I have to say, I almost want to get myself a copy of those parts you posted and make a computer myself.

"I would (personally) go for the core 2 quad at 2.4 ghz - instead of
the core2 duo."

I think it really depends on what you're doing. If you do a lot of multitasking, then the core 2 quad may be better, but if you're more of a hardcore gamer or don't like to run a bunch of crap in the background like myself, then you may want to stick with the core 2 duo.

With exception of that GFX card it looks relatively fine. Do you have surge protector?

Wasn't 7950 considerably better than 7900 GS? Note 7xxx series doesn't support GPU computing, so apply only if you plan upgrade after few years. 8600 GT/GTX is current middle range with Nvidia, 2600 PRO/XT is middle range with ATI. (If you work on Linux stay away from ATI.)

Grounding yourself by touching your PSU and avoiding to be charged again works reasonably well, you should just check if power outlet doesn't have ground exchanged for current by mistake. ~_^

And yes don't touch wires, or sensitive parts of mainboard/memory your fingers might look clean, however MB might thing otherwise.

BTW you have correct BIOS for your CPU right?

Well, it's really a matter of whether I want a $1200 system (what I listed) or a $1500 system (w/ quad core & 8800). I think both are really appealing options, but I have more reasons to save the $300 than splurge at the moment. That's just a personal thing based on my current situation.

7950 is better, but it's a $100 jump in price and I doubt it will make a difference in how long I will keep it anyways. Knowing me, chances are I'll upgrade for DX11 before I'll upgrade for performance reasons. :)

Mobo is designed for this CPU, so I hope I don't need to muck around with the BIOS much. I've got my laptop to grab an update off of if I need to, though. And you can be sure I'll come running back here if I'm confused :D

Think I'm gonna go ahead and start ordering, grab the strap and some ties. Thanks for your help everyone.

The BEST gaming card for the money right now is the nvidia 8800 GTS 320MB, but if you can't afford that the second best is the ATI X1950 Pro, and third the nvida 7950 GT.

If you are only running 1 monitor at 1280x1024 then the last gen choices (X1950 Pro and 7950 GT) are more than enough, period. If you are using 1600x1200 WITH full screen anti-aliasing or higher ... or want to play games like Supreme Commander on dual monitors, then the 8800 GTS 320 is the least that can do it.

I'm currently running an Old X800 and am quite happy, my next comp is going to be the Quad 6600 and the 8800 GTX with dual monitors ... cause SupCom is the game I play most right now.

I also recommend you go for a 600 or more watt PS (I'm looking in the 550 - 800 watt range myself - with 550-600 only for the best brands, and 650+ for less brands, but I must say power supply quality affects stability more than any other feature besides Motherboard / memory compatibility).

Hey,

I recently (1 week ago) bought a system almost exactly like that, except that I didn't get a DVD drive, and I settled for the PSU that came with the case (Antec...something or other, had good reviews, came with a 450W PSU).

I went for the Asus P5K mobo though, the one with the new P35 intel chipset, Supports 1333 Mhz FSB, and supports up to DDR2-1066. Also supports SLI if you want it, but that wasn't a concern for me, I could have gone with a cheaper board, but for $50 more with this it gives me a good future upgrade path.It also had good reviews.

I went with 2 GB OCZ Gold RAM.
GPU: EVGA 7900 GS KO 256MB GDDR3
Core2Duo E6550(this was cheaper than the E6400, was around $200 or so). I decided not to go for the quad core right now since it was $331, and not worth it just yet. but this lets me upgrade in the future if I need to. the C2D's have good overclockability so i'd say go for the lowest one you can get with 4MB L2 cache and just overclock it, better bang for your buck.

I believe I also got the same HDD as you.

I bought all this for $950 from www.directcanada.com , and shipping was free.

Hey, great minds think alike :)

Well I already went and ordered, so as nice as the P5K looks with the faster RAM support it's a bit late to switch. Anyways, that's a crossfire board not SLI so I would've lost the option to throw in another 7900 next year.

And holy crap directcanada is so awesome when you live near their warehouses. Took them one day to process the order and then I got overnight shipping on the first batch of stuff (free!).

Stuck here with all the parts except the video card (apparently I got one of the last ones, and it had to be shipped in from Toronto). But I went ahead and hooked up the rest of the system. Didn't have any major problems aside from a couple bonehead mistakes (ie. putting in the CPU cooler before the PSU, which didn't leave enough room to actually get the PSU by. Duh).

Jumpers for the case lights/buttons were confusing me, then I found out the case uses a 2-pin power LED instead of the 3 pins my motherboard wanted and it started to make sense. However, I am tragically disappointed that I cannot have a fully functioning and completely useless power LED. The 3 pin format doesn't even use 3 pins! It's just 2 pins with an empty space in-between! Upsetting.

And until the video card gets here I can't even test to see if the rest works because I have no monitor hook up. Bah! Stupid Toronto, always messing things up.