Alright...I built a list for you from NCIX.com....I have to admit this is one uber rig. I was reading your other post and noticed a lot of people just said get ddr2-800..I said screw it. I based the entire rig off what you wanted and tossed in suggestions and modifications. But pretty much I think you'll be happy with it. BUT I just have to say DAMN is canada expensive...rofl...but it's still a great budget with what I pulled out...Considering the price of IPS monitors I agree with you and just went all out with a build that could last you a very long while...here it is...I'm also going to give my reason for picking the parts to help you understand the hardware..Here goes..
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CPU
$328.44
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=22211&vpn=BX80562Q6600&manufacture=Intel
Obviously we want this rig to last. If you plan to OC as well it makes it a even better buy. The future is multi threaded....embrace it ^_^.
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Motherboard
$150.44
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=24650&vpn=GA-P35-DS3R&manufacture=Gigabyte
Very popular board for a good reason. Good OC'er and the price ratio is hard to beat. I'm an Asus man myself but beginning to think on switching to a GA board for my next rig. Asus is a bit pricey although they are great boards. If you want something else feel free to choose....You have leeway on your budget which you'll see at the end pricing. But I have checked compatibility for this board with all your parts. I also chose this for now because x38 isn't out yet. So we have no idea what will be up. Of course there are a few boards which have been revealed but not out for purchase. I'd either wait or nab this one. If you do wait also give it a little time for people to review the boards before you make the jump.
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Case
$146.89
Antec P182 ATX Black Mid Tower
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=24122&vpn=P182&manufacture=ANTEC
I was checking out the cases and even though I prefer full towers to mid towers...It's pretty good. 5 fan slots with 3 already filled. I would recommend getting a full tower since the more room the better the airflow but the choice is yours. I would like to comment though that this is one damn good case...so the choice is yours...I also looked into the mirrored version which is around 200 Canadian from ncix...Don't get it!...lol...Smudges and the reflections will drive you nuts...lol. Choice is yours though. is 50 dollars really worth to have a mirrored computer case?...Only reason I would recommend this is if you don't have a mirror in your room for yourself =P...heck I don't..and I need one..lol. Regarding the extra fan slots. Fill them...I always fill the cases to maximum capacity..keep reading on as I talk about a good fan in the heatsink part of this post.
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PSU
$231.26
Silverstone Decathlon DA850
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=23886&vpn=DA850&manufacture=Silverstone Technology
I originally picked out a Enermax 850DXX for you but I researched on it and it's too big for the p182 series. The Enermax seemed to have some long wires...but the form factor of the PSU is too big. Both the enermax and this Silverstone are Tier 1 psu's...I don't know if this PSU has extremely long wires. Hard to find the info...It is modular though which helps on airflow. you NEVER want to skimp out on the PSU. It's the most vital part of your system. Why risk saving a little cash by getting a cheap psu when it can literally kill your entire computer if it blows. Not worth it. I always recommend Tier 1 and Tier 2 psu's and nothing less. This will do you fine. The enermax and the DA850 are both PCI-E 2.0 compliant. That means they have the new PCI-E 8 pin connectors and the 6 pin PCI-E connectors.
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Memory
2X 229.99
2X OCZ Reaper PC2-8500 2X1GB PC2-8500
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=23129&vpn=OCZ2RPR10662GK&manufacture=OCZ Technology
Even though having 4 sticks for OC'ing isn't as good as just 2 sticks. 2X2GB is very expensive and you don't have many choices. In almost all scenarios the 2x2 don't go up to ddr2 800 or 1066...So this is why I recommended the OCZ Rapier. I also noted you wanted 1066 for more headroom so I nabbed what you wanted. I know you wanted XMS but I've heard many bad things from Corsair fans..Corsair is slowly moving down the road of using cheaper chips which has caused problems for some oc'ers. I also looked into it and these modules are compatible with the motherboard chosen. ^_^
From personal experience with OCZ I have to admit I'm very happy. I have had two out of four of my 512 sticks go bad on me a while back. I called them up and even though they didn't make my modules anymore they asked if I wanted to send them all four of my sticks for four 1gb sticks instead. I went from 4x512 533 modules with 3-2-2-8 timings to 4x1 667 modules with 4-4-4-8 timings. I was able to drop my timings of these 1 gb modules near the original timings of my older modules since they ran in 533 and not 667. They even shipped my replacements before they got my ram. I just gave them a tracking number and I had my computer up and running the next day. I literally RMA'ed the ram in one day and on the next I had my new ram sitting outside my door. Fantastic service.
