Suggestions / Comments on building 1st gaming computer

you cant link shopping carts.

Go to www.microcenter.com for the P182, it's only $70 there.

Get a SATA burner, like SH-S203N.

Get a single 8800GTS G92 512MB and a 24" monitor. Add another GTS later (or right now, if you still have enough money). No point in SLI with a 22" monitor, and no point in SLI with mid-range cards either.

Edit: I like all the other choices.

Here's a good 8800GTS 512MB for $240, it's made by BFG and can be trusted:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814143119

Something like this, maybe.

ViewSonic Optiquest Series Q241wb Black 24" 5ms $340 + $16 shipping, after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824116104
It would cost you 340+16+a bit more for a DVI cable.

Other promising models around $400 at newegg:
BenQ G2400W Black 24" 5ms, $400 + $17 shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824014158

NEC Display Solutions ASLCD24WMCX-BK Black 24" 5ms, $440 with free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824002359

Personally I always buy monitors from a local brick-and-mortar when they have sales. This way I don't pay for shipping and I can check for dead pixels right there. I got my current monitors from Future Shop and Best Buy.

It looks perfect to me.

Here's a quote that might help you, from a newegg review of that Corsair RAM:

Maybe change the hard disk to this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] WD6400AAKS
It's got a higher density (320GB platters) which should lead to higher average read/writes on large files. Also, it comes to 21.25 cents/GB including shipping (22 cents/GB for the Seagate). Take this with a grain of salt, of course. I have 5 WD hard disks myself so I am a bit partial to WD. The Seagates are fine too, and have longer warranties.

XP-32 bit will mean a few more fps in most games. Probably irrelevant, because you are getting a very good video card. It also means you will only see 3.5 GB of RAM out the 4 GB you are buying. Probably irrelevant too, at least most of the time.

Vista 64-bit will mean security updates and bug fixes for a long time to go, not just a few more more months like XP. That's a plus. It also means learning a new O/S. That can be annoying, but it's also a plus because it improves your chances of getting a good job whenever you need one. It also means some older devices or programs will not work. That's a big minus, but maybe you don't have any such things. It also gives you DirectX 10 (better looking Crysis and FSX and a few others).

I hope that helps you decide. It mostly depends on your old devices and programs. For example if you have some MS-DOS program you really love, XP can still run it. If you have a printer or scanner or whatever that has device drivers for XP but not for Vista, again you have to stay with XP. Otherwise I'd pick Vista 64.

Eh...it's the other way around.
Last March MS said support for Vista ends December 31,2008 (Win 7 is slated for January 2009)....and last week on CNET MS reported extending support for XP -and new sales- untill the end of 2010.

Also if you are running Vista 64 and have it emulate/translate to run a 32 bit program/game it has NO extra security over 32 bit XP.
--->SOURCE : Steve Gibson owner of www.grc.com . D/L the Security Now podcast if you want to know the reasons this happens.

2GB of ram with 32 bit XP gives me no more than 59% of ram use....running all my security programs,6 torrents and playing Frontline:Fule of War all at the same time.

When MS made that Vista remark it was 90 days after Vista was onsale.
Lack of sales and demand for Vista over the past year and -more- XP sales is not like to make MS change it's mind.
People either want Vista becuase it's new or have a high end system and don't -notice- that it is slower than XP...but alot have learned to not want anything to do with it (the massive DRM in it is the biggest problem).

The other sad part is to get it o run -near- the speed of XP you need to tweek/turn off alot of things and have 2X the ram.
If you install even more ram (4GB) it will USE UP even more of it (almost a full GB if you have 4GB of ram).

Yeah, well, that how Intel and Microsoft and a few others work together to force us to buy new computers often. As soon as the hardware gets better, the software starts requiring even better hardware, etc. It keeps the economy growing.

Anyhow, here's the latest info from Microsoft's site:
http://support.microsoft.com/lifec [...] r=FilterNO

Mainstream support (i.e. the free patches) end for XP on 4/14/2009 and for Vista on 4/10/2012, according to that. They have to be very careful about changing these dates in the wrong direction (i.e. ending support earlier than promised) because lawsuits are kind of expensive. Assuming these dates remain like that, then either XP or Vista would be fine IMO. I thought XP only had a few more months, not a whole year left.

Check this out:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp [...] sing2.mspx

You said "gaming system", so I'm almost sure you don't need any of the extra things in XP Pro and you'd be fine with XP Home. Take a look at the list anyway and decide for yourself. For example the IIS support in XP Pro is very important if you're also using the PC to write or host Web apps. The Access Control part is useful if other people will also use this PC and you want a bit of privacy, as in folders that can only be seen by their owner. Apart from that, the differences are mostly useful to IT admins in companies, not to PC owners at home.

That eVGA mobo comes with 6 SATA cables, so just use two of them for the hard drive and burner. As for power, my Silencer 750 came with enough cables for 2 opticals and 3 hard drives. You don't need to buy any cables.

Partitioning: probably something like 100 GB for Windows and programs, leaving the rest on a second partition for movies and whatever. This really depends on what you put on the hard disk. There's no general rule.

Here's a guy who has almost exactly the same setup that you want (same case, mobo, PSU, and two of those video cards).
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/s [...] 43892.html

If he managed to fit them all in, I'm sure you can do it too.