Total newbie needs help

[whowhat]

Hey everyone, this is my first post here although I've been coming here for a while to just read and learn. I've built simple middle-of-the-road machines for friends and family before, but never anything with much performance. I'm putting together a new computer for myself and I need a little help. Proposed build:

Intel Q6700
ASUS P5K(3?) Deluxe
2 Seagate 500GB 7200 RPM SATA HDD
8800 GTS 640 MB 320bit
Creative X-Fi 7.1
NZXT ADAMAS Case
Corsair 520HX PSU
Zalman 9700 CPU Cooler (I plan to try my hand at overclocking the q6700 at some point)
Memory!?
Samsung DVD/CD/etc.

So my biggest question should be apparent: What to do about memory! I would like to build this sooner rather than later as my laptop is on its last legs. I don't know whether I should get DDR2 or DDR3 memory. Price isn't a huge concern, but I really would like to save money if I can. Should I go ahead and get a p5k3 and ddr3, or should I just get a good DDR2 system and upgrade my mobo/memory at a later date? It is my understanding that right now the top end DDR2 and DDR3 are more or less a wash. So basically I'm wondering about the future, whether DDR3 is going to outrun DDR2 in a matter of months, or will it be a lot longer? Also, if anyone sees any issues with this build please let me know, I am pretty new to the world of higher-performance computers so any input of any kind is appreciated.

[kenc51]

Go with DDR2 and save a ton of cash! There's very little performance gain when using DDR3, certainly nothing you'll notice in real world useage. You can get 4GB of DDR2 if you must have the performance and still save money ;)
AFAIK We're not going to see any real reason to switch to DDR3 till Q2 next year at least.

Good choice on the motherboard as well

Welcome to the Forums!

[whowhat]

Thanks for the help! While I'm on the topic, does anyone have recommendations for a case for this thing? I like the case I have listed but it was more or less a shot in the dark. I've heard the P182 is a good case as well. I want something that's modest (no big windows with tons of lights and crap), fairly user-friendly, has good airflow, and isn't enormous. If anyone has any tips/experience or whatever regarding cases I would really appreciate it. Oh, and my main higher-performance uses for this thing will be photoshop and solidworks CAD software, maybe some gaming here and there (although I'm really a console guy).

[Zertz]

Why not go for the Q6600, it's about half the price and they clock about the same. With the money you gain here, go for the 620HX or even a GTX instead of a 640GTS.

The Zalman is a good cooler, but the Thermalright 120.. ultra.. extreme.. whatever will perform a bit better.

But don't forget, heres alot of new stuff coming in the next few months; Penryn, Phenom, new nVidia/ATI cards...

[whowhat]

I heard the q6700 is a better overclocker, although like I said I'm new and just learning all of this. Is it really not worth it over the q6600? As for the new stuff coming out, isn't there always something new coming out to wait for? Or is this stuff especially revolutionary/worth the wait?

[Zertz]

Do you really need 100 more Mhz for double the price?

Penryn is basically a shrink of Conroe with SSE4 instructions and architecture improvements. Phenom... who knows, it might be worth the wait, Opteron CPUs based on the same core is supposed to be released early september so we'll know if AMD is taking over or if Intel is going for a monopoly. Rumors say the new nVidia cards are supposed to be up to 3 times faster than current generation. ATI... again, who knows... they better release something good.

New Intel chipset too, X38. So alot of high-end stuff due before Christmas.

[whowhat]

Thanks, I think the reason I was going to get the 6700 was the B3 vs G0 stepping, but the 6600s should all have G0 now too so that's not an issue anymore. As for the other stuff . . . I need this thing working before christmas so I guess I'll just have to go with what's available and maybe upgrade sometime down the road. It's not like this will be a weak system or anything
Thanks for all your help!

[Zertz]

Yeah, it's still a great rig, better than what alot, if not most, people own.

Also, unless you game at really... really... very... extremely high resolutions the 640MB isn't better than the 320MB.