Case - Raidmax Katana ATX-729WB - $79.99
 
Motherboard - Asus Maximus Formula - $279.99
 
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 - $219.99
 
CPU Cooling - ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 - $47.99
 
RAM - Kingston HyperX 4GB DDR21066 - $124.99
 
Video Cards - 2X ASUS  EN9600 GT 512MB  - $319.98
 
VGA Cooling - 2X Zalman VF1000 - $89.98
 
Sound Card - Creative XI-FI XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro - $129.99
 
Hard Disks - 2X Western Digital Caviar GP WD7500AACS 750GB - $259.98
 
Disk Drives - 2X Lite-ON 20X DVD±R DVD burner - $45.98
 
Power Supply - Thermaltake Toughpower W0172RU 850W - $199.99
 
Monitor - KDS K-24MDWB 24' 2ms 1920x1200 - $349.99
 
 
Keyboard - Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard - $38.99
Mouse - Logitech G9 - $74.99
 
 
Total - $2,262.82
 
 
 
Am I missing anything?
or do I have the right idea on the wrong track?
 
BTW I was trying to make this into a Crysis pc with good upgradeability

I would hold off for a little bit and wait for the Radeon 4xxx benches coming soon. Also for your processor consider the E8xxx series. And ask yourself, can I really tell the difference between onboard sound and a $130 sound card?

You're getting a Crossfire mobo with two nVidia cards. Think, man, think!!!
 

Here's what I'd do:
 
1. replace the mobo with an XFX 780i. This gives you SLI ability i..e support for two nVidia cards. The replace the cards with 8800GTS G92 512MB cards and get rid of the VGA coolers. In total, this should cost about the same, solve the SLI thing, and about double your GPU raw power.
 
2. replace one of the burners with a SH-S203B. It's smart to have two different burners. Too lazy to list the reasons here.
 
3. The Nirvana is good, but the Xigmatek 1283 is better and cheaper.
 
4. Replace the PSU with a Silencer 750W Crossfire Edition. It's $50 less, still overkill for your system, and highest quality.
 
5. Change the WD7500AACS to WD7500AAKS or even better WD6400AAKS. The "GP" versions save you some power but they are slower. If you really wanted to save some power you wouldn't get SLI and overclocked quads, so I guess speed matters more to you.
 
6. I'd prefer Samsung 245BW or similar. KDS is not very reliable AFAIK.
 
7. I have no clue about that case. It seems to have only 2 fans. For SLi and OC'd quad you want something more, IMO. Look at the CoolerMaster Stacker for example.

ok, so what about the "ASUS Striker II Formula" thats Sli, and I was thinking of dropping the sound card anyway.
 
I would have been really bloody irate with myself if I had done something so stupid as to get a non Sli board with 2 geforce cards

Looks pretty solid.  Coupla things though.
 
Asus Maximus Formula will not do SLI.  You will need a Nvidia board for that.  This should fill the bill for ya.
EVGA 123-YW-E175-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i FTW SLI ATX Intel Motherboard  
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813188026
No need to spend a bunch of coin on a mobo when this one will do the job just fine.
 
Dual 9600 GTs will play Crysis, bot not as fast as you want unless your playing at low resolution.  Id buy a pair of 8800 GTS 512 mb boards. These cards will play Crysis alot better at 1920x1200.  See next statement.
 
The Zalman coolers probably arent needed.  Take the money and stick it into the video cards.
 
On board sound is probably more than adequate.  But if you must, buy an Asus or a Azuntech. (sp?)  Better cards, better support.
 
Unless your planning on RAIDing the HDs, which is not really needed in all reality, just buy a single 500 gig HD to run OS and games.  If you need lots of storage, buy 3 more 500 gig HDs and RAID 5 them out for storage which your mobo will support.  Or if you arent comfortable with RAID, buy a 1 TB HD and stoe on that.  The idea here is to keep your storage and applications segregated.
 
Get a OEM copy of Vista 64 as well.
 
The rest looks good.  
 
 
 

^Agreed.
 
Certified SLI-Ready Power Supplies  
http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html
 
Top 5 heatsinks:
http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm
 

is the 8800gts really so much more powerful?

ASUS Striker II Formula is a nice board but its unlikely you will ever use it to its fullest, thats why I suggested a 750i.  They are $100 less.  
 
aevm raised a good point with the power supply as well.  PC Power and Cooling PSUs are top notch.
 
Make sure you buy a case with good airflow as well.  I suggest the trusty Antec 900.  Tough to beat the airflow on that case.  But lots of other good options out there.

 
Yes.  Look here:  8800 GTS vs 9800 GTX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130339
 
Basically only difference is the 9800's memory clock is a little faster.
 
