First build (help please)

Whats your budget? Where are you buying from? And no do not get that PSU, get this one instead(someone screwed up newegg pricing so the 550 costs the same as the 650)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139005

More than enough amps on the 12 Volt rail

get a P6T instead of that EVGA board, it's cheaper and you don't need the extra's that EVGA gives you.

swap the PSU as said to a PCP&C or corsair 750w.

get a 4890 instead of the GTX 260 or get a standard clocked 260.

Oh, and lastly, SLI with a card bought at this time is pointless, since you're spending money on technology that will be obsolete in a few months time. The ATi DX11 cards come out around October with about GTX 295 power in a single GPU at current GTX 275 prices.

Thanks for the quick responses guys, really appreciate it.

So this seems to have turned out better and a bit cheaper:

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives - OEM
Item #: N82E16822136284

Acer H233Hbmid Black 23" 5ms HDMI Full HD 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail
Item #: N82E16824009162

XFX HD-489A-ZDFC Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814150359

Kingston FCR-HS219/1 19-in-1 USB 2.0 Card Reader - Retail
Item #: N82E16820134753

Rosewill RTK-002 Anti-Static Wrist Strap - Retail

OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G1600LV6GK - Retail
Item #: N82E16820227365

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders - OEM
Item #: N82E16832116488

COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail
Item #: N82E16835103055
LG Black Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16X DVD±R DVD Burner SATA Model GGC-H20L - Retail
Item #: N82E16827136133

Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail
Antec CP-850 850W Continuous Power CPX SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC "compatible with ... - Retail

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD4P LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

So, how does THIS sound?? Now, with this being said - I shouldn't need anything else correct. The above listed (excluding mouse and keyboard) should allow me to boot up and begin running programs? I don't need any more fans, tools, duck tape, etc.??

Thanks again for the replies,

swap the antec 1200 for the P193 if they have a combo of the PSU and case since the P193 looks a bit more normal and has more space inside.

Yes burn Windows 7 to DVD to install it.

Now I realize that the newest editions of Vista come WITH a free upgrade to Windows 7, so that might actually be the better option. Not sure when this started, maybe today?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6832116677


Yes, you need thermal paste. The stock cooler has paste pre-applied, but the Xigmatek does not. It goes in-between the cooler and the CPU, to fill in the microscopic air pockets that reduce heat transfer. Only a VERY small amount is used.

Something like this is pretty accurate:


I have an old post over in another section that talks about applying paste to a HDT cooler (I use an older version of the Xigmatek.) If you scroll down you'll see a post detailing how I applied Arctic Silver 5... MX-2 would be similar. Look for green text.:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] 1283-e8400