Hi, everyone. I am building a new rig, and while I have used pre-built units before, I would like any suggestions to what I have in mind.
 
Antec P182 case
Creative Xtremgamer sound card
WD 500 gig hard drive
Patriot 4G of DDR2 800 Viper Series
Nvidia 8800GTS 512 graphics card
Coolermaster RPP650w power supply
 
I'm kinda stuck on 2 things, the mobo and the cpu. Should I go with Q6600 and either the Abit IX38 Quad GT or the Gigibyte GA-EX38-DQ6? Or should I wait for the Q9450? If I should wait for the Q9450, which mobo should I get?
 
Thank you for your help. Also, should there be any other changes made to the list? I tried to read up on equipment but you might know which might work better with certain parts.
 
Thank you,
 
ifor
 
ifor

Anybody? No response?

GA-EX38-DS4 and Q6600 is a nice combination. The DQ6 has 2 more SATA ports and better cooling, but you have only picked one hard drive and you're not into overclocking, so you might as well get the cheaper DS4 IMO.
 
You could save even more money by getting a P35-based mobo, like the aBit IP35Pro or GA-P35-DS3R. Still, at this point I think X38 is worth it.
 
I'd replace the 500GB WD with the (much faster) WD7500AAKS or WD6400AAKS, or a Seagate 7200.11.  
 
Replace the CoolerMaster PSU with a respected brand. With the P182 you need something with extra long cables too.
The Corsair 620HX would be great here.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] &Tpk=620HX
 
Which nVidia 8800GTS 512 do you have in mind? For best results make it an eVGA or BFG or XFX.
 
If you want to wait for the Q9450 (or get a Q9300 right now), the X38 is your best bet. Older chipsets are more likely to have compatibility issues with the new CPUs.

thank you very much for your expertise. this is exactly what i was hoping for.  
i was toying with the idea of overclocking but nothing too serious. while i was doing my homework, i didn't see any reason to go with more than 1 hd. the only difference i found between the 5000AAKS and the 7500AAKS was the capacity, this doesn't make it faster does it? i was thinking of the EVGA card as well.

 
Depending on what you are willing to do going with 2 HDD's in a SATAII RAID0 will make a big difference in performance. Having them in a RAID0 will be like having one SATA3 drive thats supposed to have a bandwidth of 600MB/s.
 
Only downside to a RAID0 though is that there is a chance of failure. Although I have a RAID0 on SATAI setup in my old rig that has lasted me 5+ years(since early 2003). And if you are going with XP you need a floppy for the RAID drivers. If you go Vista, you wont need them and if you so happen to need them you can load them from a CD/DVD instead.
 
But I can tell you that RAID0 will increase your loading performance thus equaling less time to open a program/game or transfer files.
 
Oh and no size wont effect performance that much. Larger size HDD's may slow down a bit after it hits a certain range(say 500GB+) but nothing you will notice.

Having a RAID 0 set up was my next dilemma.  
I do want to keep using XP as well.

Newegg has an Msi 8800gts for $128 after rebate; never thought I'd see one this low.

i was looking at the new 512 8800GTS. but thank you.

The size of a hard drive doesn't really tell much about the speed. The WD7500AAKS is faster than the WD5000AAKS because it uses perpendicular magnetic recording, i.e. the bits are packed closer together.  
 
Don't get me wrong, the 500GB WDs are pretty good too. I got 3 of them and they still work just fine after 9 months.

Well, I built my system.  
 
Here it is:
 
Antec P182 case,
Corsair HX620 power supply,
Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS4 motherboard,
Intel E8400 Core 2 Duo processor,
Patriot 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 memory,
EVGA 8800GTS G92 512MB video card,
Creative X-Fi Xtremegamer sound card,
Western Digital WD5000AAKS hard drive,
Samsung SHS203B sata dvd burner &
Xigmatek HDT-S963 cpu cooler.
 
Thanks to all who helped, escpecially aevm.

This topic has been moved from the section CPU-Components to section Homebuilt Systems by Jake_Barnes