Hi, I'm new to this forum and also new to computer building. I think I know enough though that I can successfully build one on my own though. I was just needing some clarification in some areas: Compatibility, stability, and gaming performance are the three big ones. Will are of these parts work well with each other? And also will I have to mess with the voltage of say the memory once everything is installed or will it be good as is? And do all of these parts have a good price to performance ratio? Do you guys think I will need the Zalman CPU cooler? Doubtful I will be doing much over clocking also.

Here's a list of my parts:

Case - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811129021
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Hard Drive - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822148288
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Video Card - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130312
EVGA 512-P3-N841-A3 GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

Power Supply - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817153040
Thermaltake Toughpower W0128RU ATX12V / EPS12V 650W Power Supply 100 - 240 V

Memory - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820227231
OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

Motherboard - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813188024
EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard

Processor - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115028
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor

CPU Cooler - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835118223
ZALMAN 9500A 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler

Operating System - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6832116056
Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2B 1 Pack

looks good.. if you can find an E8400, get it instead of the 6850.

Your memory should have a recommended voltage on it, something like 2.0V and you may want to enter that manually as auto voltages sometimes set too low, or high.

Do you think http://www.memoryexpousa.com/noname100.html is a legit site? It was listed on Pricewatch.com after I typed in E8400

i agree that the e8400 would be a better choice than the e6850, the graphics card should be pretty good, i've got the 320mb version and it'll do crysis on everything high with and amd 6000+.
i think your ram will be a bit over kill, you can get other stuff for half as much money and the performance difference between what you've got listed and some normal enthusiast ram that's overclockable should be marginal.

What type of Ram do you suggest thats 800 mhz? I was looking at Corsair and Crucial as well. Do You think that the zalman cpu cooler is overkill as well. And is that hard drive i listed supposed to be better then western digital's 500 gb hard drive? More stable and faster?

the E8*** chips seem to have problems with temperature... with that in mind, i don't think a ZALMAN will be overkill...

2 gig of Crucial Ballistix is $30 after rebate, it calls for 2.2v;
http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6820146565
I'd look at this cooler instead of the Zalman;
http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6835233003
Maybe this PSU;
http://www.buy.com/prod/corsair-62 [...] 70718.html

Isn't thermal take supposed to be like top of the line in power supplies? or they aren't that reliable?

they aren't... PC Power & cooling, Seasonic... they are...

Do most cpus come with thermal paste? Or is that heatsinks?

This psu good and reliable? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817703005

That's an excellent PSU, most heatsinks come with some kind of paste , but you should still get some MX-2 or something along that line.
You haven't mentioned a budget, I suggested the PSU that I did because it's one of the best deals for the money at the moment.

Memory :the corsair 2 stick bundles are never a bad thing. XMS2 always has a decent price on it, and should last the life of the system.

You can never overcool a processor. the larger the cooler and more heatpipes, the quieter the fan can run (technically speaking). Zalman doesnt really make a bad one, so 9500 should do nicely, and it comes with a bit of thermal compound.

Right now total computer budget without operating system I'd say my range is around $1000 - $1400 or so. Yea that seems like a good psu but how come the fan is so small 80mm? That seems small to me after looking over other power supplies. Is the thermalright ultra 120 extreme supposed to be a good price to performance ratio for a cpu cooler?

The Thermalright is going to also need a fan, the Xigmatek that I linked to above comes with a fan and its getting very close to the same results. It's also less money. It's your call on the power supply. You're looking at a board that will do SLI, are you planning on adding a second GPU and doing SLI? If you are, you may want to go ahead and get something in the 750watt range.

Nah, just one 8800 gts for now. For the power supplies I'm thinking either

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817151028
SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-650HT ATX12V / EPS12V 650W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CE, CB, TUV, FCC

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817703005
PC Power & Cooling S610EPS EPS12V 610W Continuous @ 40°C Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, cUL, CE, CB, TUV

Since someone above said those two are top end psu's and are reliable. Only difference I see is the fan sizes, unless I looked wrong.

As for heatsinks, yea I'm going with the one you listed http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233003
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler