Hi, I'm looking at replacing my woefully obsolete (and now dead) computer. I game a lot, and have managed thus far not to spend too much money on it. Now I'm looking to build a new system (for the first time) and need some advice. Firstly, I'm willing to spend fairly big to get a high-end system which will last a while before I need to start upgrading. Secondly, I have no plans to oc in the near future. So stock performance is pretty important.

My possible build:

Q9650 CPU
WD Velociraptor HDD (2x?)
2x OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
Corsair HX 1000W
Cosmos S case, or maybe Antec 1200
Vista Ult 64 bit
Then my problems begin.

1. 2x GTX 280 (SLI) or 2x 4870X2 (CF)?

2. Probably going with an Asus Striker II Extreme mobo if I go nVidia, but what's the best mobo for CF? Must be DDR3 compatible, obviously.

3. I live in Australia and tend to move around a fair bit. Ambient temperatures can be high, and air-conditioning not a given. Should I try my hand at water-cooling? Is it really that hard? Is air-cooling good enough if I don't OC?

4. Should I bother with the Q9650, or go for the fastest duo-core I can get?

5. Will that Reaper cooling-pipe get in my way? I've heard that you can't put in more than 4gig of RAM on nVidia 790i chipsets because the cooling pipes get in the way. There's a picture of it here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Show [...] top+Memory Or should I just go for 1600 RAM?

Thanks guys. I'm excited, but don't want to f this up.

1. You can crossfire the HD4870X2's if you can afford it. The reason you're asking which card to go with is that you haven't seen the benchmarks of the games that interest you. Look them up.

2. Don't know about the best, but I'd go with the flagship of the mobo manufacturer. i.e. Foxconn BlackOps X48, GA-X48T-DQ6, DFI LANPARTY UT X48-T3R, MSI X48 Platinum ASUS P5E3 PREMIUM/WIFI-AP.

3. The stock cooler is fine for a stock pc. If you want quietness & low temps, look into a top cpu cooler like Xigmatek HDT-S1283.

4. Def. stick with Yorkfields which are cooler than Kentsfields. The Wolfdale is perfect for gaming and is cooler than Yorkie. If this is a solely gaming build, go with a dualie.

5. You don't need Reaper for a stock pc. Just get the cheap OCZ DDR3 which is standard size.