(All components include shipping in estimate)
Cooler Master PC-690 ~ $100
- Yate Loon 120mm x4 ~ $20
Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120 ~ $60
- Yate Loon 120mm x1 ~ $4
G Skill DDR2 800 (2x2GB) x2 ~ $160
Seagate 250GB 16MB Buf. x2 ~ $140
- Until I find those 250GB 32MB ones, I'll go with these, hopefully I have better luck with this model, this time around.
Acer 20" LCD Monitor ~ $205
Gigabyte P35-DS3L ~ $90
Antec True Power Trio 650W PSU ~ $105
Intel Q6600 w/Promo# ~ $225
eVGA 9600GT ~ $156 MIR
______________________
$1261

For serious Video Editing and gaming, how does this hold up. I'm still trying to figure out why the 250GB 32MB cache hard drives disappeared I was also considering doing a raptor for a the OS, and use 250GB for my files. Once I have enough money, I figured I would get some more 250GB drives and setup a RAID.

- I will be overclocking the Q6600 above 3.0Ghz and a bit on the graphics card.
- I have XP 64bit so I'm going to utilize the 8GB.
- I won't be upgrading my graphics card until there is a $200 card that can play Crysis at 1680x1050 with high settings.
- I plan on adding a second 20" monitor later on.
- I'm still looking at sound cards that have optical in that I will buy later this summer.
- I'll be using Adobe After Effects, Sony Vegas, and Final Cut Studio for editing (I plan on making this build a hackintosh later on for Final Cut)
- I'll be playing Call of Duty 4, UT3, Bioshock?, and Crysis (later on)
- I'm trying to keep my components quiet as possible but having overclocking in mind (at least for the processor)
- As mentioned before, I'm looking at adding some 120mm or 140mm fans to the case so some nice quiet ones will do (distribute the amount of air moved over many fans in order to drop dDA levels)
- I'm also looking at upgrading to a Q9450 later on as well

Let me know what you think! Trying to keep this around $1300 for my current components. Give any advice you have or personal success with any of the components.

I just spec'ed a system for $1300, this is what I came up with.
Alot of the components are the same as yours.
I used newegg for everything.


ZALMAN VF900 - CU 2 Ball VGA Cooler
Item #:N82E16835118001

EVGA GeForce 8800GT 512-P3-N801-AR Video Card
Item #:N82E16814130318

COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black Computer Case
Item #:N82E16811119137

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L ATX All Solid Capacitor Intel Motherboard
Item #:N82E16813128059

Western Digital Caviar SE 320GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Item #:N82E16822136098

Microsoft Windows Vista 32-Bit Home Premium for System Builders Single Pack DVD
Item #:N82E16832116202

Logitech Black Cordless Desktop Laser
Item #:N82E16823126032

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler
Item #:N82E16835186134

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
Item #:N82E16835100007

EDIMAX EW-7128G PCI Wireless Card
Item #:N82E16833315041

Rosewill RP550V2-S-SL 550W Power Supply
Item #:N82E16817182030

G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
Item #:N82E16820231145
Return Policy: Memory (Modules, USB) Return Policy

Acer AL2216Wbd Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor with HDCP support
Item #:N82E16824009094

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (overclocking to 3.6-4.0)

Grand Total: $1,120.87 without CPU
__________________________________________________

Depending on how high your OC'ing the q6600 you can rely on ddr2-800 (with a multiplier of 8, 400x2=800mhz and 400x8=3.2ghz for a 1:1 ratio. with your memory you can max out at 4ghz which is unheard of for q6600 on air. just depends on how high you want to OC)

The case, same as mine, already has 3 fans which should be plenty. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811999122 is a good variable speed fan so it can be quiet.

If you chose the PSU i have (2 fans), the intake takes air from vent on bottom of case and immediately throws it out the back, virtually eliminating the psu as a heat source. (food for thought, your build doesn't need 750w http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp)

Get the 8800gt, but if you want to OC it you should get a VGA heatsink/fan (see above) cause it runs a little hot.
With the tuniq tower 120 get artic silver 5 to apply in order to maximize cooling efficiency (the heat dissipates to the heatsink more easily through the molecular architecture of the artic silver 5).

Any questions, just ask.

Take a look at this power supply;
http://www.buy.com/prod/Corsair-VX [...] 52646.html
I believe these coolers are going to be the new 'hot ticket';
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233012

Power Supply Calculator - Link fixed

Here are some 600W-700W candidates, definitely solid choices.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817104015
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817703005
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817151028

Though I usually use conservative values when using a calculator, I would not consider going below 600W for what I plan to do with the system and how long I plan on keeping it.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] wer-supply
This is a good resource to have when looking at power supplies.

Yate Loon fans at jab tech are really really quiet. I'd recommend those, especially since they're 1/4 the price of the s-flex or silverstone at newegg that most people would get/recommend.

Does it really matter which fans (orange or black) that I get? Surprised they are so cheap yet really good.

Updated components in first post!