These modules also use the D9 micron chips so they are good OC'ers. They also come with a lifetime warranty and you can even push the voltages up to 2.35 without voiding that warranty. OCZ is one of the top choices in the memory industry ^_^.
These are totally top notch memory. If you want a cheaper alternative they do have others...Just mention if you want something cheaper...since you can get great modules...Here is another solution if you don't want the OCZ modules
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....KIT12864AL1065&manufacture=CRUCIAL TECHNOLOGY
Great sticks as well for a 100 dollar saving basically if you nab two. Choice is yours. They also use D9 micron chips.
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Optical Dvd drives
2x $45.15
2X LG GSA-H62L Black SATA DVD+RW 18X8X16 With Lightscribe
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=24533&vpn=GSA-H62L BLACK&manufacture=LG Electronics
45 dollars for cd rom drives. Damn canada...rofl...All the prices of Lightscribe drives for canada were 40+ from NCIX.com so I chose the best suited. They were all similar in price but these caught my eyes. I'm sticking with all black since you want a Antec p180/182 series case. I chose a black case obviously with black drives (I HATE beige too!). I also nabbed two so you can do direct CD to CD copy but if you want you can drop one. I also made sure to nab a SATA version instead of PATA (IDE wires). This way it won't hinder airflow at all.
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Hard Drives
$248.84
WD Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB SATA 10k
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=666640949&vpn=WD1500ADFD&manufacture=Western Digital
$153.98
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB PMR
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=18413&vpn=ST3500630AS&manufacture=Seagate
I nabbed two drives for you. If you want more you can go ahead and nab them. Or if you don't think you need a raptor you can drop it and just nab more storage drives. I nabbed a Raptor for the performance aspect. Even though the new WD Caviar SE drives have higher write performance thx to PMR among other thing....They can't match I/O performance and other aspects of the raptor. It's still top notch although they are a bit pricey for not much space. If you decide to nab this drive use it as your system drive. Once you're done with a project, move it on over to the storage drive.
I chose the Seagate for a few reasons. One, they didn't have the samsung drive you wanted...Two, Seagate drives are damn reliable. I've had many drives in the past from Maxtor, Seagate, WD, IBM and a few others. So far I've had all my drives from Maxtor die within 2 years. Half my WD drives have died (although they are normal drives..not Raptors). All my seagate drives are still alive and kicking (I've had a couple of them for 6 years now...still running flawlessly). The WD drives have a 3 year warranty while the Seagate drives have a 5 year warranty. I chose the reliability aspect for you. The WD Raptor is also a premium drive that has a 5 year warranty. If you want to drop either, or both for other drives go for it. Just wanted to give my advice on the matter.
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Floppy
$8.27
Black Sony Floppy Drive
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=9047&vpn=MPF920-1/121&manufacture=SONY
Uber Black Floppy Drive of Doom..nothing else will do...=P
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Soundcard
$108.12
Sound Blaster X-FI Xtreme Gamer
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=23249&vpn=70SB073A00003&manufacture=Creative Labs
I'm not a big fan of onboard sound. Onboard also takes up resource on your rig which can hinder performance slightly. You will actually see a few FPS boost by purchasing a sound card (keep in mind it's just a slight increase). Unfortunately I dislike Creative but they are the only X-FI users besides Auzentech. Although the Auzentech card is 200 dollars. Auzentech is currently using Creative drivers for temporary till they can finish their own. Creative let Auzentech use their X-FI technology so it's a breath of fresh air to see a alternative since Creatives only real fault is that their drivers are horrid. But the choice is yours on this one. I chose one of the upper Creative cards but didn't go all out for their fatalaity professional series. If you really want one of the front 5.25 drive bays connectors for your soundcard then you might want to nab the professional series...But really no need in my eyes. Great card...But grr at creative drivers (this shouldn't hold you back...fantastic card).
