Due to circumstances beyond my control, I find myself with a nifty little GPU - NVIDIA's GeForce 9800 GX2. I'd love to make the most of it, but my current hardware just can't support it, so I've decided it's about time for my 5 year upgrade. So, I'm building a rig, something I've never done before. I'd appreciate any and all help with potential snafus in my proposed setup, as well as suggestions for anything I may be missing, alternative parts, etc. Here's my current shopping cart at Newegg: MSI P7N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2RPR800C44GK - Retail Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM Vista Home Premium 64bit Thermaltake Toughpower W0172RU 850W ATX12V / EPS12V LG Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model XCLIO Windtunnel Fully Black Finish 1.0 mm SECC Chassis ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail Scythe SCINF-1000 120mm CPU Cooler - Retail SILVERSTONE FM123 120mm Case Fan - Retail (x 2) Thermal Paste Rosewill RTK-045 45 Piece Premium Computer Tool Kit - Retail Now, this all comes to $1,223.88 - $75 in rebates = $1,115.90 $1,148.88, which was around my target of $1,000. This also doesn't include a graphics card (already have it, see above) or monitor (I'll either be using my existing LCD or HDTV for a while until a spectacular deal on an HDMI LCD turns up somewhere), which is why it's remotely feasible for me. So: will these parts play nicely with each other? Would another part play more nicely than a current one? Am I trying to play basketball with 4 players? I think I've done my research, but I may be missing something. Many thanks-yous! -jouley [Edited to reflect current revision - currently only $30 above my first version, but I added 2 case fans, quad core, better memory, and a better HD.] [Edited by - jouley on June 5, 2008 3:34:41 PM]

I'd switch from the seagate drive to Samsungs F1 series. Their platters are dense in those models which allows for very nice throughput considering their rpm.
Other than that everything looks nice.
If you want to do raid in the future i'd buy a raid controller though. I've used the onboard raid controller that is listed for your motherboard choice, and it is so-so. But the motherboard is fine, the raid controller is just low end (but its onboard, so to be expected).

Quote: Original post by Jarrod1937
I'd switch from the seagate drive to Samsungs F1 series. Their platters are dense in those models which allows for very nice throughput considering their rpm.
Other than that everything looks nice.
If you want to do raid in the future i'd buy a raid controller though. I've used the onboard raid controller that is listed for your motherboard choice, and it is so-so. But the motherboard is fine, the raid controller is just low end (but its onboard, so to be expected).

Good call on the RAID controller, I'll probably make that decision when I decide to step it up. At that point, I'll definitely give the Samsungs a look-see. As it is, my shipment is in transit, probably in Oklahoma or somewhere by now.
Thanks!