- Switched from G Skill DDR2 1000 to DDR2 800 (The Q9450 I believe has a 7.5x multi so I'm not sure how that will affect my overclock?)
- eVGA 9600GT price drop plus rebate for $156 shipped
- Antec apparently have very quiet PSUs, went with the True Power Trio 650W, has Seasonic internals as well.
- Added 4 Yate Loon Orange/Black D12SL fans
- Decided to go with the Seagate 250GB 7200.10 until I can find the 7200.11. I've had problems with the .10 drives so hopefully I get lucky this next time around, if I must get the .10 drives.

I'm not sure if the Q9450 is suppose to have more requirements in terms of RAM for overclocking, anyone know?

Just found a special at ClubIT, save $20 with a LGA775 mobo when you buy a guarenteed Q6600 G0.

Cheaper GA-P35-DS3L Mobo ~ $90
Q6600 G0 ~ $260

$255+$95=$350
vs
$260+$90-$20=$330

How is ClubIT in customer service?

1 = alright, when overclocking take half the mhz of ram (400 in your case) and multiply it by the multiplier on the CPU for a stable 1:1 ratio. Without overclocking the ram the highest speed you can achieve with 1:1 is (7.5x400) 3.0ghz. With the ddr2 1000 you can achieve 3.75ghz. If I am wrong someone please correct me, but I am pretty sure I am right.

2 = it all depends on the multiplier. For raw performance, when *the smaller the multiplier and higher the mhz* is better than *the higher the multiplier and smaller the mhz*. If you seriously plan on OC'ing I'd have to recommend the ddr2 1000 from g-skill.

go to resellerratings.com for vendor reviews and ratings. http://www.resellerratings.com/store/ClubIT

Your rig looks good. Remember, there is no perfect build, there are infinite combinations which can achieve nearly the same performance and reliability.

Should not matter what fans you get. Yate's are the best for quiet cooling.

If the DDR2 1000 RAM is still on sale when I go to buy it, I'll get it. Otherwise I don't think it really matter, just might be nice just in case.

Also if I did get the DDR2 1000 RAM, I would also need to get a motherboard that could support that frequency which would mean spending more $. I think I'll stick with the DDR2 800 stuff since the DS3L ,let alone any of the Gigabyte boards under $200, won't be allowing a 500Mhz frequency.

In general, however, I'm not a serious overclocker. I would be happy with 3.2-3.4Ghz with the Q6600. I would not sacrifice a quiet PC for a little bit more power. I'm also looking into getting a quieter 9600GT if the eVGA is going to be the loudest component in my computer.

The gigabyte ds3l supports up to ddr2 1066

I've been reading some reviews on the DS3L and in one review I recall it made it to 490, but not 500. Then, just looking at forums for reported overclocks, I saw someone with a 535mhz FSB. I'm confused

For serious editing and multimedia... you will likely find that the HD you want will run out very quickly. I am not sure what programs you are talking about... but the one I use uses more than 20Gb just for the software... not including the OS or anything else. I think with very little on my machine it would suck back about 80-100Gb before even inputing the very first project. If by editing mean video... better to get a second drive for that. The 250 would be great for OS and program files... don't need anything massive for that. But having a seperate drive gives you better performance and protection. If need to reformat etc the second drive is not touched... keeps all that data safe. Don't need to go ape like I did... but one extra hard drive will do you very well... though may want to look at 500Gb... they should be around $100. That's what I can get them for in Canada.

Nothing is for certain when you overclock. What one person is able to get does always mean someone else will be able to achieve the same results. You can have two exact systems and maybe the CPU's have different lot numbers, or whatever it's called, and one will not go as far as the other. Get a case with good airflow, a good cooler and ram is about all you can do, that and have a good, stable PSU.

once I RAID 3 250GB drives, I will have more than enough room for what I do. I typically have no more than 30min of footage, SD uncompressed on my drives. If all of my programs and plugins and such are on the OS drive, I should have plenty of room on both sets of drives. I'm still looking at how to accomplish having a compressed mirror for a RAID setup (3x 250GB RAID + 1x 250GB compressed mirror)

You might want to get 7200.11 HDDs instead of the 7200.10 ones that you hvae picked out. The 7200.11 HDDs are almost as fast as the Raptors but with better price vs. performance value. The 7200.11 are only about 1ms slower than the Raptors in most benchmarks. Be careful when you RAID, you might run into back up problems with x64 OSes. Also reduce pagefile since you have 8GB RAM.

He did say he couldnt find the 250 gig with the 32mb cashe. 1ms in a HD. i dont think you will be able to see a difference. i picked up the 7200.11 500 gig as a secondary drive. For what you are going to be doing.... i would think of doing this and staying away from raid.

If I could find the 7200.11 250GB hard drives I would buy them in an instant, but they magically disappeared I can only find them in 20 pack bulks, and I definitely don't need that many.

It depends on what kind of performance I can get for having large video files with video editing. I'm doing everything I can to get to real-time editing as possible with price in mind. I know its almost impossible to get real-t