Artsy Fartsy/Starcraft2 computer <$800 suggestions?

For the RAM; it depends on what system you are going to use. If it's XP32 2GB will be enough.

pc 6400 (800mhz) ram is is good for most things since a lot of motherboards cant handle the FSB required to use all the band width of higher ram (simply put operational ram speed =fsb*2 due to the 'double data rate') so to get the most out of the 1066 ram you will have to be having a fsb of around 500, ok so its a tiny bit more complicated than that but its just a rough idea for you.

so if you are planning on OC'ing the nuts of the computer then the 1066 is better, however since you are using an old case i guess you are not planning on a massive OC. so would say save some money and get the 800

on the note of OC'ing if you want to OC the q6600 you will probably need a slightly better HSF as although the pro 7 is the best value cooling around it is not the most affective when it comes to OC'ing 4 cores. however if you are not going to OC a lot the pro 7 is the way to go

since you mentioned 3d rendering i would also say you would be better going fo rthe q6600 over the e8400 as it gives the added increase to multie tasking, if it was just for gaming i would have said the e8400 but definitely the q6600 for what you want to use it for

your PSU should be able to handle things however i would check what the out puts are on the rails against what is needed for the 8800gt

thanks for the advice all, Im switching to
OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model

i was having trouble weighing pros cons with the CPUs but I'm set on quad core now! Ill probably stick to a modest OC since I'm new to OC and I value stability over anything as this will be a mainly work computer. thanks all, off to order tonight!!