Q9550 gaming PC

I have a few reservations.

First, I have the q9550, and I bought it in June of last year for less than the price offered today (229.00 instead of the current 274.00). Now I realize that this is what happens when newer tech becomes more available than the 775 socket, but still, don't buy that processor at that price, imo.

Second, I seriously doubt you need that water cooler. I have the Freezer Pro 7 (1st revision) and my q9550 is overclocked to 3.5Ghz with temps never going over 58-59 on full load. So just buy a cooler that is half the price and you're good to go (there's plenty of articles to look at on this), but just make sure it will fit on your mobo- on my p45 platinum the clearance was tight.

Third, I don't like micro ATX boards. There is a good deal on nforce 750i SLI EVGA "B-Stock" right now and I recommend you buy that board for 70 bucks.

The 5870 you linked is nice so go for it, but I don't think that you'll have adequate power with a 500w included psu with your case. Which leads me to my last point..

Buy a case separately from the psu. I have a coolermaster centurion 5 and while it's not the greatest, it's got plenty of room and i got it free shipping, no tax, on Amazon for 50 bucks. That's another thing, if you're in the US, buy your stuff on Amazon for no tax, no shipping (unless it's a good rebate deal somewhere else).

As for what I said about the processor, if you really want to go with it, then go with it, but I think you should scrap the whole build and go with an AMD Phenom setup.

Hope that helps.