This is the final configuration I have chosen. Whats you guys think? is it worth it for a $2,000 dollar budget? let me know any changes should be made. im not waiting for 9800x2, its only 2 8800 gt anyways, and not planning going 9800x2 sli, too much money for video cards. This system will be mainly for gaming, multimedia, and lan party. I will be overclocking E8400 hopefully over 4.0 watercooled, and keeping this cpu until Nehalem arrives by the end of this year.Anyone asking themselves, Why will he spend over $120 on headphones? Im those people cant stand expensive highend gaming headset with poor bass respond, and decent sound (razer 5.1 headset as an example), you could say im an audiophile. why im not moving into new technology displays? lcd are not convincing to my eyes, and really dont care about space and wide screen. I still prefer crt over lcd, and concider crt as the best gaming monitors, and best image quality, and looks much better than a 30'' lcd since crt runs at 2048x1536 at a smaller screen, smaller screen the better it looks. but now these days people cant accept crt as the best monitors, and consider lcd as the best, well, every person have different visions. I already have a custom made case, keyboard,mouse, Logitech thx 505w 5.1 speakers,and water cooler, Vista Home Premium x86. Any changes should i make before i buy today? thanks for your replies.

NEC MultiSync FE12142SB-bk 22" 2048x1536 CRT $230
GigaByte GA-X38-DS4 Motherboard $219.81
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Dual Core Processor $235.99
Patriot Memory Extreme Performance 2GB PC2-6400 DDR2 DIMM Memory $56.52
Patriot Extreme Performance 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) $38.54
PNY XLR8 GeForce 8800 GT Video Card $240
PNY XLR8 GeForce 8800 GT Video Card $240
Corsair CMPSU-620HX 620W Power Supply $152.71
WD Caviar SE16 500GB Hard Drive $107.89
Ultrasone HFI-700 Headphone$229.00
Samsung SH-S203B/BEBN Black Dual Layer DVD±RW Writer $36.30
Creative 70SB046A00003 Sound Blaster XFi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion Series Sound Card $190.73
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare$50.87


Tax/shipping Grand Total $1992.06

you can't run 2 8800gt's on a x38 chipset..... only ati, so if you want the x38 board, you will have to chose two hd3870's or buy one hd3870x2 now, and an aditional later. I'd chose a more powerfull powersupply if i were you.

I can't really recommend you one, since i live in the Netherlands, but i'd chose something between 700 and 800 watts.

With watercooling you'll will be able to reach 4 ghz + easilly.. so don't worry about that.

For the rest it looks good to me, i've heard a lot of people recommending crucial balistix, so maybe you should have a look at those.

nice budget though, I just have around 700€ to spend

Since you have made a reasoned defense of your choices and feel firm about the LCD vs CRT and high end sound card I won't quibble with you. I do wonder about the memory choice. What OS will you use? Buy low CAS memory and match pairs. Either 2x1gb @ 3 or better or 2x2gb @ 4 or better Cas latency. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] +(2+x+1GB) Myself I would drop the sound card, headphones and get a good 22'' LCD. Also 2x$240=480 for the VCs. An ATI 38070x2 is cheaper, easier to install and will have very simular performance to the GTs.

system will be running under xp pro and Vista Home Premium vista x86 dual boot. 2gb is good enough to run xp smooth, 3gb to run vista x86 smooth. since i chose the wrong mobo, is this mobo stable, and good overclocker?eVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 Motherboard for $254.95, and im not interested in ATI.

Heck you may as well get 4gb of RAM to fully utilize "both" dual channels or for upgradeability just get 2 x2gb which the kits are as much as you have listed:
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ

That psu is plenty and rock-solid. Also is that drive you selected have a 32mb cache? Seagate Barracuda ST3500320AS 500GB 7200.11

Oh I didn't see a heatsink:

Low to Moderate OC - ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm

High OC - XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle

If this is the 780i board, you'll be OK. I agree as well with the CRT. I love my Viewsonic CRT and have yet to find any LCD's that come close in picture quality. Only good thing about LCD's is they're easier on the eyes, come in widescree and take less space. Me, I don't care about that stuff. I want the best picture possible and LCD's just aren't there yet.

You need an SLI supported board (nVidia chipset) board if you plan to run 2*8800GTs in SLI. Other than that every thing else looks good. Nice selection on the PSU and CPU and motherboard if not going with SLI. You might want to get a LCD monitor instead of the CRT. Also get a good CPU cooler like the ZALMAN CNPS7700-CU 120mm if you plan to OC.

I already owe a water cooler, no need of a cpu heatsink. like I have stated, lcd are not very convincing to me. Lcd cant offer the same picture quality as a crt. I prefer quality, than a bigger wides screen lcd. can you u guys tell me, why should i switch to lcd? what does an a lcd has better than crt dont have? i cant find anything lcd can offer better than crt. If u guys say cause is wide screen for movies, no problem, i could just watch movies on my DLP Wide Screen tv. Yes, eVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 is a supported sLI motherboard, has the nvidia 780i chipset.

Good sytem configuration. You are right, there is no reason switching to lcd. If you want the best gaming experience with the best picture ever, get that crt. This crt is the best monitor ever created for gaming

I'm a huge fan of these for good bass response headphones... $110 less on your budget. I know sound is very subjective --

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6826109153

Personally, I feel that the Ultrasone HFI-700 has a strangely 'distant' feel (perhaps due to their unusual speaker placement?)... do you already have experience w/ Ultrasone's products? I'd strongly recommend getting hands on before dropping that much on headphones, especially if you are an audiophile.

And that's money that could be put to good use... like a nice analog amp! http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodin [...] er=BLVP129