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I will be in the market to purchase a new gaming box in the next month or so. I checked out the prebuilt stuff but I think I can do it cheaper and better myself . I haven't built a computer in eight years though. My tentative budget is around $2000 for everything. I have never overclocked a thing in my life so I'm a little hesitant to do so. I'm a OC noob so I guess it's something I need to read up on before diving into it.

A lot has changed hardware-wise since I last cracked a case for a build. My googlefu led me to some of the more recent "help me build a gaming rig" threads here (phenominal advice from the forum members btw) and I have composed the below list of items (previously recommended to another poster by Rage_3K_Moiz) to purchase. I'm still a few weeks away from having the moola but I wanted to see if you guys see anything that I can tweak/change. Any input is appreciated.

CASE: Antec 900 ($120)
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply - Retail ($120 >mir)
MOBO: ASUS P5E LGA775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard Retail ($225)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400 - Retail ($195)
CPU COOLER: ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 120mm 2-ball UFO Bearing / Transparent CPU Cooler - Retail ($40 >mir)
MEMORY: X2 - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2-1066 CL5-5-5-15 Dual Channel Kit Retail BL2KIT12864AA1065 ($100 >mir for 4GB total)
GPU: XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB 2x256bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP & SLI Ready Video Card Retail PVT98UZHF9 ($520 >mir)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM ($100 >mir)
MONITOR: 2253BW Black 22" 2ms(GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor with HDCP Support 300 cd/m2 DC 8000:1 - Retail ($270 >mir)
KEYBOARD: Undecided
MOUSE: Undecided
MISC: Undecided

All items tentatively priced from newegg for a total of $1690. I know I can get some of the components cheaper (i.e. case from Amazon) but I just wanted a ball park tally while I decide on the specific components. Some of the prices are listed after the mail in rebate (mir).

NOTE: I have a copy of XP Pro for right now and I already have a DVD+RW drive. I'm not 100% sold on Vista at the moment so I'll wait before shelling out more money on another OS.

I've read some of the reviews for the Antec 900 and they mention space issues for some of the video cards. Does anyone know for a fact if the GeForce 9800 GX2 will have problems fitting in the case?

You are probably refering to my build. I have the two front mounted fans installed along with the top fan and I installed one side fan on the plexiglass side. The builder had to remove the braket and fan in the middle because the video card did't have enough clearance. So in total four fans, and one in the Psu and it runs very cool. I wouldn't change anything it is super fast, cool and suprisingly quiet. I played two hours of COD and none of the fans had to speed up to cool. The only things I did different than you is I added 4X1GB ram and I used a 1000 watt PSU. I don't think you need 1000W but I wasn't going to argue with the builder.

As for Vista 64 bit I was really concerned that I may have made a mistake since I heard so many negative things about the program, but I have to tell you it has worked flawlessly and my printer and scanner hooked right up without any problem. The one problem that I have is my wifes invoicing program doesn't work with 64 bit Vista, but it will work with 32 bit Vista. If you have any important programming that you need to run and you are stuck on using that brand you better make your OS a priority. Get this computer build and you wont be unhappy. Just don't tell anyone what you have I don't need any more competition on COD. Good luck I'm sure others will chime in and help you. The Antec 900 will work.

If it were possible I'd replace that CPU with the slightly faster E8500 for a superior OC.
The 9800GX2 will be a tight fit in that case and may heat things up in there, for the worse. I'd recommend getting a bigger case.
For your mouse, pick one that is comfortable to use for long periods of time. For the keyboard, any will do, although I'd recommend staying away from those curved keyboards, since they make typing a chore.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

I have a 9800gx2 in the antec 900 and its not a problem. It fits well enough without a squeeze.

To throw in some doubt though (just to make it interesting for you) I haven't stress-tested my machine yet, so can't speak truly for overheating, but I really doubt you (and me) would have problems, antec is a very cool case.

Mako - Glad to hear that your new box is up and running fine. I based my tentative build on the recommendations made in your previous thread.

Rage/SittingDuckie - Thanks for the input. I may bump up the processor to the E8500. I'm interested to see how your stress test went though

mm, I'll let you know in a week (the reason why is a long story...)

Why four 1 GB modules instead of two 2 GB? Then you could buy another 2 x 2 in the future.

You need the four 1 GB because crucial does'nt make a single 2 GB that would be compatible with that motherboard. Hows that Rage? I'm learning for an old man.

Not really, they do make a 4GB kit that's compatible, but it's an ordinary RAM kit that is not really suited for use in gaming systems unlike the Ballistix kit.
The fact is, Crucial doesn't make any 2GB DDR2 1066MHz Ballistix modules. They only make ordinary 2GB DDR2 modules at those speeds which are rated at 1.8V and have a CAS Latency of 7, compared to the Ballistix's rated voltage of 2.2V and CL of 5. This makes them a poor choice for a high-end system IMO.
I'd always go for the Ballistix modules for this reason and advise others to do the same. Besides, it's not like you'd really need more than 4GB of RAM at the moment and the 4GB kit is almost double the price of two of those 2GB kits.

