Ok,  
 
So this project started months ok before the price of the Q6600 was ever dropped.  I started out wanting a ASUS 680i SLI P5N board.
 
I became trigger shy and all I bought was 4 gb of corsair ram.  My excuse, I will wait until the Q6600 price to drop (as was just announced).
 
The price dropped and by that time I did a ton more research (this is a disease), I find that the more you research the more you end up waiting.  Technology changes by the second and although you try and build for the future, the second you done building the future is here and your already thinking upgrade.
 
trigger shy again, and ended up buying Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit (full)
 
Then the holidays came my plans took a back seat.
 
Now, Picked up another 4gbs of corsair RAM because the price was insanley good.  I paid nearly $300 for this RAM in June and bought it an additional 4gbs on FRYS this week for $69.99 after rebate.  That was painful.
 
I spent about a week in the motherboards forum here coming up with the perfect motherboard, I must say this has been the toughest challange.
 
Thanks to a couple of great posters I came up with the below build.  Please take a look, provide some feed back and HELP ME PULL THE TRIGGER.
 
I am a moderate gamer who does a ton of multi tasking and likes all the photo and digital crap as well.  I really need an all round solid, fast machine.
 
CPU: Intel Q9450.  
Mother Board: GA-P35-DS4 *****(See Comments below)
Graphics Card: Geforce 8800 GTS SSC  
Memory: 8GB 4 2X2048-6400C5DHX
Cooling: thermalright ultra 120  
Power: P&C silencer 610 (any thoughts?) or SILVERSTONE ST75F ATX 12V 2.2 (any thoughts)  
Hard drive: (2) ??? Western Digital 500GB WD5000AAKS OR Seagate Barracuda 500GB ST3500630AS..... Leaning towards the western digitals  
Burner: (2) Samsung 203b  
Case: Antec Solo or P182 (I also considered the Antec 900)  
This one looks nice  
http://www.amazon.com/P182-Mid-Tow [...] 467&sr=1-3
Operating System: Windows VIsta Ultimate 64bit (FULL)
 
 
120mm fan for the thermalright ultra120 extreme.
Eiter nexus, noctua, or yate-loon with a rpm in the 800 to 1200 rpm
range.  
 
 
any recomendations ?  
Am I missing anything?
What do you think of this build?
 
As you can see I am waiting on the Q9450 so there is some time before I actually build.
 
***Ideally I would like a motherboard that would take both 8 gigs of ddr2 and also have the ability to take ddr3 ram and have 8 sata inputs.  The asus only has 6.
 
I like the GA-P35-DS4 board the most but really really really wish it would have the ability to accept the DDR3 ram in the future.
 
I also dont plan on using SLI but the option is always nice.
I dont plan on OC much, just maybe the CPU to 3.2.  Will I be able to do this with the Q9450?
 
I like the stabilty of a gigabyte board ( i will need something user friendly or idiot proof). Are there any P35 boards on the horizon from Gigabyte that will offer the ability to use DDR3 Ram and have the same specs as the P35-DS4?
 
 
Ideally the board would be a combination between the P35c-ds3r and the P35-ds4.
 
With this build, what will my end product be like?
What will be this computers strentgh?
 
Thanks for your opinions, they are greatly appreciate it.

Unlikely that any new P35 mobo will be coming out give the 775 is coming to the end of its life cycle and new mobo will be coming out.   DDR3 simply isn't worth the money and not likely to come down until the new mobos and CPUs come out, likely not till near the end of the year.  8GB is really overkill  Overall nice machine

any recomendations other then the P35? or is this the best for now?  THanks.

I think the P35 is the best, prices are good and  run the Penryn.  I don't think it's worth it to put a boat of money into an end of cycle mobo.  From a $100 or so for a Gigabyte P35 DS3L to $140 for a fully feastured P5K E, you really can't go wrong

I am torn between these two, any thoughts?

