Buying a "new" PC. Comments welcome.

[Matrixfart]

After many years of my old PIII Coppermine and my relatively rubbish P4 laptop, I have finally gotten around to buying a new system. I am not very rich, so I went for a mid-end system which will handle most gaming applications well and HD video without juttering at regular intervals.

I am to pick up this sytem in a few days from a shop where I have been a lot, talking to the manager and taking my sweet time deciding which components I want to upgrade, and which to keep.
The only components I kept were my Soundblaster Audigy ZS sound card, my wireless network card, my HDD and my DVD burner. Everything else in my old coppermine was so outdated it deserved the trash. An upside is that he was re-furnishing his shop, and thus gave me $75 for my old rig which he would use as decoration .

My new rig wil be thus unless someone here comes with some really great advice telling me otherwise:

Mobo: Asus P5NSLI, nForce-570 SLI
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400
GPU: ASUS EN7600GT SILENT/2HTD
PSU: 450 Watt PSU of some sort. Good and stable.
Case: Cooler Master Centurion 534
RAM: 1.0GB (2x512MB ) DDR2 PC4300 533MHz

This comes to a total of approximately $1000. Keep in mind that I live in Norway, and things are much more expensive than in the US. If I had bought the components seperately it would have cost me $1200 easy.

I will probably upgrade my RAM and buy another GPU at a later stage, but for now this will do quite nicely.

Any thoughts, comments, advice? Please blurt out your views and preferences giving me valid arguments. And vote in the poll if you want.

 

[Matrixfart]

Looks like a good, mid-range PC.

You could save some money by dumping the SLI mobo, and dropping t a E6300. Then you'll probably be able to get either 2gb of RAM or a better video card.

Are those options available or is this the only configuration you can get?

I have all options available if I were to wish it.
I decided on the SLI mobo, as my line of thought was to get a very good mobo now, so that I could have the option to upgrade the other components in the future and still retain my mobo. Mind you the mobo is still not of the very top notch. Costs $160 or so.
As for the Core, I thought about 6300 or 6400, and I ended on 6400. It is not very much more expensive than the 6300, but has a noticeable margin of performance difference.
As for the 7600GT, it is the best mid-range card I could find at a good price, but if you have any other preference I would be glad to hear it.
I did seriously consider 2GB of RAM. Would it give any great performance difference?

 

[mesarectifier]

6300 --> 6400 isn't exactly a monster overclock away.

Even Dell are saying that 2gb will be desireable for Vista, it's definitely worth considering.

SLi isn't an upgrade path.

 

[Matrixfart]

6300 --> 6400 isn't exactly a monster overclock away.

Even Dell are saying that 2gb will be desireable for Vista, it's definitely worth considering.

SLi isn't an upgrade path.

True on the 6300, however I am not very apt at overclocking. If I do overclock, a 6400 can according to tomshardware be overclocked to over 3GHz with it's stock cooler.

I will probably upgrade my RAM when vista comes out, Another $150 is a it much for me right now.

As for Sli I would not know. It does give me the ability to add anothe GPU later, for the applications that support it, however I can see your point.
Could you recommend another mobo in the same price range without Sli, and with core 2 support perhaps?

 

[Newf]

6300 --> 6400 isn't exactly a monster overclock away.

Even Dell are saying that 2gb will be desireable for Vista, it's definitely worth considering.

SLi isn't an upgrade path.

True on the 6300, however I am not very apt at overclocking. If I do overclock, a 6400 can according to tomshardware be overclocked to over 3GHz with it's stock cooler.

I will probably upgrade my RAM when vista comes out, Another $150 is a it much for me right now.

As for Sli I would not know. It does give me the ability to add anothe GPU later, for the applications that support it, however I can see your point.
Could you recommend another mobo in the same price range without Sli, and with core 2 support perhaps?In general the Intel 965/975 chipsets are most desirable for a motherboard using Conroe. There are many brands (including Asus) which use these. SLI is a waste of time for you. Since mobo that overclocks well is not a priority either, then why not something like this:
Intel BOXDP965LTCK LGA775 P965 ATX Conroe $107+6 10/21/2006
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813121035
Kingston value DDR2 2G 533 KVR533D2N4K2/2G $220+5 10/28/06
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820144157
I know you are buying from a dealer in Norway, but the Newegg links will give you a reference point. In fact, because you are getting this thru a local dealer, I am suprised he didn't recommend using an Intel board.
Intel is unsurpassed in supporting their products through local dealers. RMAs, credits and repair issues are handled very well. I strongly recommend you ask him about this. Their motherboards are also stone reliable. If you can accept SLI support as a waste and want minimal overclocking ability, this is IMO clearly the way to go.
I also think you will want to pick up a $50-$60 SATA hard drive as well. Conroe systems are phasing out PATA. Running your boot hard drive AND your optical drive off the same (and only) IDE port is just not a good idea. Using your old HDD on that port for data will be fine though.