Under $1600 Gaming PC - First Time Builder Needs Advice

Welcome to the forum!

I would recommend this RAM over the expensive dominators
OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage Desktop

this is a solid mobo (I don't place a high value on newegg reviews)
ASUS P6T SE LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel

You'll be fine with a 750W even if you crossfire
Antec TruePower New TP-750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC

I really like this HSF
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7 compatible RR-B10-212P-GP 120mm "heatpipe direct contact" Long life sleeve

Sorry, haven't heard of that website.

Yea, I'm starting to seriously consider buying another monitor to make my primary. Just taking a quick browse over the better monitors it would probably cost me somewhere in the vicinity of $200 CAD.

Now, I've decided to settle for a single WD 640GB HD which has saved me $80. Chances are by the time I fill it prices will have come down even more or something. The next thing I'm looking at is the RAM.

Wondering if someone could give me a rundown on my options here for RAM. I keep hearing that most games don't need more than 4GB, but I'm thinking a bit into the future and 6GB seems to be the sweet spot.

Swapped out the RAM for the OCZ Platinum. Been browsing this forum a lot over the past week and I see it being recommended a lot so I assume it's good quality stuff.

Now I'm wondering about the motherboard; I wanted to know from some people here whether or not it was a good one. I do plan on grabbing another 5850, and I haven't seen any complaints regarding positioning on it. If it checks out I'll probably grab the ram/mobo combo and mail-in rebates so the cost for it will be under $300 in the end.

The link in my sig shows how, it'll switch to the clickable link after you post it.

What exactly does the RAM latency mean to me in regards to what I'm doing on the computer?

The timings (latencies) refer to how many clock cycles it takes to access a block of data, lower numbers are better as it means you can access the data quicker, timings have more of a difference in performance than speed.

cause there the *** 4.0 OC stable FTW

Because of the socket...the 920 socket is 1366 which is more high end then the 1156 that the i7 860/870 use and the 920 is better when doing SLI/Crossfire because of higher bandwidth in the PCI-E Slots (or so i've heard) and new Intels hexacored i9's will be released for LGA 1366.

I just submitted my order for your shopping list minus the vid card and I chose the antec 900. I should have it in a week or so. I am a noob and plan on the same things you are. My bill cashed out at $1,177.00 USD including other websites. (It's how I justified the cooler.). I went with the 850w just to be sure it would last through a couple of builds. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I can let you know how everything works out. I did go with the Prolimatech Megahalems along with some inline auto speed controllers found here:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/ [...] rsion.html

running this

SILVERSTONE FM121-B 120mm Case Fan - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835220014

I'm not sure if they will be compatible but if I need to, in theory, I can push max 110cfm through the cooling fins.

I'll be using a pair of FREE GeForce 8700's for the time being. I want to see if Nvidia comes out with something worth the wait.

I think I get a total of $80-$100 USD worth of rebates as well.

Don't think it's out yet.

Yea... can't really get much better than that, but I'm really trying not to start ordering from a number of different sites due to shipping costs (on that site to Canada it's already over $100 and I don't even know if there will be a fee when it arrives). Actually that thing seems to be impossible to find inside of Canada (ncix is out of stock).

or this almost just as good but really cheap
http://www.heatsinkfactory.com/cog [...] -1366.html

Prolimatech Megahalems on back order. Bummer going to look for a new one.

no you wont 750w handles all of that easily

Well the only problem with that site is again, the international shipping...

I think I might just bite the bullet and order from that heatsinkfactory site, even if international will cost me. Question regarding the Mega Shadow page for ordering. First off when it says it comes with 2 sets of fan clips, does that just mean enough for 1 fan, or enough for 2? Secondly, does that page give me the option to customize which fans I want to order with it, or is it just the second fan I can order?

Also I've gone and tweaked some stuff up above. Decided to go with the Mushkin ram, and the 750W PSU (price change basically balanced out).

Was just thinking earlier, and had a general question. Is there a noticeable (not necessarily large, but noticeable) drop to hardware prices after the holidays?