I'm not 100% up to speed on crossfire and SLI configurations but I have been trying to read up on the topic and I have a quick question. I checked the manufacturer's specs on the ASUS P5E LGA775 mobo and I noticed that it supports crossfire but I don't see anything that states that it supports SLI. I know that the video card that I selected (GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB) is a more high end one and I shouldn't need anything else for a while. However, am I limiting my upgrade options down the road by not being able to use two video cards?

Of course you're limiting your ability to upgrade to 2 cards, unless you're an AMD fanboy that is...

Found this on wikipedia:

ATI has opened the Crossfire architecture to Intel, allowing CrossFire to be enabled on certain Intel chipsets which boast two 16x PCI-E slots. SLI, however, requires a motherboard which is SLI certified (usually based on nForce chipset, such as the nForce 590 SLI and nForce 680i SLI).

If I'm interpreting that correctly, thats a negative. I wish someone had pointed this out to me when I bought a p5e3 and a geforce9800gx2

No. SLI and Crossfire are useful only for system with monitors that are able to run resolutions in excess of 1600x1200, since dual-GPU performance gains are most significant at these resolutions. Beyond that, it's a waste. Two video cards also require more power and produce more heat than a single more powerful video card. So there will always be a single card that is able to perform on par (or possibly higher than) with a dual-GPU solution, so you're not really limiting your upgrade options in any way IMO.
Also, dual-GPU performance is problematic with new games, so if you buy games as soon as they're released, SLI is not a great option. BioShock is a notorious example of this. It's your choice though. If you want to go SLI, the MSI P7N SLI is a good choice.

That begs a potentially stupid question. Why even go down the duo-gpu route then? Increased heat, no guarentee to increase performance in less than ideal circumstances, etc. I'm a total crossfire/sli noob but I'm trying to read up on the topic so please bear with me. It just seems that more and more new pcs are being built with this configuration in mind.

Bragging rights mainly, as well as faster performance when using extremely high resolutions like 1920x1200. Also, bear in mind that dual-GPU performance gains are present, but it doesn't deliver the 100% boost in performance you'd theoretically expect. This is basically useless IMO. Also, a dual-GPU, single card solution like the 9800GX2 doesn't need an SLI-enabled motherboard unlike two 8800GTSs, which provide the same amount of pixel-pushing power as the 9800GX2.

Because at higher resolutions SLI increases performance by a fair gap of FPS. Many benchmarks show SLI improving gameplay in 1440+ resolutions, I noted an extra 15 FPS myself having two GT in SLI in some games.

If you have two GTS in SLI for instance, they equal the GX2 at a much cheaper price, etc. Not to mention I am going to attach LCS to my two GTS in SLI, meaning heat won't be a problem at all and I can overlock them even more.

So SLI is mostly a system for enthusiasts. But also, if you already have a GT or GTS say, and you want more video power, but don't wanna have to pay a hefty price for a new top card, buying a second GT/GTS will increase your performance to possibly match it and you didn't have to spend much.

It's like overclocking a cheap CPU to match the high-end ones, same principle.

Not really, since you do pay more for a good SLI board as opposed to one with a single PCI-E slot. That basically negates the price difference between the cards. For an example, two eVGA 8800GTS 512MB cards cost about $480 after rebates on Newegg, while a 9800GX2 from the same company costs $500 after rebate. The MSI P7N, one of the more affordable and recent SLI motherboards, costs about $150 compared to the Gigabyte P35-DS3L, which has only one PCI-E slot. The price difference between the cards after rebate is relatively small, but after you factor in the motherboard, it becomes larger.
Also keep in mind that SLI causes poor performance on newly-released games, which usually needs a patch or two to fix. BioShock and Crysis are examples of this. So if you're into buying new games as soon as they're released, I'd advise against SLI.

Yeah but if you bought a SLI board and had it for a long time, then it doesn't negate the price at all. I can get a SLI board for $150 here, that's the same price as a P35 board, so it's not expensive at all. 750i costs $250, same cost as X38 - so it doesn't negate the price at all in that respect.

Must be Australia then. Here, two GTS cost $450, and a GX2 costs $800. So it's much, much cheaper to own two GTS here.

Yeah but if you bought a SLI board and had it for a long time, then it doesn't negate the price at all. I can get a SLI board for $150 here, that's the same price as a P35 board, so it's not expensive at all. 750i costs $250, same cost as X38 - so it doesn't negate the price at all in that respect.

Must be Australia then. Here, two GTS cost $450, and a GX2 costs $800. So it's much, much cheaper to own two GTS here.

I also think it has to do with the pricing. Because a USD20 difference between two 8800GTS cards and a single 9800GX2 is not much to make you want to buy the two cards and an SLI motherboard.