New gaming pc advice

Get a P5N32-E SLI or P5N32-E SLI Plus, save $100, still have the SLI option.

There are lots of other types of DDR2-800 you could get for less money, just pick from the approved list of the mobo.

The CPU is fine, but I suspect a Q6600 will beat it in Crysis and other games that know how to use quads.

Nice GPU. I have a BFG myself and it's great. On the other hand, eVGA has step-up program and it may be very useful considering there's going to be a new generation from nVidia around November.

The PSU is great, but you could get an OCZ GameXStream 700W cheaper and it's still good.

Will you overclock? Add a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme.

I don't like Raptors because of the noise, but I hear they do make a difference in Oblivion, for example.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Basically to build a system I look at all of the TH charts and then check out the prices on newegg and see whats the best stuff I can afford to get. My budget right now is about $2000 and with the stuff I've listed I'm still under $1850 so I have a little room to play with. CPU's were something I was wondering about. As far I know nothing out there really makes use of the quad cores, so it just seemed overkill to get one unless most games that will come out in the future will take full advantage of them. Also, I was not planning on OCing, but I had thought about it. If I am going to OC, would it not be worth it to get the E6850 as a base and OC that for max performance? or do the E6750's OC a lot better? Also, I don't know anything about the new X38 mobos or the PCIE 2.0 cards, any links or info on those would be great. Another idea I was playing with was getting 4G of ram, any thoughts? As far as the HD goes, I was under the impression that running my OS and games on a faster HD would increase the performance and since I am planning on getting A LOT of games I figured the extra $35 would be worth the 150G. Thanks again for the help.

Supreme Commander, Flight Simulator, Crysis and Hellgate London do or will use quad cores. Game engines under development these days will do so too, which means a lot of future games will do it. If you intend to keep this CPU more than a year or two it's worth getting a quad. Also, if you play a game and the PC does things in the background (downloads, video/audio compressing, whatever) more cores help. For a short term CPU, E6750 is best bang for the buck IMO.

I have 4 GB of RAM but never used more than 1 so far AFAIK. You'll be fine with 2 GB for now.

Yes, a faster HD helps. Maybe get two drives in RAID 0. When I compress audio my Q66600 works at 60% because the hard disk can't keep up with it. Same for video, I get 80% only.

X38 and PCI-E 2.0 aren't out yet. I'm not that excited about them anyway, from what I've read.

So after a little more thought I am considering the MSI P35 Platinum LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard. The reviews looked good and it was much cheaper than the Striker. My other option is the ASUS P5K PREMIUM/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? The Striker is still an option but I don't think I will have the need for SLI before I build another new computer which I hope to do in 1-2 years. This is another reason I think I will stick with a dual and not go quad yet or make the jump to the x38 stuff. Also I was wondering if there was a noticeable difference between DDR2 800 and 1066?

Is it worth it to get a mobo with a built-in dual lan port like in the ASUS P5K PREMIUM?

The E6850 has a 1333 FSB, the P-35 chipset supports 1333 FSB; but were gonna bottle-neck it with 800MHz RAM.....ok, fine.

I look at it like this, " a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link".

4GB RAM is overkill unless your running Vista, XP only needs 2GB max.
Before settling on that BFG unit check out EVGA's step-up program:
http://www.evga.com/stepup/default.asp
You'll be very happy with that RAM, it'll provide the memory bandwidth that the CPU needs and it's very overclockable.
The Q6600 is the same price as the E6850 and offers so much processing power.
Do some research on RAID configurations and ask yourself if the idea of speed and/or security appeal to you,
RAID arrays start at 2 disks and go up.
RAID0 and RAID1 are popular choices and have their own pros and cons; RAID5 requires a minimum of 3 disks and is a all-around good choice but really needs a external controller with a dedicated CPU to handle the many parity calculations.
RAID10 requires a 4 drive minimum and combines the advantages of RAID0 and RAID1 but at the cost of 50%storage efficiency.....
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/raid/index.htm
All BS aside, looks like your well on your way to building a very nice system that will please you with it's performance for guite some time.