New build ~1300$ Suggestions

Hey all, this is my first time posting here and I just wanted to post my new build before I actually buy the parts to see what everyone thinks.

This computer is going to be for my new house in college, I don't really want to lug mine back and forth every time I go home for the summer. I want to be able to run games at reasonable settings and fairly high resolutions. Also if I get some more money down the line I am planning on getting a second monitor for it (I already have one so its not listed)

It is also a bit of an experimentation computer. I have built about 7 or 8 rigs and even my gaming computers I have yet to overclock, i think its time for me to try it . One of my big limitations is price. I cant really spend too much more for this build than I already have priced out because I still have to buy furniture (and eat, lol).
I also want to move up to watercooling next year as my first upgrade, I've always been fascinated by it but never had the guts to try it.

Anyways, here is the rig:

Mobo:
MSI X48C Platinum LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard
It got a few bad reviews so I am a bit worried about it, I may switch over to the DFI board (using a DFI on my current computer. Its given me a little trouble in the past, but it still works) I also wanted to go with an Asus board because of the express gate feature, but I couldn't find enough information about it, some of their mobos have express gate installed to the hard drive and not a flash module, I want it on a flash module. Also the Asus board was considerably more expensive.


CPU:
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8500
Should I go with the E8400 at 3GHz and save 20 bucks?

Ram:
OCZ Special Ops Urban Elite 2x 1GB 240-Pin DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Model OCZ3SOU16002GK
I am getting two of these packs for a total of 4GB. overkill? I don't really know too much about ram but I am assuming 4 separate 1GB sticks would run slightly faster than only 2 2GB sticks because it fills all the slots (I could be wrong). Also, should I just go with a cheaper, slower ram like the Patriot Viper DDR3 1333 (PC10666). Not sure here, suggestions?

Graphics card(s):
ASUS EAH4850/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 4850 HDCP Ready
HIS Hightech H485F512P Radeon HD 4850 HDCP Ready
I've never done crossfire before but I read that you can mix and match vendors and even have cards with different specs in crossfire config. I'm pretty sure these cards have the same specs, I just want to get 2 different free games . Will I see any performace loss by mixing and matching like this?

Sound:
Onboard sound is good enough for me as of now, my speakers are a pair of old speakers that came with my first computer.

Hard drive:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250310AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
Pretty basic, I wanted to save on cost here. I thought about getting some WD Raptors and putting them in Raid0, but maybe an upgrade sometime. Also, if anyone knows of a SATA hard drive that is cheap and LOUD, please let me know, I am kinda paranoid and I like to hear when my harddrive clicks so I can freak out and wonder if someone is trying to hack into my PC. (this is not a huge requirement, ive kinda gotten over my paranoia)

DVD Read/Write
SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S223Q/BEBN
Sata DVD drives have given me trouble with some distros of linux, but I am sure I could find an IDE cdrom somewhere if I needed one. No Blu Ray here. Way too expensive. I think ill do like I did for DVD's and wait till Blu Ray drives cost like 20$

Case
APEVIA (ASPIRE) X-CRUISER-BK Black Computer Case With Side Panel Window
Looks like a decent case for a decent price. I didn't really want to spend too much here, but I still want it to look nice. I am open to suggestions. I'm not sure if this thing is unbearibly loud, but it says it has fanspeed adjustment capabilities. Sometimes I sleep with the PC on and its nice to have it quiet.

Power supply:
Thermaltake W0106RU 700W Complies with ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V version Power Supply
I was attracted to this because of the rebate offer on newegg, but I may not end up getting it because it looks like it is expiring. Any ideas for psu's? I want something thats reasonably quiet because sometimes ill sleep with the PC on

Cpu cooler:
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
I picked it becasue of the Toms guide review. It supposedly gets a little loud, but I assume it throttles down at Idle which is what it should be when I am asleep. Does anyone know if it will fit in the motherboard with the MSI Circupipe or whatever?



Okay, thanks for reading my lengthy post. if you have any suggestions let me know, thanks!

You should be happy with that combination. My experience with the brands you mention has been good. I have been impressed with seasonic power supply 650 watt, 88% efficiency, quiet, and cool running. seasonic doesn't rebate very often if at all.

That is what they "claim". The highest that model will get is 85% at 200w only.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions

After some consideration, I think I will just go with a cheaper system now and wait till the new nehalem stuff comes out and upgrade mobo/cpu/ram (after a year or so when the costs go down and the kinks get worked out)

so here are the new parts that I am considering:

Mobo:
ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131299
Its not some screaming DFI board but it got some okay reviews and apparently has some pretty good OC features (not the best but good enough for me because im just starting overclocking. I was also looking at a biostar tforce tp45hp board but ive heard less good stuff about them and it would only save me about 20 bucks, plus no express gate .

CPU:
For the CPU I decided to go ahead and save the extra 20 bucks and get the 3GHz E8400 and Ill just over clock it up anyways. If anyone has any other CPU suggestions that cost significantly less than $170 and would give comparable benchmarks I want to know, because I haven't done too much cpu research.

Ram:
I narrowed the ram down to 2 choices:
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) TWIN2X2048-6400C4 -$57 -25 MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145034
Patriot Viper 4GB (2 x 2GB)DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)PVS24G6400LLK -$88 - 15MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820220293
This one I'm not sure on. Its basically a question of weather or not I want to spend an extra 40 bucks for 4GB of ram. Do I really need 4GB of ram? I want to play/try out some of the newer games. Will they suffer from only 2GB? I presume that in my crossfire configuration a bit more ram will be devoted to the other card but does that justify 4GB? My current gaming rig is only 1GB of ram it it runs fine without any hiccups, but then again I haven't bought any of the newer games. Latest game I bought I think was Battlefield 2.

Graphics:
I am going to keep the two Xfire'd 4850's because they're still pretty dang good as far as the price performance ratio goes. But just to be sure, I wont get any kind of performace decrease by using 2 different manufacturers cards correct?

Hard drive:
Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
I also decided to switch out the hard drive to a smaller one. saves me a couple of bucks as I doubt I'll be using too much space. I set aside 40GB for my linux partition, and the rest goes to XP so I can install a bunch of games on it . I wanted to go even cheaper and get the 80GB Excelstor... but that might be pushing it just a bit to the low on storage side of things, besides I dont know about Excelstor's quality

Power supply
I am going to keep the power supply the same because I am attracted by the modular feature. Also, as a side note, I found an old OCZ 520W power supply that I thought was bad, but it turns out something else was the problem. Would that be pushing it with the dual GPU setup plus dual core and OC? Since I only have 2 drives and only 2 sticks of ram, I think it might be enough, yes?


Everything else is going to stay the same. Thoughts?

Thank you for the advice, but I am trying to reduce the cost of the system as much as possible. My two last concerns are: do I need 4GB of ram or is 2 enough? and can my 520W power supply handle a p45 board, dual core E8400, crossfire, a hd, and a dvd drive?