New computer E8400, 8800GT-SLI, 4GB, 500GB ($2000)

Hi,Thanks for looking.

This will be my second own build and I've built other systems before so I'm confident at building them. I have done some research about what to get so I think I'm getting the right stuff but I thought I would check with some experts before I make a mistake. I've set the new system on a budget of about £1000 ($2000) it's mainly going to be used for games.

CPU:
Core 2 duo E8400 3.00GHz (£132.93)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139971
I hear there are rumours of a price drop in Q3, am I correct?

Motherboard:
Asus P5N32-E SLI Socket 775 Nforce 680i SLI (121.43)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132813
I want an SLI motherboard with 2x16 PCIe lanes (unless 2x8 is just a good)

GPU:
XFX 8800GT XXX edition (£135.83)
http://www.dabs.com/productview.as [...] ationKey=0
I already have one of these so I will only be needing one more

Case:
I'm not that bothered about cases at this point in time I plan on spending £40 unless anyone recommends otherwise

Power suppy:
OCZ StealthXStream 600W PSU - SLI Ready ATX2.2 12cm LED Fan (£49.16)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/127861
Is this power supply sufficient to run everything in my setup?

Hard Disks:
2 x 250GB (2 * £30)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131214

Optical drives:
2 * DVD-RW (£15.90)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139414

RAM:
OCZ 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory NVIDIA SLI READY EDITION CL5 (£67.41)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/138561

CPU cooler
Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler (£15.28)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/105994
I'm not sure about which cooler to get and my current CPU cooler is from Arctic cooling I thought it would be a safe bet to go with them again.

Monitor
Hyundai ImageQuest N220W-A 22" LCD Monitor 1680x1050 5ms 16:9 Black/Silver (£139.59)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128411

Keyboard/mouse
Logitech Wave keyboard (£29.99)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/136242

Logitech MX revolution mouse (£46.99)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/117334


I will add in other stuff like: Printer, headphones, speakers and a webcam when I actually buy the setup but for now I'm not that fussed what they are. with all that added together it comes to just under £900 but with those extras I just mentioned it should easily push that up to the £1K mark.

thanks in advance for your advice, I guess it won't mind to much if I spend a little extra here and there but it would be nice if the cost didn't go up by a great amount.

Looks good!

That OCZ PSU is not certified by Nvidia for SLI 8800GT's: see link http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html

This Antec is though, and it's not too much more:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/114933

Having said that, most tests suggest SLI is only beneficial with certain games, and primarily only when playing on large monitors (24'' plus) at high res (1900X1200). If I were you I'd save my money use your single 8800GT, and wait for the next generation of GPU's that come out in a few weeks, then upgrade. Those will reportedly outperform 8800 X 2 with a single card.

That way you can also save money on the MB. The nvidia chipset SLI boards are less stable than the P35/X38 or X48 intel chipset boards, such as this one: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143226

Thanks for all your advice.

I will get some CL4 800MHz RAM, or if CL5 1066 MHz is overall faster then I will get that instead.

Thanks for the link to the SLI power supply site, I'm going to settle for a Hiper PSU http://www.ebuyer.com/product/109552 my current psu is a less powerful hiper model and it's served me well with no problems (unlike my previous Tagan one)

I think buying a Raptor HDD is just a little to much over my budget, but I will keep that open as a possible upgrade in the future.

I think I will go with the Zalman cooler, I found a site with a big list of temps http://www.frostytech.com/articlev [...] 233&page=5 and that pretty much sums up how good it is.

as for the 8800gt I will just keep the one I've got and wait to see if the GT200's or R700's are better then I will consider upgrading to those instead.

thanks for the quick reply to my post