Seeking advice re: new homebuilt system

[Griezz]

I am hoping to get a bit of advice regarding a new system that I am working on. Here is the system layout:

Intel® Core™2 Duo E8400, 3.00-GHz @ 1333Mhz w/ 6Mb Cache
CoolerMaster® Hyper TX 2 Heat Sink & Fan, Retail Box
Antec® Nine Hundred Ultimate Gamer Case, Black
Asus® P5N-E SLI, Socket 775, NVIDIA® nForce™ 650i SLI™ Chipset
(2X) Asus® Extreme EN8800GT/G/HTDP/512M - GeForce™ 8800GT w/512Mb DDR3 & PCI Express x16
(2X) OCZ 2Gb PC6400 DDR2 EL Dual Channel Platinum XTC Edition (OCZ2P8002GK)
OCZ GameXStream 600W SLI ATX 12V Ver 2.2 Power Supply
Kingston® 1GB Data Traveler USB Flash Drive (Retail)
250GB Western Digital® Caviar® SE16 SATAII-300 7200RPM 16Mb OEM
Pioneer BDC-202 Blu-Ray Disc Player and Combo DVD±R/RW Drive (IDE) OEM, Black
Microsoft® Windows® Vista Home Premium 32-bit w/ DVD & Manual (OEM)

Subtotal $1,415.25

Based on ongoing research, the CPU, cooler, motherboard & video card seems to be the best choices (at least, for a budget system). As for the rest, I think that OCZ is a good name for memory (although Corsair is another possibility), as is Western Digital for HDDs.

My questions are mainly about two things. First, does anyone have any experience with the BDC-202? It's definitely the cheapest way to watch Blu-Ray DVDs that I've seen around (except for clearance sales on HD-DVD machines, that is.)

My second question is, for a machine that is mainly used for basic applications, some Office work but mostly gaming (real-time strategy and RPGs - I'm not one for FPS or MMPORG titles.)

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[shadowduck]

That motherboard does not support the E8400 without a BIOS flash and a beta BIOS on top of that. You might to reconsider your motherboard choice. Look at something with a P35 or X38 chipset. The x38 motherboard will support it out of the box.

What resolution are you going to play at? In most cases SLI is vastly overkill for anything under 1920x1200.

Do not buy 2x 2GB kits. Buy 1 4GB kit (2 chips 2GB each).

For 2 8800GTs if you indeed do SLI, I would be looking at a 750W PSU min. 600W probably isn't going to cut it. If you follow my suggestion and ditch th 2nd video card, it is just fine.

 

[akhilles]

The only 650i board that supports Yorkfield is:

http://www.asrock.com/news/show.asp?id=116

It's ok for a stock pc. If you overclock, look no further than Intel chipsets. P35, X38 or X48. P35 is budget; X38/X48 is premium. Any of them are good proven overclockers. i.e. GA-P35-DS3L, IP35-E, P5K-E, P5E, GA-X38-DS4/DQ6.

I know the Intel chipsets won't do SLI, but you don't have to. You can pick up a 9800GX2 for example that beats out anything else in SLI at high resolutions. BTW, not all games support SLI. A single gpu will speed up all games.

Yes, a BD ROM drive may be the most economic way to watch BD movies, but you'll be limited to features/revisions. PS3 can update firmwares to support new features/revisions, among many other things. $400 to boot. The downside to an all-in-one pc is that if it is down, you will be bored for a while. And the PS3 will have a price cut either this or next year.