Some advice needed for an entertainment system

[coiney]

I'm a bit of a noob at building systems... but I'm up for a challenge! Any advice you've got will be much appreciated.

I'm looking at building a system around:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115036

I'm not at the case or PSU stage yet. I'm trying to wrap my head around GPUs and what I'll want to do in the future. 9800 GTX (512MB) with room for a second with SLI? Or shall I go with one 8800 GTX (756MB)?

What might be a good Mobo for these parings?

What I ultimately want to accomplish is a pretty sweet gaming system I can hook up to an HDTV. Looking at using Mythbox (the open source tivo...) with a tuner. So if you have any avice there that would be great.

I'll keep you guys posted as the system shapes up. I'm thinking around $1500...

Cheers.

 

[coiney]

Or would you guys recommend taking this from a quad core start, but taking the his on the clock speed... like a Q6600. I'm not sure if I have the guts to OC...

 

[bushmastertd]

heard good things about the processor, i use AMD but am considering going with intel in a few months. My 2 cents on the graphics card would be not to worry with the 8800GTX due to being a power hungry beast, would go with a 8800GTS 512 till the new cards are released, be sure to get a EVGA to use the step up. I have heard that the 9800GTX is just an overclocked 8800GTS with slightly faster speeds, so no real big gains. Hope this helped

 

[coiney]

Thanks. That's what I've been hearing about it.