Budget = ~1500 USD

I'm looking for a PC to last about a year (maybe a little longer). I'll eventually upgrade to the 1366 mobo/nehelam with ddr3 and a new video card. I plan on waiting for the benchmarks in about a week for the 260/280 and that may sway my opinion or expand my budget. Is there anything I'm doing wrong with this build? I could always scrap the 2nd drive and keyboard/mouse if there is something better to fill that $300. Suggestions always welcome.

PC Power and Colling 750W
E8400
Antec P180
8800GTS G92
Crucial Ballistix 2X2
Seagate 7200.11 500gb
150gb 10k Raptor
2 X Samsung DVR-RW
Xigmatek
Asus P5E x38 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131219
G11 keyboard
G9 mouse

Don't get the 1.5g/sec 150gb raptor; if you really want a 10k HD, then get the state of the art one - it's twice as fast and has twice as much room:
Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS 300GB 10000 RPM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136260

Definitely wait until the 280GTX is released before you decide if you still want the 8800GTS or you want to get the latest and greatest GPU.

The Asus MB is pretty nice, but at that price point I'd probably go with this excellent X48 board:
GIGABYTE GA-X48-DS4 LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128336

I'm personally not a big fan of the curical ballistix - overpriced compared to other better RAM IMHO. The high voltage makes inital booting with some MB's a problem. I like this better:
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231122

Otherwise, your choices look very solid.

but for twice the money - and I doubt it's twice as fast. But then I could dump the 500gb 7200.11. Why do you say it's so much faster than the raptor? I've heard that nothing saturates a 3.0g/s bus anyway.

I probably should have mentioned I'm looking for a moderate overclock. I'm more than open to change motherboards, but that Gigabyte one doesn't show fsb or memory voltages in the bios. Is there another motherboard you would recommend around 220ish?

Again, the crucial ram is good for OCin'. I like that it can push some higher voltages although that's not really needed for the moderate overclock I'm looking for. I read that the G.Skill has trouble over 1000. Any truth to that?

I do think I'll go with 2 of these in Raid 0.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] WD2500AAks

I'm still not sold on the motherboard/ram/mouse. I know the mouse is simply a taste thing. Any other suggestions on an Intel board and ram for OCing?

Current reading on the crucial ballistix is that it is now single sided chip and a piece of crap. the ds chips are friggin great however.
There is alot of good memory out there- pick one from mainboard approved
list. A secure but not cheap choice is always corsair dominator. Remember that ddr2 can have serious problems at higher speeds so buying pc10000 isn't REALLY necessary.

The older raptors are still a buck a gig too.
Buy two new ones- velociraptor's- and put them in a raid 0
Haven't looked at anything nehalem but maybe that system will use the best too?

x38 has no advantages worth spending money on unless you are going crossfire (which after all these years might just work).
Get a stable p35 if you are going to jump on the nehalem bandwagon.

case deals:
http://www.xpbargains.com/best_dea [...] _deals.htm

Good luck to you

Thanks for the suggestions. I haven't heard that about Crucial. It makes me sad Would you recommend the Corsair or G.Skill?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813127030
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145197

You are right about the x38. Just from 15 minutes of quick research - hows this one look? The Abit IP35 Pro.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813127030

I'm not looking for a huge OC. I want to push my E8400 to 4Ghz stable.

Ignore that...he knows squat about Crucial Ballistix 2GB DDR2 800

http://www.buy.com/prod/crucial-ba [...] 41818.html

Its a good brand and performs very well. Saves a lot of $$ too.

If you're going 4GB, Corsair and Gskill are good..get the cheapest one available.Stick with DDR2 800 though.

Agreed that X38 is mainly for overclocking enthusiasts .... but it performs extremely well... and Crossfire is a really splendid goodie which comes with it... and since you're spending $180 for a mobo ditch that Abit one and get the Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS4 for the same price. Its X38, Crossfire ready and a super performer. And Crossfire has a pretty future what with the 4870 coming out in 2 weeks.