Item Name URL Price (June 19/08)
Intel Core2 Quad Q9450 (Retail Box) http://www.canadacomputers.com/ind [...] cid=CPU.84 $391.99
Asus P5QE Motherboard http://www.canadacomputers.com/ind [...] cid=MB.157 $176.99
OCZ 4GB (2x2) 800MHZ Reaper DDR2 Ram http://www.canadacomputers.com/ind [...] AM.346.307 $82.99
OCZ 4GB (2x2) 800MHZ Reaper DDR2 Ram http://www.canadacomputers.com/ind [...] AM.346.307 $82.99
Thermaltake 500 Watt Power Supply http://www.canadacomputers.com/ind [...] cid=PS.808 $44.99
Antec Nine Hundred Gaming Case http://www.canadacomputers.com/ind [...] cid=CS.664 $99.99
Western Digital Caviar 750GB Hard Drive http://www.canadacomputers.com/ind [...] HD.443.877 $136.99
EVGA Ge-Force 9600 SSC Video Card http://www.canadacomputers.com/ind [...] 99.243.390 $159.99
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer http://www.canadacomputers.com/ind [...] cid=SC.483 $94.99
Zalman CNPS-8700 LED CPU Cooler http://www.canadacomputers.com/ind [...] cid=FN.349 $58.99
Samsung SyncMaster 20'' Wide LCD Monitor http://www.canadacomputers.com/ind [...] cid=MT.258 $219.99
LG GSA-H62N Black SATA DVD Burner http://www.canadacomputers.com/ind [...] cid=CR.184 $29.99
Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 4000 http://www.canadacomputers.com/ind [...] PE.979.123 $58.99
Microsoft Windows Vista x64 Ultimate Edition http://www.canadacomputers.com/ind [...] cid=SW.815 $217.99

Subtotal $1,857.86
Taxes (13%) $241.52

Total $2,099.38


How about that, a pretty solid computer for gaming and video encoding!

I'd suggest you get a different graphic card - for instance: Radeon 4850 (costs 160€ and performs the same as 9800 GTX for 320€)
-Change the cooler for Scythe Mugen
-Buy Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit ENG (save some $$$ for unnecessary applications, unless you're going to use'em)
-Buy better power supply (600W or 650W) - won't cost you much more

Swop the cooler for a Xigmatek HDT-S1283. The one you listed haven't got the best reputation afaik.
Oh, and people say you need the retention bracket kit for the Xigmatek cooler.

Edit: patrikkogoj beat me to it. Totally agree on the gpu part btw.

You're going to spend that much on a chip and not get a better cooler for it? Why not get a Q9300 and get a better graphics card? 8800GTs are still better than the 9600GT, and worth the money. Just wait until the 9800 GTX+ comes out.

Another thing; while that PSU is a good brand I would get one with a single 12V rail so you get more amps for your GPU in particular. I like the Corsair ones.

@patrikkogoj
The Radeon 4850 costs about $100 more.
Vista Home Premium 64 bit would be a good choice, $100 cheaper.
Bigger power supply would indeed be good

@twattle
Yeah, I really need to change the cooler.

@TheKingBoar
9800 GTX are out, but they are very expensive. The cheapest one I found cost $278.99 (w/ CoD4)

@twattle
This single 12V rail, would it have any performance impact on the gpu?

@everyone
I'm not building this PC, I was just checking what's out right now. Found this nice thing for $2100 and wanted to see what you think about it. Thanks for the quick replies!

+1 for Xigmatek cooler
+1 for better PSU

Antec, Seasonic, Corsair, Enermax, or PC Power and Cooling would be the best units to buy. More specific recommendations can be made if necessary.

I don't understand the 8GB and X-FI. If this is a gaming rig I'd drop those (use onboard and 4GB) and buy a much better graphics card and a better power supply to run it.

There's a link in the news section that says nVidia will be lowering the price of the 9800GTX to 199.99. And if you remember an article a while back, you'd get more performance out of buying a cheaper CPU (Q660 or Q9300 are excellent choices) and buying a more expensive graphics card.

Sexy monitor you got there.

Get Asus EN9600GT Silent, it's 0dba and it keeps under 60C under full load (58C).
Make sure your case has some sort of airflow, Antec 900, your case temps will probably lower than those. 43C idle compared to 35C using stock fan.

X-Fi XtremeGamer is really nice, but you want a decent speaker system for it, 2.1 or better. You really want good bass.

Just to point something out, there is a fairly big diff in prices for eletronics in Canada (even thought the dollars are dancing around the parity line) so the 199$ for the 9800 could become as much as 30-40$ more Canadian.

Isn't Canadian Dollar worth same as American?

It's roughly about the same, but as jonyb222 said, there is a fairly big price difference for electronics in Canada, most of the time it's a bit more expensive, but sometimes you may pay the same price or even less.

@pcgamer12

Yeah, the monitor is a fine piece of work.
Asus EN9600GT Silent. Looks like a good card, also the lower noise would make gaming more enjoyable

@everyone else
A lot of you have been talking about dropping the processor for a better graphics card...after doing a bit of reading, I completely agree with you all. I could buy a c2q Q6600 and overclock it to 3.0+GHZ (with a good cpu cooler) and it would get better performance than the q9450 for a lot less ($160 cheaper). With that, i can invest in a better card like the Asus EN9600GT Silent that pcgamer12 suggested and a better cooler like many of you have suggested.

It totally depends where you shop in Canada, if you happen to be a reseller in Canada, you can grab prices that either match the U.S. price or lower. Just so you know, you can get a better price for that cpu at infonec.