[Very First Build] help is appreciated

OK so first, im kinda new to all this building but after dealing with ignorant Customer service im deciding to forgo them


Ok to the important Stuff...

I've ALREADY purchased the following items, but i'd like to know if these are all good for an everyday machine with gaming/movie/music capabilities

Purchased

1.) Antec 900 two gaming case

2.) Samsung DVD Burner

3.) Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 SATA 3.0Gb/s 1000GB (1TB) 32MB Cache for Data

4.) Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATAII 7200RPM 32MB Cache for OS

5.) Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X4096-8500C5 Matched Pairs 4GB Kit

6.) Asus P5Q PRO Turbo Socket Mobo

7.) Corsair HX Series CMPSU-850HX 850W ATX EPS12V Power Supply

Planning on purchasing next

8.) Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 Quad-Core

9.) Asus ENGTS250 DK



Now those are the components ( and i have to admit, i got giddy and already got everything installed, just waiting for final things)
but I want your opinons, something i maybe should look at in future?
known issues?
Etc

Also to let you know Im planning on running vista home premium for now, and planning on using the upgrade offer to get Windows 7 for free.

Though im looking at a linux partition down the road, anything i sould look out for?


PS.... on the mother board there is an 8 power connecter near a corner, but 4 of the wholes are filled in.... do i plug in a full 8 pins from power supply or just plug four?

ALL HELP IS APPRECIATED

THANKS

well right now anything high then 1024X768 I run now.....

for now its a crt but im going to a HD LCD moniter... eventally

But yeah I've been told to go with 260 but is it more of a good upgrade?
Also I was thinking of getting an ATI alternative, due to crossfire support on my board (and lack of SLI board support)

and so your say.... if i can support it, use?

it wont...fry anything?

^ +1 on hunter315's...

If you are going to game and "general windows" activitives, I think you be better off with a higher clocked Core2 Dual over a lower speed Quad. Here is a good Core2 Dual .... Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 Socket LGA775, 2.93 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB, 3MB L2 Cache, 45nm (Retail Box) (BX80571E7500)

edit If you can budget in an E8xxx series Core2 Dual, I would recommend that over what I've picked.

If you aren't planning on doing major video / photo editing or encoding, the E8400 is the way to go. You will see a much better performance in gaming over the Q8xxx series Quad Cores. If you want a Quad, I would recommend the Q9550 but your cost goes up with that...

Yes... you can swap processers later...

You are safe... meaning it is okay to plug your 8-pin connector into the motherboard after you remove the cover over the other four pins...

The rule with crossfire is that they have to be similar cards, you can crossfire a 4830 with anything from the 48xx series but it will all get reduced to the lowest common denominator so if you have a 1 GB 4830 and a 512 MB 4870 it will give you crossfire equal to the performance of 2 512MB 4830s in crossfire because it reduces the clock speed of the fastest card to match the slowest card and both cards are restricted to the lowest amount of ram that either of the cards has.

Crossfire is compatible with far more boards than nVidia SLI is because SLI is licensed out so you can only SLI on nVidia chipsets or the X58 chipset for the i7, so if you want to consider going dual card in the future stick with ATI.

I know i cant use SLI but i thanks anyways

so would this video card be a good alternative to the Nvidea card?
http://canadacomputers.com/index.p [...] 99.243.272