New Build (by new user); looking for some input

Hi guys, I figured here on Tom's would be the right place to go for some hardware advice.

I'm putting together a new rig to be assembled over the Christmas holidays... I know that's still some time away, but picking out the components and debating pros and cons of parts is half the fun

Ok, so here is my planned setup:

CPU: Intel E6750 -> just temporary (to be upgraded to Core 2 Quad Q9450 when it comes out next year)

CPU Cooler and Fan: Thermalright Ultima 90 with Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F

Mainboard: Asus P5E WS PRO, Intel X38, Socket 775, DDR2

Memory: G.Skill 2x2GB Kit, DDR2-800MHz, CL5-5-5-15 (2x for a total of 8GB)

Hard Drive: Samsung HD501LJ, T166, 7200rpm, 16MB, 500GB, SATA-II (2x for RAID 0)

Video Card: Asus EN8800GT/G/HTDP/512M

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer

Optical Drives: 2x LG GSA-H66N

Case: Cooler Master RC-1000-KSN1-GP Cosmos

PSU: Enermax Infiniti Netzteil, 720 Watt

The video card may very well change again before Christmas depending on what NVidia (or ATI) still have up their sleeves... I'm thinking the "new" GTS might be interesting.

I went a little overboard with memory, but the reason for this is that I am planning on installing Vista 64 and there seems to be little to no point on doing that with a 4GB system (which would run better on XP anyway).

The RAID 0 setup is intended solely for performance (and 500GB seems to be the current sweet spot for the money to capacity ratio), I have the data security part covered with network storage to which I regularly backup my important files.

I would appreciate any thoughts you might have on this setup, especially for potential compatiblity issues. One question that has come up for me is the SATA RAID Controllers that you find on most mobos these days: If there is only one controller (which has for example 6 SATA ports) can you then use a few hard drives in RAID and a SATA DVD drive on the same controller or do you need a board with multiple controllers (like the one I picked).

Sorry for the long post and thanks for any input.

Cheers!

looks good.... as for the PSU I haven't heard much on the "Infiniti" model but all their models are very good
.... and as for you replacing the CPU later on... I'm not sure if that mobo supports the Q9450... maybe after a F/W upgrade later on. who knows?

Look at this tread for the answer concerning raid

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/foru [...] -necessary