I’m trying to build a good gamming system for about $2000-2500 max. I’m new at this whole build your own computer thing. I’ve done a month’s worth of research and have made my decision but I am still open to suggestions. I want to run 1 video card and don’t care for sli or quad core cpu, at least not yet. But the mobo I have chosen gives me that option in the future. I’ve never done this but I have a buddy that is gonna help me slap it together and overclock. So here it is:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Processor BX80570E8400 - 3.0GHz, 6MB Cache, 1333MHz FSB, Wolfdale http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] -DUO-E8400

MOBO: EVGA nforce 780i SLI Motherboard - A1 Version http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] =E145-2034

PSU: OCZ / GameXStream / 850-Watt
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] =O261-2006

CPU Cooling: ThermalTake Big Water 760i Liquid Cooling http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] =T925-2258

Video Card: EVGA GeForce 9800 GX2 Video Card ($469 after rebate!!!) http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] =E145-9800

Physics Accelerator: BFG Ageia PhysX Accelerator Card ($50 after rebate, worth $50 just to try it out) http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] u=B52-7834

RAM: Corsair Dual Channel TWINX 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] u=C13-6082

Hard Drive: Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136260

Case: Apevia X-Telstar ATX Full-Tower Case - Aluminum, Clear Side http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] =A107-1093

Optical Drives: Any suggestions?

OS: Vista home premium, but I am still up in the air on 32 or 64 bit…

My questions are:
Vista 32 or 64??? I tried vista 64 and had some compatibility issues with my printer and some software. Is it worth it to go 64 bit? Is there that much of a difference in gamming?

I think I can upgrade to dual 9800 GX2 in the future?

Lastly, will everything I have chosen fit on my mobo and case?

Thanks!!!

Couple things here..

Apevia makes terrible PSUs- one that have melted in testing- so i doubt their cases are much better.

Ditch the motherboard, nVidia's Intel chipsets are not very good. Go X38 or X48 instead. Asus P5E is a good board.

9800 GX2 is a stopgap card- one is fine. DO NOT FOR ANY REASON fall victim to the SLI marketing trap especially that card. You do not need quad SLI, its a huge waste of resources. I would actually encourage you to ditch the 9800 altogether and pick up a next gen nVidia card next month.

After rebate!! you say- yeah good luck on that with Tiger. Speaking of which, Newegg is a vastly better experience in every way than Tiger Direct. I refuse to support people that lie and cheat their customers. Tiger is #1 in this department.

Physics card is a complete waste of money, save your cash.

If you want to use the full 4GB of RAM you have no choice but Vista 64.