Please critique my build

[Topcover]

Hello

I finally have all the cash together and am ready to build a new gaming computer with the death of my old one p4 Prescott rig now 2 month in the past (its rebirth was 1 month ago).

I intend to spend about 2500 after Operating system I do not need a monitor owning 2 dell 20 inch flat panels

Gaming resolution is 1600 by 1200

I read an article today about the new phenom 9850x4 black edition and am now researching a lower price amd Build
that would be more upgradeable over the coming years. My decisions are not final yet and I will switch to amd if I it seems that it would be more effective in the long run to go with there platform (assuming that amd continues on there path of being fairly upgradeable). I would like to stick with nvidia for my graphics since most of my games are optimized for nvidia gpu's Some opinions on this would be great

I don't intend to overclock right away but I would like it to be an option in the future

I would like this system to last for 2-3 years with only minor upgrades.
Some questions

I currently have a raid array as part of my build what would offer greater performance
2 lower capacity hard discs in raid 0 or 1 larger hard disc

If there is a good alternative to the creative sound card that works well with vista could someone post it.

The case is a personal choice everything else is open to debate.

Please critique this build
*All prices except final are approximate*)
Case
Thermaltake Xaser VI VG4000BWS Black / Red Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail 250 dollars
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16811133052

Cases fan and controller

SYBA CL-RM-35FD 3.5" Front Panel Illuminated Fan Controller - Retail 20 Dollars
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16811998007

case fans
2 AeroCool Streamliner-Blue 140mm Case Fan - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16835129247

2 AeroCool Streamliner-Black 140mm Blue LED Case Fan - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16835129248 4 fans 60 Dollars

Powersupply
OCZ ModXStream OCZ900MXS ATX12V / EPS12V 900W Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16817341009 250 Dollars

Cpu
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Yorkfield 2.66GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model EU80569PJ067N - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16819115039 (I Hope) 380 Dollars

After market cooler
ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16835118019 60 Dollars

Motherboard
MSI P7N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16813130159 170 dollars

Ram
Patriot Viper 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PVS24G8500ELK - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16820220299

Graphics Card
2 EVGA 512-P3-N841-AR GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail for sli 520 dollars
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16814130325

Hard discs (this is a point of where i would like some advice see above)
Current 2 Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD3201ABYS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM for Raid 0
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16822136201
170 Dollars
Dvd burner (I would like to stick with ide if possible to leave my sata slots open for e sata port and upgrade)
LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model DH-20A4H-08 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16827106245

Sound Card
Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio 70SB104000000 7.1 Channels PCI Express Interface Sound Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16829102017


That should be everything hardware wise after a few items not worth post(e.x. artic silver 5, usb flash drive...)

my totals come to 2,045.81 dollars


Remember this is the total price before factoring in the cost of windows (If i decide on vista that could be up to 300 dollars).

Thanks for the help if i forgot something please post. Leave your opinions I want this system to be good.

 

[akhilles]

- the two light-blue PCI Express x 16 slots (PCI_E2 & PCI_E3) support PCI Express x 8 mode only.

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&prod_no=1373&maincat_no=1

In other words, the SLI performance will be lower than that of 680i/780i. 750i supports Yorkfield & Wolfdale, though.

RAID 0 = speed; 1 = security/backup. More at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID#Standard_levels

Substitute AS5 with ARCTIC COOLING MX-2.

AMD is no match for Intel in terms of overclocking. If you want the option to overclock, go Intel. Period. Phenom at best can overclocks 300mhz above stock. For a stock pc, AMD is the better bang.