Alright, first off I'm a completely new to building computers, this is my first time and I'd like to see anyone's opinions on what I chose (and perhaps some advice for when I start putting everything together.)

Here's what I have so far:


Case: Antec Sonata III 500 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply (Link)

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (Link)

RAM: Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model BL2KIT25664AL804 (Link)

Mobo: ASUS P5K DELUXE/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard (Link)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model HH80562PH0568M (Link)

GFX: XFX GeForce 8800 GTS Video Card - Alpha Dog Edition, 512MB DDR3, PCI Express 2.0, SLI Ready, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV (Link)

I'm buying the OEM cpu, so I also need a heatsink and a fan. I was looking at the COOLER MASTER GeminII (Link), but I'm not sure what fan I'd use nor if it would actually fit (it's quite large.) How do I go about making sure I have the right fit, or does anyone have a better choice?

The system is going to be used mostly for gaming (nothing extreme, just some WoW and Lineage, other games like that.) Thanks for looking!

Very impressive, althought you can get a 9800 and a much higher end core2duo instead if ur not on much of a budget.

Modern games can't really take advantage of 4 cores so just get a really high end core2uo instead. 9800 is a very good card imo and you can find it for <200 on tigerdirect.

Hmm, if money isn't a problem get a P45 based mobo, a 4850 or 9800gtx (both have lots of specials and rebates these days) and a q9300 or q9450 cpu. Why do you need a wifi motherboard? Not one to believe the user reviews on newegg, but they say the geminii is hard to instal. Ram is fine, psu looks fine...

Great case and power supply.
I'd change the RAM to (cheaper)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820146731
Change motherboard to this Asus P45 (same price)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131299
change graphic card to this HD4850 (cheaper)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814129112
Cooler and bracket
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233003
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233019
good luck
*edit* i really like the Sonata case since it's a very nice quiet case, but it's not the best case for cooling. Just something to keep in mind.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. As for the graphics card I don't mind the price, but after reading 8800 vs 4850, it seems the 4850 is doing better, so I suppose I'll switch those two.

I also read up the differences between Mushkin and Crucial and it seems people prefer Crucial (like I said money isn't a big worry so far) but if there's no real difference other than the price I don't mind going for Mushkin.

Thanks for the heatsink suggestion - do I need to get a fan? Or is a sink enough?

And the setup is going in my room, so I was recommended the Sonata since it is quiet. However had another friend who recommended getting Cooler Master 690, which seems to be a lot better for cooling but not as quiet.

On the CPU: the Q9450 is a lot more expensive than the Q6600, and I'm not sure I'd end up really using it anyways so I doubt I'll opt for that. Anyone have an opinion on the Q6700?

Q6700= waste

If you overclock go Q6600 otherwise Q9300.

Don't think I'll go with the Q9300, not that much faster than the 6600 and it has a 6mb cache compared to 6600's 8mb. I don't know how to overclock though, may look into once I've set everything up.

As for mobos, anyone know of a cheaper P35? I decided I don't need the P45 nor the deluxe p35 from Asus. Someone recommended a Gigabyte DS3, but it's not available on newegg, so I was looking at the DS3R or DS3L (leaning towards the DS3R atm.) Or maybe just one of the cheaper Asus P35's...

Anyone have any opinions on any of these? Or perhaps another suggestion.

Like infinitywraith mentioned, for gaming high-end Core2Duo's are better bang-for-your-buck than the Q6600. Atleast for now. Games don't take advantage of mulit-cores yet. Quad-cores only really start to shine in multitasking environments.

I think everyone kinda assumes that game programers will eventually start taking advantage of the quad's, but they haven't yet. So the question you need to ask yourself is whether you want better performance now and for the near future and then upgrade to a quad later on, or if you'd rather sacrifice some performance now and get something that won't need to be upgraded as quickly.

Well, games aren't the only thing I'm thinking about. What about the overrall performance of the CPU? And when you say multitasking what do you mean...like, having 20 applications open at the same time?

Yeah, that would be considered multitasking. Video editing is probably the most common example. AFAIK, currently games only take advantage of a single processor core and your OS takes advantage of the other (someone please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm far from an expert). So if you're only really interested in gaming performance, high-clocked dual-cores are better than low-clocked quad-cores. But if you're going to be doing video editing or running a million different programs at the same time, the quad-core is definitely a better choice.

If you're not going to multi-task, your $190 would give alot better performance going towards a 3.0GHz 45nm E8400 Wolfdale than the 2.4GHz 65nm Q6600 Kentsfield.

But eventually games will start taking advantage of quad-core architecture. So the question you have to ask yourself is how willing are you to upgrade in the not so distant future versus how willing are you to sacrifice gaming performance in the present?

I think that I'll go with the Q9450 Yorkfield. I'm not going to be playing games like Crysis, so I'm not too worried about the performance with the games I do play. However I do end up running a ton of programs so I think quad core is the way to go. Even if I did play games such as those I think I'd sacrifice performance now. No use buying something if I'll end up upgrading it in the near (or not so near) future.

Now I just need to find a not-so-expensive mobo for the Q9450. Suggestions anyone?