E6300 System A few uncertainties

Hello!

I want to build a desktop system which intended to be an all-rounder: gaming, office, multimedia etc.

I don't want to spend more than 800-830 € (about 1050 USD). I have the sound card, speakers and the mouse.
I want the following:

E6300
965P Mptherboard
1 GB DDR2
7600 GT
250 GB SATA
DVD Drive SATA
Cordless keyboard
Case
19' TFT


I am not really sure about some things and I would surely appreciate your support regarding this issue.

Here are my thoughts:

I think on getting the Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 motherboard because:

a) most reviews reveal the board as a great overclocker
b) it's a good quality stable board
c) it has a good price/performance ratio (maybe the best?)

I thought getting a Zalman northbridge cooler as well, because I intend to overclock the E6300 at 2,8 Ghz and I heard that 965P northbridges tend to get hot. Being on a tight budget, I think that the DS3 isn't really worth the extra money, regarding that the S3 capacitors are japanese and usually high quality.
RAID is not really important at the moment for me.

If you have a better alternative regarding the MB, please tell me.

Regarding the RAM:

I am not so sure here. I've read, that if you plan on doing a more serious overclocking on the E6300, DDR2-800 is better because the FSB will be much higher and the DDR2-800 will handle this better.
What's the catch here? Is this true or going with DDR2-667 or 533 would be fine, regarding overclocking.
Performancewise, there is no great difference between 533, 667 and 800.
The brand would be Infineon, Corsair or Kingston, because they are listed on the "qualified vendor list" among others and they offer sticks at a good price.
What is the performance difference between CL4 and CL5 RAM?


Graphics:

I am thinking of getting a Palit 7600GT, Asus 7600GT, Leadtek 7600 GT or XFX 7600GT. The performance should be pretty similar among all boards.

HDD:

I am thinking of getting either a Samsung SATA II 250 GB or a Seagate SATA II 250 GB. The Samsung drives are a little faster in the benchmarks, yet most hardware sites use Seagate in their testing systems. Seagate offers also 2 years more warranty. Are the Seagate drives more stable? Stability is important for me, because I had two bad drives in the past (one Maxtor and a notebook Toshiba drive) and I don't want any crashes.
What is the difference between a SATA 150 and a SATA 300 hdd on a board supporting SATA 300 transfers?

DVD-RW:

I think I am going with the trend and I'll get a Samsung SATA DVD-RW, because it has the same price as the IDE DVD-RWs.

Monitor:

I want a good TFT. Not top of the line, but something which has a good quality. I thought of a Samsung 940B. What do you think?

Case: Do I actually need more than 420 W?

What suggestions would you give me overall?

Thanks for reading!

Chris

1 GB i not enough for gaming and encoding, get 2gb

if you are not ocing go with ddr2 533, 1:1 ratio

7600 GT is kind of, well, crap... i would suggest 1800 xt

P.S: there is BIG performance increase if you have ddr2 800 and you oc to make it run @ 1:1

I'm sure I could use the extra ram as i do alot of encoding and been gaming more now that i have this new build (360's been collecting dust)...but my ram is fine for me as i can OC to 3.3 if i want most of the time i just run at 3.2 and i have no problems gaming or encoding at all. So the 667 ram should be fine as long as its good and i think the 7600 is good enough too. get the 2 gigs of ram though if u can afford it now but its not a necessity. BTW been running Vista too w/o any problems at all.

Hello!

Thanks for your answers.

They are in the same price range. You can get a Samsung SATA DVD-RW for about 38€ (48 USD)

I am thinking getting all the parts somewhere around 1 november, so I'll watch how the RAM prices are then. If the RAM prices drop, I'll get 2 GB. If they don't, I'll wait and upgrade some other time.

I want to get the FSB to 400. Can you explain how the RAM ratio works? Or can you refer me to a good article on this topic.

Here, the difference between a 7600GT and a X1800XT is 100 € (127 USD). That's too much. The 7900 GT is way cheaper, but still 60€ more expensive than the 7600 GT.

"here is BIG performance increase if you have ddr2 800 and you oc to make it run @ 1:1"

How big, would it be worth the money?

Yes, but a northbridge passive heatisink is about 4€, so it would be a good addition overall, right?

"any quality DDR2 667 should reach DDR2 800"

Would even DDR2 533 manage that?
What is this "1:1-ratio", which Assman meant. What are the performance differences between 1:1 and 4:5 for instance?

"What HSF are you planning to use?"

Not sure. I've heard some run the E6300 at 400 FSB with stock cooling. What would you suggest?

@all:

1) What's the difference between CL4 and CL5 RAM?
2) What is the difference between a SATA 150 and a SATA 300 hdd on a board supporting SATA 300 transfers?
3) What 19' TFT would you recommend?

Chris