have 2500$ for first build - plese advise

The Striker Extreme isn't worth it IMO, it's stupidly expensive and you'd be better off with an EVGA 680i or perhaps MSI P6N, or maybe Abit's 680i board or Asus P5N32-E SLi.

I don't think Raptors are worth the cost for gaming machines. Windows loading 2 seconds faster isn't worth the $400 that could get you well over a terabyte of fast 7200rpm storage.

Heatsink, the Scythe Ninja is very popular, as is the Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro.

There isn't much that a single GTX would struggle with right now, but it depends on your monitor's resolution. If you want to play the most demanding games at very high resolutions, you should get two.

That PSU would power two GTXes, but personally I'd choose something different from Silverstone or Seasonic, or maybe Corsair.

e6600
asus extremestriker - sli 680i
Corsair Twin2X2048-6400C4
geforce 8800 gtx (maybe two)
i'm pretty sure i'm taking these parts but the case ,the heat sink, the psu and the hard drive i have some quistions about the rest if you something i dont please help me out

Wait until April 22 and get a QX6700.
The ASUS Striker Extreme is not even CLOSE to worth the price. Just because it is the most expensive does not mean it is the best. Get an eVGA 680i or an ASUS Commando.
8800GTX SLi is not NECESSARY now but it definately adds a few inches to your e-penis... I would go with one for now.
RAM looks good... (check my sig lol)
I cans sell you 2 74GB 10k SCSIs but with your budget two 150GB Raptors would be faster than 1 SCSI. Raptors are not worth the price. Get 4 250GB drives and RAID them.

thanks for for the info i still i have a few quistions if you dont mind (pleeeeeeeeeease answer ) as too my mobo choise i know i'll want to sli when games will be more demanding and i pretty sure i need an nvidia 680i chipset. i can afford the asus or gigabye models and want to overclock the system as much as i can go with air cooling so paying 50-100$ more for a good overcloacking mobo is ok by me. is the diffrence that small bteween the evga board and asus or is it just not worth it?



too get a qx6700?! doesnt cost like 900$ at least?is going to that much down?
i figuerd i'll get an e6600 and overclock it to about 3.2-3.6ghz and get top end prifomence out of it and get a quad down the road when the price comes down the road and games will be able to benfite from it

thanks for the advice on harddrives i thnk i will get a second hard drive to raid0 so i was thinking of buying a good monitor whats better a good 22" 2ms lcd or a high end 21-22" crt monitor?
(i have the room for it)

i was thinking to buy the Cooler Master rc830
cuse it was thae only case that nvidia wrote would fit two gtx's is that good reason to buy it? any other suggestions?

shloud i buy a 1000wh psu is it worth the cost? any suggestions?


more to come

The Striker isn't significantly better than the EVGA, if at all. I don't know anything about Gigabyte's 680i though. Personally I'd get the T1 680i, but Asus's P5N32-E is good too.

The Q6600 (not QX6700) will be $530 at the end of April. Still, I wouldn't spring for it, the e6600 is a great chip and overclocks better. Although it's coming down in price at the end of April too, if you want to wait for that.

I'd go for a LCD over a CRT, I love my LCD panel.

For a list of SLi approved power supplies, see here:
http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html

My bad. The Q6600. The QX6700 goes down in June? how well does the Q6600 OC?

From what I know, the Q6600 is a tricky OC because the quadcores are touchy with cranking the FSB. That's not a problem with the QX6700 because it has an unlocked multi so you don't need to raise the FSB. But a lot of boards have issues running high FSB speeds on quadcores. In general the 965s like the P5B fare best I think but even then don't expect to run 3.5 or 3.6+ GHz like a well cooled e6600. EVGA's revised 680i boards improved quadcore overclocking, but I don't know how much.

Yeah, I decided I need an X6800. I have been trying to trade (made posts all over) some stuff (pm me if your interested) for like over $2650 worth of stuff because I don't have time to sell it and I just need an X6800. I would even pay for shipping. (Now I am spamming, sorry).

If you want blaxing HD speed, you'll get more out of a 74GB 15k SCSI drive than you will with two raptors.

Seagate Cheetah 15K.4 ST373454LC 74GB 15,000 RPM SCSI Ultra320 80pin Hard Drive - OEM

You'll need another drive, for sure, for stuff like MP3's and what-not, but you can get 400GB for $100. At least with the single SCSI, you get the throughput and access time with no sacrifices.

Personally, the 680i is overpriced. You can get the better performance from the 965P for $100 less. The 680i only offers SLI, but bearlake is coming out very soon, so I wouldn't recommend going crazy for the 680.

What kind of monitor/LCD do you have, or plan on getting?

Are you talking to me?

Drop the Striker extreme, or any nvidia chipsets - plagued with crappy drivers and horrible raid performance, not to mention higher thermal consumptions and higher temps, AND higher price for not much performance if any.
Go with 975X or P965.

Drop the SLI. Not needed.
Save yourself the $600 dollar for next year's upgrade, g90 or r700. Don't want to invest too much on 1st gen DX10 crap.

Drop the Raptor.
Barracuda's good enough. Perpendicular technology FTW. Caviar are good enough also.

Get a PC Power & Cooling 720W or a Seasonic M12 700W. Voltages are stable and PSU are high efficiency.

E6600 good.

Just my suggestions.

The 680i RAID is fine. Show me a benchmark that shows 975 chipsets out-performing 680i. Agreed on the Raptors. The Striker Extreme is an overpriced eVGA mobo with an LCD on the back and a bunch of lights with the ASUS logo slapped on it.

You have two option, either wait until June for k10+r600, or at least dump the 6600, if you're going to be spending that much money, either get the e6700 after the price cut for the same price and get a nice watercooler with peltier to go with it, I wouldn't waste money on a a mid range conroe when you're spending over $2k

i would recommend getting rid of the striker.

get a gateway 24" widescreen
link

I saw that on display at best buy, a very nice monitor for the price (a mere $670 compared to other $800 monitors, and that's the bb price, newegg could be lower), but I would go with this samsung, I saw it on display at best buy too, and even the a model looks very chick and has a nice picture to it
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

thanks again after every dissing the striker i think i'll drop it so i need a new mobo. i need a highend mobo to get as much future upgradability.
witch chipset has the most future upgradability and overclocking ability? (i can afford an striker with my budget as i said in the first post i'll be in the us in two weeks so everithing there is cheap for me any way so price is not really a factor)



i've read that the e6600 is more than i need for now high rated cpus are much more expensive so ifigured i'll get the e6600 and when the next generatin arrives from amd and prices will drop i'll get a good quad
but since i'm only gonna take one geforce drop the raptors and might drop the 680i chipset i might just spring for a better cpu

again does any one have any inputs about a case that's good cool with lots of fans. i got the money to get something good (since i wont get the two gtx's it can be smaller)
i am a real noob when it comes the cases and moding

also i want the best air cooler i can get. if i want to push my cpu as far as air cooling can get me

as far as my monitor goes i have a flat 17" viewsonic crt i got like five years ago it still works and looks great but its it's small and iwont be able to play games at higher resulotions
thanks again

Why not simply wait until april 22nd, or may in that purpose, amd is probably going to release some low end quads, or you could pick up the slowest barcelona with a socket f mobo and still hit under $2500, I see no point to spending $300 on a cpu, when in less than a month there is going to be a faster cpu for the same price, and a month after that, there are going to be the k10 cpus which should decimate intel's quads according to what amd has been claiming

i can wait to april 22nd but what i'm is that idont think i'll i need a better cpu for now maybe if price lowers enough i will get somw thing better

good idea