Like a lot of people I am looking for help on my new build. It's my second build (first was a little over two years ago) and I want to try and avoid making any really stupid mistakes (I wasn't all that impressed with my first build).

The main uses for this computer will be Photo editing (Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Lightroom) with the usual secondary uses such as Office, Internet, etc. and am a pretty heavy multitasker (lots of crap open at the same time). OS will be Windows XP Professional.

This is what I'm looking at (all prices are from Zip Zoom Fly because New Egg shipping to Hawaii is rather expensive):

Case: Lian Li PC-65 PLUS II (already have)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, $224.50
Motherboard: INTEL BOXDX38BT Intel X38 Core 2 Quad Socket 775 1333MHz DDR3 1333MHz ATX Motherboard Retail, $189.99
RAM: OCZ OCZ2RPR10664GK 4GB PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066) DDR2 Memory Retail, $126.80 ($101.80 after mail in rebate)
Hard Drive(s): Two (2) Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM, $109.99 each from New Egg (already ordered)
Monitor(s): Dell 24" and Sony 17" (already have)
Video Card: I was thinking about getting this one: ASUS EN9600GT Silent/HTDI/512M GeForce 9600 GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 Video Card Retail, $159.99 but I am open to options on this.
Power Supply: Ultra ULT31845 X-Finity 500W ATX Power Supply (Black) Retail (already have but will upgrade if necessary).

Anything in bold is what I will be ordering, and I am looking for suggestions/comments on those items. I will spend more if I need to but don't want to spend any more than I have to.

I don't game at all and I don't overclock and I don't RAID.

I have been reading a lot of the threads to try and get a better grasp on what to buy and some of these components are the result of suggestions from other threads. I appreciate any and all help.

If you don't game at all, 9600gt is more expensive then you need. Buy anything cheaper. If you don't overclock, x38 is more powerful than you need. Buy a cheap p35 board, starting at under $100.

Agree with dagger... a 9600GT and X38 motherboard are far more than what you need. For your needs, you could run a HD 2600PRO (or even an 8400GS) with a GA-P35-DS3L and not be able to tell the difference. Plus you'll save yourself about $200.

Downgrade to a set of 800MHz ram. You'll save money and it's not going to make any difference to performance since you're not overclocking.

Your PSU is fine. Don't touch it.

Someone recommended to me that I go with an X38 to future proof a bit, but I'd been noticing that most people will go with a P35 (I see the GA-P35-DS3L mentioned quite a bit)--was the person who told me that wrong, or is it just not practical to go with the X38 at this time?

Will the 9600GT help if I do a bit of video editing? It's rare but it does happen occasionally. Someone suggested this card as well: ASUS EN8600GT/HTDP/512M Geforce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card Retail, which is considerably cheaper.

Thanks for the advice on the RAM, I will take a look at the 800's.

Here are some video cards that I'm looking at after your suggestions:

2600PRO's

DIAMOND 2600PRO512PESB Radeon HD 2600 PRO 512MB GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card Retail
MSI RX2600Pro-T2D512E Radeon HD 2600PRO 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - Retail
SAPPHIRE 100207L Radeon HD 2600PRO 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

The 8400GS's that I looked at were all DVI and VGA instead of 2x DVI which I prefer.

Thanks for the help--cheaper is good, as long as I'm not skimping on performance.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127308
Among the ones you cited, this one should be the best value, and good enough for what you do, and will handle light gaming if you get bored one day.

X38 is mostly for overclocking, as its high fsb means you can effectively overclock any cpu as far as the cpu would go, without worrying about motherboard bottleneck. I brought it for this purpose. It also support crossfire and pcie2.0, but for a non-gamer, it's hardly worth the $100 price increase over p35.

Even for video editing, you don't need a very powerful graphics card. It might help with effects you add and whatnot, but the 2600PRO would be enough for even that. The CPU and ram are far more important, but you're more than prepared on that end.

What do you guys think of this motherboard instead of the Gigabyte? ASUS P5K-E Intel P35 Core 2 Quad Socket 775 1333MHz PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066) ATX Motherboard Retail

It's a little more expensive, but I like that it has 2 more SATA ports (although I probably won't use this anyway), 2 more USB ports, and it has 2 1395 connectors as well. Plus it gets rid of the PS2 mouse port and parallel port that I don't need.

Go for it!

The recommended P35 boards are usually Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L/DS3R, Abit IP35-E/Pro, or Asus P5K-E. There's also a variant of the P5K-E with internal wi-fi if that's important to you.

Cool, looks like I'm about ready to go as soon as I pick out a couple of SATA DVDRW's.

To recap, I'm going with:

Case: Lian Li PC-65 PLUS II (already have)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, $224.50
Motherboard: ASUS P5K-E Intel P35 Core 2 Quad Socket 775 1333MHz PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066) ATX Motherboard Retail, $119.99
RAM: OCZ OCZ2RPR10664GK 4GB PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066) DDR2 Memory Retail, $126.80 ($101.80 after mail in rebate)
Hard Drive(s): Two (2) Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM, $109.99 each from New Egg (already ordered--I wish New Egg would hurry and ship the thing already)
Monitor(s): Dell 24" and Sony 17" (already have--will probably upgrade the Sony eventually)
Video Card: MSI RX2600Pro-T2D512E Radeon HD 2600PRO 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - Retail, $69.99 ($49.99 after MIR)
Power Supply: Ultra ULT31845 X-Finity 500W ATX Power Supply (Black)

I ended up sticking with that RAM since I didn't really see anything that I liked in the 800MHz range that was substantially cheaper. I kinda like the Reaper and 20 bucks extra or so won't kill me.

Total for what I need to order: $541.28--a lot better than the $1000+ I thought it was going to be. I appreciate all the help that you guys have given me, you saved me a bunch of time and probably a lot of frustration.

Is there anything I've missed that I should add before I submit my order? Some form of cooling maybe? I'm thinking that without overclocking I don't need any extra cooling, but I guess it couldn't hurt.

Thanks again, guys.