I am currently looking to build a new PC for Crysis and beyond gaming. I am well aware that nothing is "future proof", nor do I expect it to be. I am going to include the price and where I would be buying the part from just in case anyone could tell me where the part could be purchased cheaper relative to the additional shipping.

CPU: Intel Q6600 G0 (Want to overclock to 3.2 - 3.4 ghz) - $302.63 - TankGuys
MOBO: EVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 LGA 775 nForce 680i - $249.99 - NewEgg
RAM: OCZ 4GB (2 x @GB) DDR2 800mhz Pc 6400 - $165.99 - NewEgg
GPU-1: EVGA GeForce 8800GT 512MB PCI-E 2.0 - $329.99 - NewEgg
GPU-2: EVGA GeForce 8800GT 512MB PCI-E 2.0 - $329.99 - NewEgg
UPS: Antec TPQ-850 ATX12v / EPS12V 850W - $249.00 - NewEgg
CASE: Lian Li PC-V1100BPlus II - 249.99 -NewEgg
HDrive-1: WD Raptor 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA150 - $164.99 - NewEgg
HDrive-2: WD Raptor 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA150 - $164.99 - NewEgg
CPU Cooler: Tuniq Tower 120 - $44.99 - NewEgg
Sound: Creative Sound Blaster X-FI XtremeGamer Fatal1ty - $145.99 - NewEgg
Monitor: Planar PX2611W Black 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD 800:1 - $949.99 - NewEgg
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate - 319.99 - NewEgg

With this build I have several expectations. (please feel free to tell me if they are impossible). I would like to overclock my CPU to between 3.2 -3.4 ghz on air using the Tuniq CPU cooler. I know this will lessen the lifespan of the CPU, but at $300 a pop it doesn't really matter to me. Also, should I stick with the 800mhz PC 6400 ram or would I be able to increase performance with PC 8500 1066mhz. Ideally I would like to take the fullest advantage of my CPU/Ram/Bus Speed @ 1333. The two 8800gt are running at 700mhz, but I wasn't sure if I should go for the 650mhz or the 600mhz models that Newegg also has instead. I would like to run all my games (including Crysis @ Max) at 1080p which the Planar lcd monitor is capable of. Lastly, is it worth it to get a sound card I heard that with Vista it is a waste... is this true or have I been grossly misinformed? I am sure I am rambling on too much. Let me know what you guys thing.

Very nice components. Personally, I like a little more storage than you design but that is merely preference.

Looks like a rockin' build. I would suggest dropping the soundcard for now and putting the money into a third hard drive. Evaluate the onboard sound and if you're not satisfied you can always drop in a new sound card later. I assume you're going to run the pair of raptors in RAID. A 500+ GB secondary storage drive would go nicely, leaving the high performance of the raptors for your OS and apps/games installs.

If you have that much money, why are you asking for advice? Just buy everything top-of-the-line.

It might just be me, but it seems like prices for parts, graphics cards especially, have been ramping up in anticipation of the holiday season. When x1950pro cards have been costing as much as $200 this month, you can bet other cards are seeing the same type of inflation. My advice would be to wait until the holiday season is over. Now isn't such a great time to be buying computer parts for a custom build. I've heard rumors, even, that 8800GTs will be going for as little as $200 at the beginning of next year. That could save you $260, or the price of a sound card and a decent set of speakers.

Beautiful build.

Drop the X-Fi, it doesn't play nice with Vista. HT Omega or Auzentech cards would be better on Vista. Why not just try the onboard audio for a month or two, and in the meantime find a sound card, just in case you decide onboard won't do.

Drop the Raptors, get WD7500AAKS disks instead. About the same price and speed, 5 times the capacity, quieter.

At large resolutions in Crysis with the eye candy maxed the 8800GT is no longer that great, and the GTX is the only card that still does well. If you can afford 8800GTX cards instead you'd be happier in the long term. Maybe get one now and another later. Or wait until the G92 8800GTS is out, it will basically be the same as 8800GTX but at 65nm. Also, 8800GT SLI means a lot of heat and noise. The GTX doesn't have this problem because it has dual-slot coolers.

I wish that was the case. I have 4500 dollars saved for this build including a new monitor. That is why I didn't drop in two Ultras and went for the newer less expensive GT models.

Could anyone comment on my question about ram? I would ideally like to order this now so I could assemble it over Thanksgiving.

Newegg has the Q6600 for 279.99.

Is it the Stepping G0? They are the best for overclocking and I didn't want to risk not getting the correct cpu.

You could call Newegg and find out.

Edit: And you should, really, wait until the 8800GTS "new" comes out, because you obviously intend to get a lot of time out of your system, and this would future proof it more.

ClubIT has it specifically; B3 or G0:

http://clubit.com/product_browse.c [...] 202%20Quad

For the same price as NewEgg, you can be guaranteed a G0...

I tried this; NewEgg basically just states 'you get what you get'. Sorry, should have posted this with the previous posting.

i got my Q6600 from clubit. Its a G0 stepping for sure (its stated), unlike newegg which does not state which stepping you will get. You can get the OEM version, which is what i did, for $270 from club it.

Seriously drop those raptors, they are overpriced and can't compare to the AAKS HDs in terms of performace and price.

Also what aevm said, the X-Fi sound cards from Creative Labs does not work with Vista. Crackles fizzz booom type of thing. There are no drivers to fix this, it has been what, a year? I doubt there will be any drivers.

Saving some money here and there, I suggest you get the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme. It performs better than the Tuniq Tower 120, but you may need to lap it.

As for those 8800GT, getting the 700mhz may or may not be worth it. Many people like to overclock them by themselves, and I believe a 600mhz one should be able reach ~720mhz.

I agree with everyone else who suggested a HD replacement. For the price of two raptors you could go with one 1K gig drive, which will rival a raptor in almost every benchmark plus have a huge increase in capacity. Getting a pair of 750G drives and doing RAID 0 would also net you nearly the same performance along with 5x capacity.

you should be able to find a Q6600 G0 for less than the one you've posted. look around a bit more.

And yes, the Thermaltake Ultra 120 extreme is a MUST.

Windows caps RAM usage at 2 gigs for alot of applications for backwards compatibility (older programs go nuts for some reason when they're given more resources than their preset maximum, something like that...) but 4gigs would be nice provided you're running the 64-bit version of vista. otherwise stick with a 2x1GB config.

personally i would wait for a new high end graphics card to be released which should be within 2 months. Also i wouldnt bother with 2 western digital drives. Just go for the single and then add a 500 or 750 gig western digital storage drive for all that music or videos etc.

nice choice on the monitor btw i read about that one

i think ocing a q6600 to 3.4 is unreasonable, you may be able to hit 3.2 and be ok. i would personally stop at 3ghz.

but yea the main thing is probably waiting a couple months for a new high end gpu from nvidia