Hello, this is going to be my first attempt at building a system. I would like to spend around 2000$ and get a great gaming rig, but I can add 100$ or two if needed. So, I have some questions to ask:

1) I planned to get the new GTX 280 x1, but are they worth the price over a 9800 x2?
2) Would a quad core or dual core get me better performance in games and at what GHz?
3) Is a 1200w PSU overkill for a single GTX 280 and can I run two on a 1000w PSU if I decide to SLI for future releases?
4) What would my framerates be in games like: CCS, TF2, WOW, Crysis. and upcoming games (I'm going to use my HDTV that is capable of 1080i as my main monitor).

As of right now, this is what I'm planning to go with.

Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811156191

MOBO
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813188025

CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115043

CPU FAN (Going to try and get the CPU up to 4.0)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835186134

RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820227297

GPU (only one ATM)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130367

HDD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136178

PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817159067

Disk Reader
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827136133

HDMI to DVI cable for my TV
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6812189056


It would be greatly appreciate if you guys can check over my build to see if it is all good and get me some advice on my questions.

1) I would wait a week or two to see how well crossfire HD 4780 works. The motherboard choice also depends on this (you want a X48 board for crossfire).
2) Looks like you have the money for a fast quad core so go for that. Pick the Q9450.
3) 1200W is overkill. Get a Corsair 750TX or 1000HX, should be plenty of power.
4) Can't really say, but it won't get much better

As I said you might wanna change the board with the GPU's, time will tell. At least you get better performance out of a single GPU with the intel chipset and then theres the possibility of going crossfire.

CPU: Q9300 --> Q9450.

For cooling get these three bits:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233003
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233019
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835186020

If you go for a X48 board you need DDR2 ram also.

This HDD is faster: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 822148288R

My two cents.

I believe the Duos are actually still performing better for current games, although games in the next couple of years are likely to make more efficient use of the Quads. I am building a gaming rig right now myself and intend to get the E8500 Duo and O/C to 4.1 GHz.