Look here:  9600 GT vs 8800 GTS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130337

About the case, thats been bugging me quite a bit, because a moment ago I was cruising the shops and found this http://www2.asetek.com/default.asp [...] tSection=2
Is this something I might want to look into?
And  the reason i was going for the 780i was for upgradeability, but I was probably just getting over-exuberant about it

Nah, air cooling is good enough for all but the most serious OCers.
 
Yeah, I doubt if you will see the difference between a 780i and a 750i, other than on your credit card.
 
The most important thing about the case is:
Does it have enough cooling?
Is the layout decent?
Will your CPU cooler fit?
Can you route/hide cables in it so it looks decent?
And do you like the way it looks?
 
I run an old full Aluminum Chieftech case thats 6 years old.  It can hold 6 HDs, 6 80mm fans, 4 DVD/CD drives, so it will take a heck of a case to steer me away from it.  I actually own 3 of them.  Bought the first one, then bought 2 more right before they stopped making them.  Only realy downside is the cable management is bad in it.

If you get Vista 64 you'll be able to play Crysis with DirectX 10, cool!  
 
Avoid X-Fi cards, their Vista  drivers are bad. Auzentech and HT Omega don't have this problem.

Ok, so then maybe this should look better...maybe?

Case -  COOLER MASTER Stacker 830 Evolution - $258.00
 
Motherboard - EVGA 123-YW-E175-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i - $199.99
 
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 - $219.99
 
CPU Cooling - ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 - $47.99
 
RAM - Kingston HyperX 1GBx4 DDR2-1066 - $124.99
 
Video Cards - 2X  EVGA 640-P2-N829-AR GeForce 8800GTS SSC 640MB - $459.98
 
Hard Disks -  Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB - $89.99
 
Disk Drives - Lite-ON 20X DVD±R DVD burner - $22.99
 SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner - $26.99
 
Power Supply - PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad (Crossfire Edition) - $
 
Monitor - KDS K-24MDWB 24' 2ms 1920x1200 - $349.99
 
 
Keyboard - Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard - $38.99
Mouse - Logitech G9 - $74.99

Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Ultimate - $169.99
 
 
Total - $2,182.87

It's better. Still not perfect.

The eVGA 750i has only 4 SATA ports. With two burners, that means you can have at most two hard disks, unless you use IDE too. Yuck. Also, with dual-slot video cards, you block two of the PCI slots. That means you are left with one for the sound card and that's it. No TV tuner, dial-up modem, RAID card, etc etc because you're out of PCI slots.

The eVGA 780i will cost you $31 more including shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] VGA%2b780i
It has the same problem with the PCI slots, but at least you get 6 SATA ports i.e. you're allowed 4 hard disks instead of 2. (It also gives you triple-SLI but you won't benefit from it with 8800GTS cards.) The XFX 780i very much the same, but $10 more today at newegg.

8800GTS G92 512MB is faster than 8800GTS 640MB. I know it sounds silly, but it's true. It's a newer and different card, they just reused the name, probably because some idiot in marketing asked them to.

I don't like the Nirvana because it gets noisy under load. I guess that's OK, if you're not doing much else while listening to music.

I have the WD5000AAKS and WD7500AAKS and I can tell you the WD7500AAKS is much faster. AFAIK the WD6400AAKS is even faster.
Also, 640GB for $110 is better than 500GB for $90. (5.82 GB/$ instead of 5.5). The WD5000AAKS is obsolete technology, from the dark days before perpendicular recording. OK, I'm exaggerating, it's a decent disk, just not worth buying at that price.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] WD6400AAKS

I forgot about the SATA port thing and losing slots with SLI.  But 4 SATA connections are good enough for 95% of people out there.  I do agree though, ATA cables suck.  But keep in mind if you want to run a RAID setup, a dedicated card is always better than a on mobo solution and that is something you can move from PC to PC as you build and rebuild.  Its a judgment call you have to make.  Myself I run 2 HDs, 1 for apps, 1 for storage and keep an old PC in the closet for storing large bits of info.
 
Get the 8800 GTS 512's, NOT the GTS 640's.  The 512 uses a newer, faster chip.
 
http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm is a great reference for CPU coolers.  Ive used Zalman 9700's, Thermalright Ultra 120s, Xigmatek HDT-S1283's all with good success.  I would like to give a Coolermaster Hyper Z600 passively a shot though, even though it is a monster.  I like the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 best because it cools good, and it only costs $40.

Some pretty good parts there but I would recommend changing the GPU. Your better off getting either a 9800gtx o 8800gts.

@OP:

If you are planing on getting RAM natively higher than DDR2 800 be aware that there will be compatibility issues. Many users reports and my personal testing has shown that there is a very good chance you will run in to issues with RAM higher than DDR2 800, such as DDR2 1066. I recommend you get quality DDR2 800 RAM and run them at 1:1 ratio or overclock the RAM. This issue dose not apply to DDR2 800 RAM that has been overclocked.

 
9800 GTX is nothing more than a slightly overclocked 8800 GTS 512 with a new shroud and writing on it.