My first homebuilt system

[Ebullient]

Heyya folks! It's my first post, so be gentle . Speaking of first times, this'll also be the first system I've ever built from scratch. I've done simple upgrades in the past like video cards, RAM, etc. So with that in mind, I'd appreciate any feedback or advice you'd be able to give me! Primary use is gaming. I'll be cannibalizing a few components from my old comp including DVD burner, monitor, hard drive, and sound card, so that's why those aren't on here =). I suspect the PSU and motherboard are a bit overkill, but I want to leave room for future upgrades in the form of another video card to do the SLI thing.

Case: Antec 900
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

CPU: Intel E8400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

MoBo: XFX MB-N780-ISH9
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813141005

GPU: XFX 8800GT 512MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150252

PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006

RAM: CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184

Cooler: XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003&Tpk=xigmatek%2bhdt%2bs1283

After rebates, this looks like it'll run me about $950 or so. Any suggestions or cautions you can give me are much appreciated!

[Edit: updated cooler, MoBo, PSU, and RAM per suggestions]

 

[deepchild]

It looks like a solid machine to me for the most part. However, if you want to do SLI, you'll have to choose a motherboard from nVidia. The intel X38 won't allow you to use 2 nVidia cards in SLI mode. It will allow multiple ATI (AMD) cards in crossfire mode though.

If you want to keep the motherboard, select a nice Radeon 3870 card.
If you want to keep the Geforce, select a nice 750i or 780i motherboard.

Other than that switch out, everything else should work nicely together.

 

[mihirkula]

Mate the X38 won't let you SLI...though you could CF very well. Ya gotsta buy an Nvidia board to SLI.

PSU is quite overkill...even if you want to Crossfire. Stick with 650W

Also that cooler is an old girl. Get this instead

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003&Tpk=xigmatek%2bhdt%2bs1283

 

[aevm]

+1 for the Xigmatek cooler.

Keep the P5E, get an HD 3870 card, add a HD 4870 in a few months. Replace the PSU with this one:
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad (Crossfire Edition) 750W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341011&Tpk=Silencer+750

 

[Ebullient]

Cheers gents, you've saved me a great deal of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Turns out I made the bad assumption that having 2 PCIe 2.0 x16 slots would work =). As I'm a fan of nVidia cards, I swapped out the MoBo. There were cheaper SLI boards, but apparently there are some issues with the nforce 750i drivers? So I modified my RAM accordingly, swapped out the cooler, and downgraded to a Corsair 750W PSU. It's massively on sale at the moment, and I like Corsair . The BOM has been updated accordingly.

Thanks for the help so far guys!

 

[aevm]

Sounds good. One more thing. If you get 8800GTS G92 512MB cards instead of 8800GT you get more speed and much better cooling. They are twice as thick though, and will block a PCI slot. Think about it, OK?