n00b building a gaming pc - help!

Hello there, this is my first post on any forum so thanks for reading

As the title may suggest im planning to build my own gaming pc and my first on at that (first one ive ever bought for myself as well). I have a friend who is experienced in this and between us we have come up with the following specs:

AMD Phenom X4 9950 2.6GHz Black Edition
MSI K9A2 Platinum 790FX
corsair 4GB (2x2GB) 1066mhz DDR2 ram
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 - hard drive - 250 GB x2
Sapphire RADEON HD 4870 512 MB - GDDR5 RAM
Arctic power 700W PSU
XION II Black (Blue LED) Steel Mid Tower Gaming Case
Samsung SyncMaster 2032BW - flat panel display - TFT - 20" (already purchased)
windows vista home premium 64bit

After doing some research i have a few possible changes but am unsure, i was thinkin of upgrading to the hd4870x2, i know i wont need it now at the res i will be playing but i may get a bigger screen later and i want the best i can get really. Also thinking about changing the processor to the intel Q6600 for better overclocking, again not really sure.

My ideal goal is to be able to play crysis with the ultra high mod smoothly but i know this is a big ask, would be happy with just on high settings. There is so much to think about and so many different views im starting to get a bit swamped so i thought i would put this out there and hope someone could help

Thanks!

Change the CPU to an Intel Core 2 Duo (which also means changing motherboard). For roughly the same money you can get a 3.16 GHz E8500.
Change the RAM to 800 MHz DDR2 (PC2-6400) (because it's cheaper and makes very little difference)
Change the hard drives to 7200.11 Barracudas (they perform much better all round, and you can get more capacity for the same price)
Graphics card is fine
Not sure about Arctic Power as a PSU manufacturer but you never want to save money on that, go for a Corsair or PC Power & Cooling one instead, I personally suggest the PC P&P Silencer 750 or the Corsair TX750
Change the case, I have one and the airflow isn't great. Look at an Antec 900 and see if it falls within your budget.

As far as the 4870X2 goes, the 4870 will serve you really well up to 1920x1200 so you don't need to go further. If you find it a bit sluggish in the future, just get a second 4870 (or whatever the high-end ATI card is out at the time) and Crossfire them.

Thanks there is a good chance that this may also become my work computer running photoshop and archicad rendering at the same time so was thinking the quad core would be usefull.
will definately look into the hdd change.
i have had the same comment on the power supply on this post in the home build systems.
Yh the 4870x2 is kind of a guilty pleasure cos its the best out. lol. the crossfire idea is great though.

Q6600 is cheaper than the E8500 and clocks to 3 GHz with an aftermarket air cooler

Anything from Gigabyte's DQ6 line will serve you really well, aim for a P45 or X48 chipset, X48 if you plan on crossfiring in the future as it'll give you the full bandwidth of a PCI-E 2.0 x16 lane to 2 cards.

You could always bump yourself up to 8GB RAM or go for a more powerful CPU, though really with that graphics card, PSU, and a high-end DQ6 motherboard there's not really all that much more you can do - maybe pick up a second 4870

The X38-DQ6 was used by Tom's in their overclocking trials for quite a while as far as I remember, they're very reliable and stable boards.

Drop the RAM to 800 MHz
The way Intel CPUs (well... up until Core i7) work you don't get as much of a performance gain from high speed RAM as an AMD would, so that money's better off going elsewhere.

Get a wd 640GB hard drive

Wow! just did some pricing up, comes to about 1100.89 (inc. keyboard, mouse cd drive and speakers), this is with the single 4870, may have to cut down a bit. really do want it under £1000. The intel mother boards are alot more expensive than the amd ones. Is intel really that much better?

Any ideas would be much appreciated

Well with Core i7 (Nehalem) using a new socket type you're going to be restricted from upgrading to that without a new motherboard. But there are some great upgrades out there for LGA 775 if you go up the price range. Still, it doesn't look like CPUs are getting that much faster in the next year or 3, just more efficient and getting more features.

If you want the dual core route you'll get a better CPU in terms of speed, overclocking, temperatures, etc. If you want a 45nm quad core you'll have to invest more into it. My experience has been that the Q6600 can get to 3-3.2 GHz on a good air cooler and case airflow (antec 900 shines here), and 3.6 easily on liquid cooling (what I have). Great little CPU, to be honest.

Yea it is, my chip has the older stepping (B3) and sat perfectly happy at 3 GHz on air at about 30 degrees, 3.2 stable took it up to about 40, a touch high for my liking, so a G0 chip (what you'll probably end up getting) can go higher because it's cooler, which is why I guess 3.2 GHz stable at good temps.

With ATI the term is 'crossfire', just in case you slip up somewhere that people like to flame over little technicalities.

Not half bad a price for a system of that spec. Good luck with it

Yeah, even tripple SLi or two 4870X2s in crossfire can struggle with the very high setting on Crysis you know. Anyway if you get a 4870X2 now, and want to add a second one in latter, then you will need a better PSU. The motherboard you chose is good, but if you really want to overclock that phenom go with a motherboard that has the SB750 south bridge to get the most out of it. Still, that MSI will allow you to achieve a decent overclock especially compared to other motherboards with the SB600.

Yh i know that really i just dont want to believe it! lol. the ultra high settings bit is a mod, its supposed to have a higher frame rate to the very high settings in crysis.

I have heard that motherboard mentioned before, will look it up. I am thinking of going with the Q6600 at t mo cos of the easier overclock.