New gaming build ($1500)

Hi everyone

I built my first computer two years ago and it was a great learning experience and a success in general (thanks to this forum). But, it has had its fair share of issues and I think I want to start from scratch rather than upgrading it. I'm looking to do a gaming build (I plan to get Starcraft 2 and Spore, and right now I'm playing Counter-Strike: Source and Call of Duty 4). My budget is around $1500 right now but it is flexible. I'm going to be running two LCDs (22 and 24 inches) with DVI connections only. I'm leaving for school on August 25, so I don't really want to/have time to wait for any new parts to come out. I'm thinking right now that I'm going to buy 64-bit Vista, and I'm also open to any recommendations about the case (I would like anything with a side window and a side panel that's easy to remove). I'm not planning to overclock anything right now as I have no experience. Anyways, because I'm not really hardware savvy, I'm considering following the $1400 build from the system builder marathon article from a month ago: http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,1959.html
Is there anything you would change a month after the article's release? I'm open to any and all recommendations.

edit --- I posted new specs below (see my first reply)

Here's the specs from the article (I'll probably be using a different case):


Thanks for any comments

You might want to change the video cards.
If you go for 2 4850s, get a X48 motherboard.

http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 987-4.html

btw agree with C2d for gaming and 4850 or 4870 (if you can afford, which i think would fit in budget) then you can crossfire if you want later.

looking good. if you have more money for ram someone on another thread suggested something that sounded pretty cool. you get 8gb of ram and then disable the page file caching in vista (this is assuming you are getting 64 bit since 32 bit will only read 3.2gb ram). then vista isn't accessing your hard drive for the page file cache it is using the additional ram. sounds like that increases performance. food for thought.

i think the x48 is a good mother board and leaves you open to crossfire in the future.

i wouldn't recommend a sound card. may want to get other opinions but just haven't heard much good especially for what they cost. seems like the integrated has improved quite a bit. but see what others say. probably better to spend that money on other stuff (the more ram suggestion, blu ray drive, or a gaming hard drive, you could probably get a velociraptor for the price of a high end sound card)

is that going to be enough power? if you are thinking about crossfire in the future you might want a bigger PSU.

bump for PSU opinions (I'm going to order my parts in a few hours)