Legit Reviews

1 AMD 64 x2 4400 2.2ghz $460 (this is the ones I want due to 2mb)

2 ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce SPP 100 ATX AMD Motherboard $225 (seems like the best MB out there, I like Asus)

3 OCZ Gold 2 x 1 GB PC4000 DDR RAM $240 (seems to have best timing and mhz also seems better than the pc 3200 for the future)

4 eVGA 256-P2-N517-AX Geforce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card x2 $550 Core clock: 450MHz Memory Clock: 1100MHz

4.5 eVGA 256-P2-N529-AX Geforce 7800GTX 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card $489 Core clock: 490MHz Memory Clock: 1300MHz
(I'm still not sure which to go with, 2 gt or 1 gtx. I'm not sure which is better for gaming and I can't afford 2 gtx...so help me out here)

5 Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200KS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive $135 (chose this for the 16mb cache, other choice is the raptor 150 at $286, faster but could I tell a big difference? )

6 NZXT LEXA-NP Black/ Silver Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $120 (picked this one because it has 3 120mm fans and a 80 mm fan)

7 ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT ATX12V 500W Power Supply, Efficiency: 80%, Hold-up Time: 17ms at 115VAC or 230VAC, full load $110 (seemed like one of the better psu at 80% eff)

8 Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS SB0350 Sound Card $50 (7.1)

9 Creative Inspire P7800 90 Watts 7.1 Speaker $86

10 Some kind of Liquid cooling system $100 (do they make a system that will cool both cpus and both video cards? would like to keep it about 100 Maybe Thermaltake big water?)

11 DVD drive, DVD burner, floppy, cables $100

If I go with the dual video cards, my total is $2066 plus shipping and any misc things I've missed. The things I need to know are: Is everything I picked compatible with each other? Is there anything I picked that have problems or I need a different brand? Is there anything better I can get for my money? Is there anything I can cut/switch brands to save money without hurting the performance of the system? Is there anything I'm missing?

These prices are from newegg and I havn't checked ebay, but I'm a bit scared of ebay for expensive parts (esp after the telescope story).

Thanks for reading this and offering any answers or options (believe me I need both badly!). Please please please let me know what you think if you have a minute. Thanks again everyone!

2 7800 GT's in SLI will perform beter then 7800 GTX the vast majority of the time. However I would get the 7800 GTX, because it can currently run any game out there on highest settings with great FPS. This would give you the option to get another 7800 GTX in a year or 2 and go SLI when the prices for the 7800 gtx drop between 150-300 dollars.

But if you plan on getting a completely new card in 1-2 years, I'd go with 7800 GT's.

when you plan to buy it? if you can wait, wait till summer when amd release am2 (new socket)

looking at the specs, it looks like a great system

If I would suggest change would go with new x-fi sound card than the soundblaster 2.

as for the vid card, I would probably go with SLI and go with the cheaper one among the 2 you choose.

1. You have to ask yourself: Do you really need this much power? Not a single game can utilize that much CPU power unless you play 63 bots in Battlefield2, or do some SERIOUS video editing work. A 3800+ would probably handle everything you need.

3. If you plan on doing some serious CPU overclocking, it's good memory, but if not it's a waste because they generally provide no noticable performance boost over "Value" series products. The money would be better put towards the graphics card.

4. With current drivers, the X1800XTs are a little better than the 7800GTX's in performance/price, the downside to that is the X1800XT's dual-slot fan is quite loud compared to the 7800 single-slot fans. I suppose you could get an X1800XT and just buy an ATI Silencer, but then you can kiss that warranty goodbye.

This also depends heavily on what kind of monitor you'll be using. If it's just a 1280x1024 LCD, stick to a single 7800GT and just get another when or if you really need it.

5. Might save you a few seconds on boot or when loading games, but I doubt the time saved is worth the price.

6. Not my place to make aesthetics judgements, but that IS going to be a loud case.
Considered looking into a Sonata II?

7. If it's high efficiency you want, take a look at some Seasonic PSU reviews. Near 99% efficiency on most models, so they save a lot of electricity and stay very cool.

10. Try increasing that number fivefold.

SAMSAMHA:
I've read about the new am2 socket but I wonder how much the price will be? I'm wanting to buy it now lol, I suppose I can wait but I'm kinda at the extent my wife will let me spend on a computer

Zeratul:
I suppose I would be ready in a couple years to buy new cards. My current computer is running the "state of the art 5900" lol, that lasted about 2 months lol, but I'm still using it, so sounds like I should go with the sli set up.

Kerii:
1 I play DAoC and Wow with bots on one computer (using 3 different accounts and switching back and forth) plus when multitasking, it's not uncommon for me to have 10 windows open and I get frustrated right now waiting for the to come up, that's why I was going with the bigger cpus.
3 I probably won't overclock the ram at all since I'm not sure on how to do that yet, but I am learning lol. So I should just go with the PC3200 ram then hun?
4 The video card is my main mystery. I'm not sure what is best. I have an ati in one of my computers and I hate it, but it was probably a cheap old one when I bought it. I kinda like nvidia (since I personally havn't had any problems with one) but that can be misguiding. The monitor that I will be using is a dell 24" that I will be getting off of ebay, hopefully about 680 or so. That's why I was thinking sli would be better, but I'm just not sure honestly.
5 ok, I'll go with the regular 320 gig hard drive, which is what I was leaning towards.
6 Yep, I know it will be loud, I was under the impression that you had to go loud to go cool. Is the Sonata II (which I like the looks of) air capacity enough for the system I'm trying to build? Up until I started reading these forums, I thought a case was just to hold the stuff, didn't understand airflow and all that. Now I'm trying to figure which case will give me enough air flow. The sonata is like 50 bucks cheaper too, let me know if the sonata will be enough air flow, I figured noise would have to be put up with to get cool.
7 Seasonic? I will look it up on newegg, I'm not familiar with that brand. I was wanting to stay around 100 for the psu, so price is an issue on the psu, since I figured I can save some money as long as it's effecient and of somewhat good quality to handle this system.
10 500 bucks for water cooling? Do I have to figure in that much? Is there anything good I can use for the 100 price or maybe 175 ish? I would like it to cool both cpu and both video units, is 500 the cheapest I can go to get good cooling? Let me know please. Thanks

Thank you all for commenting! This is really helping me, since I don't know too much about high end components and systems. I just want it to do anything I want at the highest rates for the cheapest money (and yes I did see a pig fly lol). Thanks again everyone!

4. You mean the Dell 2405FPW? Well, I guess if you really only play MMORPGs then a single 7800GT or 7800GTX would be enough.

A couple review sites used WoW for a little while when it was released and posted numbers around 55~FPS at 1600x1200 max detail on a 6800GT. I assume it would be safe to say you could get similar performance from a 7800GT at 1920x1200, if the game supports that resolution.

6. http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=15139
Looks well ventilated to me, and has a fanduct for the CPU/GPU.

I think madshrimps did a review for it a while back, quite favorable too.

7. Here's a good calculator you can use:
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp
There's nothing worse than bulding a $2000 system only to have it blow up because you skimped $50 on the PSU.
I'd try to keep the max utilization below 80% of the PSU's rating just to be on the safe side.

10. For a pre-built ready to go system, yes. You could do it yourself for cheaper, though it might not be as professional looking.