT IN9 32X-MAX LGA 775
NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Motherboard $109.99AR

What about this motherboard!!!?? I just came across it. I have heard there can be issues with nForce mobos though? Seems like everyone is trying to sell out stock... is something big getting ready to hit the market that is going to cut prices in half or what?

Thanks for the heads up on the ram. I am still open to any other suggestions but that seemed like a really good price. I am still not really sure how necissary SLI ram is/or what it does for a SLI setup.

>>> NEED FEEDBACK / THINKING <<<

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping Kentsfield 2.40GHz

Excellent Choice it really seems to be popular now and it is a decent overclocker with the right cooling.

RAM: (2x) OCZ 2x2GB Kit / DDR2 PC2-6400 NVIDIA® SLI™-Ready Edition (OCZ2N800SR4GK)

If you're over clocking, go with Corsair Dominator DDR3 series, short of burning out the board, they'll be around for your next upgrade as well.

VIDEO: (2x) EVGA GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 (512-P3-N841-A3)

Good decent cards, but don't expect Crysis on 3 monitors with high settings and be playable....

MOBO:
If you're looking to upgrade then most mb's in a year or two will be using DDR3 mem, might as well start with it so you don't have to buy new memory all over again.

HDD: WD 150 Raptor (boot) +WD 750 (storage)
you could replace the Raptor with a Samsung Spinpoint but I've no experience with the Spinpoint, the Raptor series of drives has usually outlasted whatever computer I'm using.

SOUND: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi
Tried newcomer sound card years ago, had better sound ql than the SBlive at the time but then they went out of business and when I upgraded there were no drivers. Not going to make the same mistake twice. The X-Fi series is the best right now and should (miracles do happen) Vista ever become useful it works just fine with it.

COOLING: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme+ Scythe S-FLEX SFF21E 120mm fan
Silent and very cool.

3rd DISPLAY: if you're going to stretch an image across 3 monitors its a safe bet to keep them the same model.

oh an the problem with your logic is that $1k machines are good for intense game that were released 12 months before you make your machine. If you want to play the next Crysis/Oblivion super mega mix...that $2k machine every 2 years is you're option.

But if you do it right, you're not spending $1k every 2 years on that higher end machine, you'll mostly be updating a video card (1st), cpu (2nd), 3rd motherboards (3rd)-when they inevitably change platforms.

DDR3 is going to be around a awhile so you might as well spend the money on decent chips and then use them in your next 2-3 machines.

You're hard drive is going to last you the next 2-3 machines until the SSD drives become reasonable

Your Sound card should only be replaced when they change the slots on the MB, you suffer an accident, or 7.1 surround sound just isn't enough.

HDTV's are just going to drop in price for the next year or two, if you can afford a $1 or 2k machine every 3 years you'll be able to afford an HDTV before this machine wears out

Was kinda hoping to get some feed back on the MOBO bc it will probably be going back up $100 at midnight.