Building a new gaming rig

[link064]

I need some good opinions on how to build a good, new gaming rig. I haven't really done any overclocking previously, however, I'm willing to try. I've got a budget of about $2300 after all is said and done (tax, shipping, etc). I've been doing some research, but I've been away for so long that it's really hard to make a firm decision. Here's my ideas from what I've learned:

Mobo- Asus A8N-SLI Premium or DFI Lanparty UT NF4 SLI-DR Expert

CPU- either: Opteron 165 (OC'd), or Athalon 64-x2 4400+ (I know, big difference in price and usage)

RAM- OCZ Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model OCZ4002048PFDC-K

Harddrives- Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6V250F0 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s

and Western Digital Raptor WD360GD 36.7GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150

Sound- X-Fi (only if needed)

WiFi- Something from Linksys (not sure yet)

LCD- Sceptre x9 Naga-v

and I'm not sure on the rest. I've been looking at video cards and I might want to wait for the next-gen ATI to come out (they say Jan 24?) Any suggestions on case/cooling/power/gpu/DVD-RW would be nice

Thanks!

 

[shinigamiX]

Well, I'm fairly sure that the R580 and the G71 will be horrendously expensive, either that or they will slash the prices of R520 and G70 and I will hace to slashg my wrists.

 

[link064]

*Bump*

 

[link064]

Thanks, I'll look into Seagate and get the DFI. I was originally going to get the DFI anyway, but I started reading on these boards and it looks like everyone likes the Asus boards, so I got a little confused.

Also, I was wondering about what kind of cooling I would need for my opteron? If, for instance, I want to OC it to 2.5ghz, would I need something better than an after-market heat-sink and fan? like water cooling? Or, what if I wanted to take it higher, to maybe even 3ghz? What would I need for that?

 

[link064]

Update:
Ok, so I'm going to go with the DFI expert and I'm going to get the Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive.

I've been looking around and it looks like I'm going to get a Power Magic 750D case and upgrade to the 550w dual fan power supply. I'll buy 4 80mm fans for the case.
Also, I'll buy an NEC dual-layer DVD burner.
As for CPU cooling, I'm looking at either a Thermaltake Big Typhoon CL-P0114 120mm Cooling Fan with Heatsink, or a Thermaltake CL-P0257 Blue orb II CPU Cooler.
If the reports are true about the radeon x1900xtx, then I'll wait till the end of the month and buy one of those.
What do you guys think?

 

[link064]

I was just wondering:
Is my mobo-heatsink-case combination going to work? They say that you need a slot for a fan above your cpu on your case so the heatsink will fit, but I looked at the case (http://www.amamax.com/poma75blatxm.html), and I just can't tell if it'll work(simply because I have little experience in this field). Does anyone have any ideas? I'd really like to know if the case won't work so I could change it before I buy everything on Fri/Sat.

 

[BaronMatrix]

From what the reports around teh net say you don't have to switch your heatsink because the default AMD one is excellent. I have heard it will take a 4400+ to 2.6GHz. For your monitor, I would go for the ViewSonic models or the Hyundai L90D+.