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Heatsink/Thermal Paste/Fans
$64.54
Thermalright ULTRA-120 Extreme
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=23531&vpn=ULTRA-120-EXTREME&manufacture=THERMALRIGHT
$12.47
Arctic Silver 5 3.5 gram
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=10715&vpn=AS5-3.5&manufacture=ARCTIC SILVER
$15.75
Scythe S-FLEX SFF21E
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=17747&vpn=SFF21E&manufacture=Scythe
Damn Arctic silver 5 is expensive in canada....I also nabbed a Thermalright Ultra 120-extreme since it's the best cooler atm. I remember reading you wanted the 90 so you don't run into issues of it not fitting. From what I read it barely fits inside your case. So it will work. It will have around 1/4 inch of clearance down to around 2mm maybe...lol. Cutting it close but it will work. It's a REALLY good cooler and I wouldn't recommend getting a cheap solution. It's up to you if you want to or not. If you want to nab a 90 ultra version go for it. But I would always nab one the best cooler to give me as much OC headroom as possible. As well as keeping that hungry quad core cool. Got more heat then the dual cores. There have been people saying that the 120 ultra at times has come to people not being 100% flat. People have then had to lap the Heatsink...I don't know if this ties into the 90 version as well. Keep in mind though this is not in all cases. I have a tuniq tower in my case. Another great cooler but a few degress below the ultra 120.
Regarding fans..Nab one for the Ultra 120...The S-flex is a great fan..BUT!...I posted this link to show you what you should be looking for. But unfortunately NCIX only has 2 of the 3 S-flex models. I would recommend getting the s-flex fan from somewhere else that has the SFF21F model...not the SFF21E as linked above. The SFF21E model pumps out 49 CFM's at 20.1 DBA. While the SFF21F pumps out 63.7 CFM's at 28 DBA. These fans are VERY quiet for their CFM output. I would recommend nabbing the SFF21F model although NCIX doesn't have it. You might want to order that seperately from somewhere else. If you want a very quiet computer you can also nab these to replace the fans in your case or to fill up the 2 empty slots of the 5. ...Or replace all 5 with quite high CFM fans such as the SFF21F...Or just skip the idea since your case had 3 fans anyway. I would always fill them all..airflow is important.
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That's everything....The total price in Canadian currency is!
$1974.13 (With the OCZ Reaper modules)
A very powerful rig. You said you already have a x1950 pro. So I left the graphics card out. With tax and shipping (don't know much about the percetanges and taxes in canada) you should be able to figure it out better than I since I'm not sure about what taxes you have to pay for in canada. But even if it turns out to be expensive and land around 2,300 with tax and shipping you still have 700 left over for a top of the line graphics card when they come out. This keeps it within 3k Canadian....If you want to add anything or change anything in the rig feel free to do so. If you want recommendations on other choices feel free to ask and I'll help...Judging by the fact that you said you can spend 3-4K canadian.....If it is indeed 4k...This means you can nab a cutting edge graphics card which is 600 or so...Along with a Planar PX2611W which is a 26" IPS panel monitor..It's around 900-999 US so it shouldn't be extremely far out of reach. If you do nab both of these you'll be just about hitting your 4k limit. If this is too much you can always just nab a lower spec monitor. Although I would advice against TN...I just dislike the technology. I'd rather have a PVA/MVA then a TN panel...color is important afterall since you use photoshop...choice is yours.
Well...that took me a couple of hours to finish..lol..time for a soda break ^_^. Please do respond with any questions and comments. If you feel nervous about certain parts just post and I'll offer alternatives while keeping the system compatible and up to par with the rest of the build. BTW...I know 850 watts seems like a lot. Pretty much overkill for your rig. But it doesn't mean you'll be using 850 Watts of power so your electric bill will go up. It only uses the amount of power your rig draws. They do have a 650 and 750 DA versions of the Silverstone power supply I mentioned. But overall I wanted to nab you a Tier 1 PSU that has upgrade room. This way down the road if you ever want a 30 inch monitor and want to end up SLI'ing..All you'd have to do is buy a new mobo and a second graphics card...Your PSU is already SLI approved and has the power to do so. You can also have no worries about adding more hard drives and all that jazz since you have the power. The difference in price between the 650 and 850 models is $60 Canadian. With the 750 and 850 difference as $30 Canadian. Overall a cheap difference for a higher watt top quality PSU....Worth it IMO...Afterall.....If you ever do take the plunge into a 30 incher...you have the option without having to buy a new PSU.
Looking forward to your reply.
IF you want to go EVEN farther above and beyond just tell me. I'll put together a rig similar to what I am going to nab for myself ^_^..It's a freaking BEAST...rofl...