Hello Everyone,

Hey this is my first build and im looking to get as much power as i can out of about $700 (minus peripherals). I'm a poor college student and i really don't want to have to stick a needle in my arm and sell my plasma to buy this thing. Here's what i've come up with so far after a couple of hours looking in forums and reading reviews:

• Core 2 Quad Q6600 @2.4 ghz. -- Plan to overclock to 3-3.5ghz hopefully

-$190

• ASUS P5Q SE/R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail -- has raid support and P45 which sounds like a good overclocker

-$93 w/ MIR http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131335

• XFX GeForce 9800 GT - 512MB GDDR3, PCI Express 2.0, (2) Dual Link DVI, HDTV, VGA Support -- need a decent gfx card want to be able to play most games, crysis on decent settings.

-$100 w/ MIR http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] =P450-9830

• Antec Basiq 500W ATX12V Version 2.01 Active PFC Power Supply - OEM -- kinda unsure about this one, i hear antec is a good brand but this seems like kinda a cheap one... and is 500w good for my setup?

-$30 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817371019

• 2x HITACHI Deskstar 320GB 7200 RPM16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM -- plan to set these up in raid 0.. is that worth it? - i'm young and stupid i don't care about the double failure rate ha..

-$100 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822145129

• Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 -- doesn't seem worth it to go any faster than pc6400.. has 4-4-4-12 timing

-$45 w/MRI http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820220269

• ZEROtherm ZEN FZ120 120mm CPU Cooler - Retail -- hopefully good enough to support oc of q6600 to at least 3ghz?

-$30 w/ MRI http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835887016

• Rosewill R214P-P-BK Black SGCC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail -- i could really care less about the case, i'm saving money on this one, has a cool handle i guess?

-combo w/ optical drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811147102

• LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X

-$46 w/ case combo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827136152

• Windows Vista 64-bit oem

-$100

Total: $734

This is pretty much the MAX i am willing to spend on this. I shouldn't even be spending more than $700 flat. Let me know what you think.. if there's any way i can bring costs down without sacrificing much that would be great. Also if something just isn't gonna cut it, let me know. If you think a component needs to be replaced with a more expensive one please try and tell me where i can spend less to keep it at about the same price. Thanks.