First build, need advice!

I'm going for a $2k or so gaming machine, I plan on overclocking eventually, but not by too much. I'm hoping to order it some time within the next month.

CPU -
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Conroe 2.66GHz

Motherboard -
MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard

RAM -
Patriot eXtreme Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

Video card -
EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card

Power supply -
OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI ATX12V 700W Power Supply

Sound card -
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card

Hard drive -
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Case -
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel, SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

DVD drive -
Sony NEC Optiarc 18X DVD±R DVD Burner




Monitor -
SAMSUNG 226BW Black 22" 2 ms (GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor

Headphones -
SENNHEISER HD 280 3.5mm Connector Circumaural PROFESSIONAL Headphone


And for an operating system I was going to get 64 bit Vista, so that I can easily add another 2 gigs of ram if ever I need. I'm pretty scared about compatibility issues with Vista, especially 64 bit, is there anything that might not work with it? Will I be able to get all the latest drivers?... and I've heard that Creative has working drivers for the X-Fi in Vista?

So, any suggestions on things that I should change, or things that won't work?

I'm running 64bit Vista, I haven't logged on to XP for about 2 weeks now. Now that I have Vista set up the way I like it's really cool. It took quite a bit to become familiar with it, everything is different. There are only a couple of thing not working correctly for me yet, my scanner (no drivers or software) and my Ipod (same). My X-fi works better than in XP (odd that Creative could make better 64bit drivers than 32bit.). And finally just the other day I got a really good Nvidia Graphics driver (G80 drivers still don't do SLI though). My games all work fine, but a few fps less, that's probably just because of Aero, but I like it. FSX is actually better for some reason on Vista.

Lately I have been thinking about deleting XP and just dual booting Vista and Ubuntu.

Definitely look into getting the 6600. The performance difference between the 6600 and the 6700 isn't really justified in the price difference. Also check out Corsair or Crucial for memory. I know Patriot isn't a bad brand, but when it comes to memory you really want to get something reliable. Although, I've never used Patriot so they may be more reliable than I think. Corsair tends to have better performance than most, but Crucial is extremely reliable memory. OCZ is fairly good on the performance side also. Your setup looks very close to what I want to build. You might want to wait on Vista. I keep hearing mixed reviews about gaming performance. Eventually Microsoft will release a new service pack that will probably address the issues a lot of people are having. For right now XP is better for gaming than Vista. Nice setup though.

So, would this RAM and this case be any better?

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800

Antec Performance One P180 Silver cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower

So if I go with the Antec case, how do I make sure everything will fit? Because it seems sort of tight on space in there with the separate compartments. And how do I make sure the power supply's wires will be long enough to reach everything, which is apparently something you have to make sure of with this case...

Also, is there any particular reason to get that corsair ram over the patriot ram, other than the fact that it's a more reliable brand? That's a good enough reason for me, but I'm just wondering...

I'm sure the P182 is better, $100 better, unfortunately I can't afford it :?

For gaming, I've always used Corsair, maybe just because of it being trusted and reliable. Recently, however, I've been looking at Mushkin memory sticks 2 x's 1 GB rated at 4-4-3-10 DDR2 800. It looks good for lower latency, but might be a bit more expensive than other dual channel sets.

But that has worse timings than both the Patriot and Corsair memory...?

I think it's about time for me to order, especially since there's a nice rebate on the p180 through the 24th, so here are the items that are changed from the original list -

CPU -
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor

Motherboard -
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard

Power supply -
OCZ GameXStream OCZ600GXSSLI ATX12V 600W Power Supply

Case -
Antec Performance One P180 Silver cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Does everything look good, is there anything I should change?

Well, I got it and everything's working great, the computer's incredible, in case anyone was wondering...

On a side note, is there a way to check gpu temps in Vista? And what's the best program for checking cpu temps?

Also, seems like my hard drive's being accessed all the time, is that normal in Vista?

I tried Nvidia monitor, it didn't work, it kept crashing, I'm not sure if it's because it doesn't work with 64 bit Vista... or I heard it doesn't work with dual core machines.. which seems odd...

And what's a good program for checking cpu temps?

And about the hard drive access, seems like the light flickers every second or so, even when I'm not doing anything...

Oh, and does anyone know what normal temps are for an 8800 gtx?