P35c-ds3r and the P35-ds4

re: memory for the C2D:
 
Right now, DDR2 memory is king.  It is MUCH less expensive than DDR3.
4gb of DDR3 costs $540.
4gb of DDR2 costs <$100.
The C2D processors are not very sensitive to memory speeds.  
Real world application tests(vs. synthetic benchmarks) show
no difference in performance between DDR2 and DDR3 memory.   In fact,
there is less than 2% difference between the slowest and the fastest modules.
If you are trying for record overclocks, then all bets are off, and faster is better.
In my opinion, it is unwise to build a system around DDR3 today.
The P35C models from gigabyte have two slots for each type.  That limits your max ram to 4gb.   In the future when ddr3 becomes economic, nehalem will be upon us and new mobo's will be needed.    
 
You want to get one of the revision 2.1 motherboards from gigabyte to support the 45nm quads.  So far, they only show support  fot the Q9300, but the Q9450 should not be a problem.
 
If the vga card is the 8800gts-640 ssc, then you would want to change to the 8800GTS-512-G92.   Not only is it cheaper, but it is faster, and has a better cooler. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130312
 
I would make no other changes.   With a quad, and lots of memory, the strength of your pc will be outstanding multitasking.   Gaming will be near top notch.   With a evga vga card, you will have 90 days in the step-up program to evaluate any new vga card offerings.  I'm betting you will not feel the need for more vga capability.
 
---good luck---

Why the heck do you care about DDR3 when you've already bought 8 GB of DDR2? You're all set for a couple of years.
 
Lean towards the WD7500AAKS, it's faster than the WD5000AAKS.
 
Yes P35 is the best for now. X38 is newer but costs more and it won't do you any good with an nVidia card because it doesn't support SLI.
 
The Silencer 610W is perfect here.
 
Fan: Scythe S-Flex SFF21E (1200rpm, 20dB)
 
I'm a big fan of the P182.
 
I have a GA-P35C-DS3R, it works very nicely and fits your criteria. I don't use DDR3 though.
 
It's smart to get different burners, if you really want two of them. Different software, different areas where each is best. For example you could replace one with a PX-810SA or Asus DRW-1814BLT.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Come to think of it your right, with the 8gb of RAM DDR3 isnt in the near future for me.
 
Your eye is probably a lot more developed then mine in this area.  In the comparison below (assuming i will not be using DDR3 ram) is there anything that makes the DS4 a much better board.
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] =2&bop=And
 
The DS4 gets a great review, see below.  The bench marks are nice for what the board is intended for.
 
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2185
 
Interesting stuff on the different burners, i will take you advice there.  
 
Also, great stuff on the hard drives.  
 
Thanks for your help.
 

I really like that DS4, thanks for the links. Compared to the DS3R, it adds FireWire, it allows you to put in a cheaper video card in the x4 slot and use it to power a third monitor, it has more USB ports. The only disadvantage I see is that it has one PCI slot less. That's not so bad, with modems, tuners and sound cards all available as USB external devices too. Yeah, I think the DS4 is well worth the price difference.

thanks aevm, great stuff!
 
And a big huge thanks to Geofelt for all the patience  
, guidance and help this past week.  One of the most informative and best posters i've seen on any forum.

If you go to the gigabyte web site, you can create a comparison of three boards.  If I compare the ds3r and ds4, both at the current revision of 2.1, I see very little difference except:
 
The ds4 has a second pci-e(x8) slot.  This is useful if you will add a high powered card such as a raid controller, pr physics card, or a decond vga card.   It can't hurt, but is it worth it?
 
The ds4 has only 2 pci slots vs 3 on the ds3r.
 
The ds4 has 3 firewire ports.   This would be a $8 add-in card on the ds3r if you needed it in the future.   If firewire is needed now, then get the ds4.
 
In the 2.1 revision, each board has 8 usb ports on the back, and two internal dual headers, for a total each.
On my 2.1 ds3r, there is an onboard header for serial and parallel ports, and I guess you can order a cable for them.  I would presume the ds4 has the same.
 
The chipset cooling heat sink on the ds4 is different, and it looks more capable to me.
 
Performance will be indistinguishable between the two.   I looked at the  pcstats review, and they reviewed an earlier revision.  Also, the benchmarks used a E6750 for the ds4, and a handful of other boards, but the results also included a number of comparisons when they used a E6600.   When I look at the results with the same cpu, I see identical results.   What this tells me is to buy a mobo based on the features, price, and quality.
 
To net it out take your pick.  
 
And,...thanks topps9898 for the compliment.