Hello, thanks for stopping by! Long time lurker here, first time poster.

Well, I think my old AMD 2700XP / Geforce 6800gt box is finally ready to be put out to pasture so it's time for a spankin' new rig. This will be my first solo build since my last rig was assembled with the help of a knowledgeable friend, but this time it's all me. I have ran the gauntlet of upgrades --memory, video card, HDD, power supply etc. so i'm not completely green--but I certainly have plenty to learn!

My primary intention is gaming of course, but I do tend to do alot of multi-tasking---normally I will have a game running with a couple of web browsers opened in the background, email, music player, instant messenging programs etc. I would like to do some mild overclocking once I get everything together and running well, I also intend on picking up a second video card for some SLI goodness once I get a year or so down the road. I would also like to stick to Newegg for the sake of simplicity, not to mention their rep for great customer service.

Well here goes nothing:

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersio [...] ID=8897148

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6819115017
No surprise here...should do the trick nicely.

EVGA 512-P3-N845-AR GeForce 8800GTS (G92) KO 512MB
http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6814130337
Hope they get cheaper in the semi-near future so that I can pop in a second one

ASUS P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX
http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6813131232
I am really struggling with this one. My last Asus Mobo proved to be completely bullet proof. Not a single problem in it's 5 year life. But this new one seems to have less than stellar reviews so I'm just not sure. I do know that if I spend more than $150 here then I will need to make up the difference with other components in the build.

PC Power & Cooling S610EPS EPS12V 610W
http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6817703005
I've never heard anything but great things about PP&C so I know it's a rock solid 610Watts. Should give me plenty of headroom for some mild OC'ing and a second video card in the future. I think?

CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6820145184
Seems to hit the price/performance sweetspot from everything I've read.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache
http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6822148288
I was originally going to stick with a WD 500gb drive, but something about that 32mb cache and 5 year warranty just makes me weak in the knees.

COOLER MASTER RR-CCH-L9U1-GP 92mm Hyper TX2 CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6835103031
Looks pretty solid, and Tom's seems to think its the shiznit. I'm certainly up for something else though.

SAMSUNG 2253BW Black 22" 2ms(GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor
http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6824001268
Looks sweet, and the price is right in my range. With such a fast response time however I am a bit worried that it might be a TN panel??

ASUS Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW
http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6827135156
The requisite optical drive *yawn*

Thermaltake Soprano DX VE7000BWS
http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6811133040
Looks cool and comes with a pair of big honkin' fans. I will put a 90mm fan in the window went for some extra air on the mobo/chipset. Don't have my mind completely set on this case yet however.

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit
http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6832116488
Now that SP1 is out, I think i'm finally ready to take the Vista plunge!


SUBTOTAL $1511.90
I figure another $40 or so for shipping so I do have a little bit of wiggle room, but just a little...

Thanks in advance for any assistance...I hope to be screwing parts together next week!

Ryan

There is a cheaper model of 8800gts, comes with factory overclocking and a free game.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127325

You should get 780i motherboard for sli. 750i have more ram incompatibilities and low overclocking headroom. Or you can drop sli and get either p35, which is cheaper, or x38 which perform/oc better.

Nothing would make me happier than a nice 780i motherboard but sadly one is just not in the budget. The cheapest one is +$100 more than the 750i I had picked out. The same appears to be true for the x38. So I guess what it comes down to is 750i vs p35. Is the p35 superior to the 750i in other ways besides cost? Will it overclock better and have superior compatibilies than the 750i? I guess I can deal with losing SLI capability if it means a better and more stable motherboard in the long run.....

Yes, p35 ocs better, but not by a lot. It's mostly about cost. P35 starts below $100, but you might consider getting a decent one that's above $100. The cheapest x38 costs $207, and 780i is $50 more.

the new 750i FTW board doesn't have a fsb block so its good for overclocking and now has 2 pci-e 16x slots

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813188026 - $189

the 8800GTS 512 will be EoLed soon, so factor that into your calculations for getting another card...

Oh I agree, that board is dead sexy...but after much deliberation today I think I have decided to dispense with SLI and go with a p35 board instead. I really don't think that SLI is worth the added complexity/heat/price premium that would be involved with my situation. By the time I'm ready to drop another 8800GTS in, there will be single card solutions available that would out perform both cards combined anyway....

The current front runner is:
GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX
http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6813128086

I know that Giga has been in the mobo business as least as long as ASUS (if not longer) so I'm pretty confident in the brand. Does anybody out there have any experience with this board, good or bad?

Also a couple of other questions:

Does anybody have a good educated guess what kind of panel is in this monitor?
http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6824001268
I don't think Samsung would be so lame as to use in TN panel in that puppy, but it has such a fast response time that I am a bit worried. I don't want to spend $310 on an inferior panel.

Also I am unsure about my choice of the COOLER MASTER RR-CCH-L9U1-GP 92mm Hyper TX2
http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6835103031
Tom's sure likes it, but it's reviews are less than stellar. Any other good choices out there? I would like to keep it <$50 (damn budget anyway!)

Thanks all!