I am a long time lurker here but really have not gotten involved with the fourms. I am about to build a system and wanted the imput from the folks around here. A little on system usage. I am not a hard core gamer but I do enjoy playing games on occasion. I find my current system just not cut it for newer games. I dont need Keyboard/Mouse/Monitor etc as I already have those. The resoultion I run in and would play games in would be 1600x1200 on a samsung 204b. I plan on installing windows Vista 64x.

So here goes pick me apart. I would like to keep the budget under 1500. Currently with shipping Im at about 1200.

As a note I went with a 750 watt power supply as I may wish to add another 3870 at some point.

All these are from newegg.

Sony NEC Optiarc 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model AD-7191S - OEM
Item #: N82E16827118004 $27.99

Thermaltake Soprano DX VE7000BWS Black 0.8mm SECC Chassis/ Aluminum Front Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Item #: N82E16811133040 $99.99

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500AAKS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Item #: N82E16822136161 $64.99

ASUS EAH3870/G/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814121217 $169.99

Thermaltake W0116RU Complies with ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V version 750W Power Supply - Retail
Item #: N82E16817153038 $174.99

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM
Item #: N82E16835100007 $5.99

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ - Retail
Item #: N82E16820231145 $89.99

ASUS P5E LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813131219 $224.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400 - Retail
Item #: N82E16819115037 $209.99

ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler - Retail
Item #: N82E16835118019 $54.99

Is there a reason you are going with 3870 and crossfire board? if not then the 8800gt is only 10 bucks more for the xfx ver... good perf boost for 10 dollars..

XFX PVT88PYDF4 GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

* Item #: N82E16814150252

If you are looking for 2 cards for the future, then you can grab an sli board

I really do prefer the Nvidia cards over the ATI card but I could not seem to find a good sli board. That was not 300+. Any ideas?

here is a decent sli board.. it'a 140... using the 750i chipset and not sure how well it does... reviews seem to be ok... max FSB says 1333 just so you know ahead of time...but the cpu you chose uses the same speed bus so you should be fine

ASUS P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

* Item #: N82E16813131232

there are alot more choices for amd cpus which stinks but hey that is market for ya....I'm still runing an X2 4200 lol with an 8800GT.. works for me...

Specs loook good.

You might wish to look at EVGA new 750i motherboard. Both SLi slots will run at 16x and the price is under $200, if you wish to use nVidia graphic cards. Or get the 780i motherboard from Evga or XFX for $259.99.

EVGA 123-YW-E175-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i FTW SLI ATX Intel Motherboard.
http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6813188026

Also would suggest you check the height of the ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler from there online pdf manual before buying it for the case you have picked.

Plus check the review out on the best cpu coolers at this link below.
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index. [...] w&id=45&It

The best 2 cpu coolers are the OCZ Vendetta (92mm fan) and Xigmatek HDT-S1283 (120mm fan) and both can be found at NewEgg for $35 to $37 dollars.

Hope this helped you out some.

Thanks for the headsup on the cooler, I will double check the measurements. And I think I will go with the OCZ Vendetta 2 looks really good. I shall have to give a closer look to the evga motherboards as I really would like to go with SLI and the Geforce cards.

well let us know what you decide