I'm planning on building a new PC next month, I need some advice on the parts.

[CobaltViper]

Budget 1600-1800 euros.
What I'm planning to get:
Mobo: I have no idea
CPU: E8500 3.16 ghz; This is 45nm If I'm correct (Should be out 20 Januari at 266$ from what I hear)
Graphics Card: NVidia 8800GT *2 I'm not entirely sure about this I was originally planning on getting a card in the 9000 series but it appears it's gonna take a while before they're coming out.
RAM: I have no idea except for that I'm probably getting 4 gigs
HDD: WD Caviar 320GB*2 for Raid purposes
Case: I have no Idea
Sound Card: I'm hoping the integrated sound card from the mobo will do the job nicely.

That's about it I think.

 

[Bruce2]

What you got there makes good sense. With your budget it seems all you need to do is get the best mobo available. One thing I like to remind you though, is not to get cheap on your PSU. Hope the CPU will come out on time. Please keep us up to date on your project. Enjoy!

 

[guitto]

Do not settle for onboard sound. You can purchase a great soundcard from anywhere from 20 E - 60 E and it will be 100x better. I suggest an Antec 900 Case with the extra fans for the 2 8800 GT's you will be getting in order to cool them. Im an AMD man so I cant help you with memory/cpu or mobo. I'd go with a 750-800 watt power supply to ensure youre 8800 GT's have enough power. Other than that, I think it will be a great system. I'd go with Vista 32 bit if you havent decided operating system yet.

 

[zugolosian]

Mobo?

looking for a nice, but pricey MOBO for your setup go for the Asus Striker Extreme, or just the striker.

 

[CobaltViper]

Yeah I forgot all about the PSU, you really think I'll need 800 watt? Also I'm probably going for 64 bit Vista since 32 bit only recognizes 3.5 gigs of RAM, unless there are any major compatibility problems.
I will get some extra fans even though I won't be overclocking.
I was hoping someone had any information on the new Nvidia cards and when they're coming out?

 

[locknl0ck]

since u plan on a high end system,get a good sound card,dont skimp.
im assuming ur a gamer,if such is the case,a low end soundcard would significantly worsen your experience,a creative sound blaster? might be in order

also,since this system will consume a lot of power,purchase a good power supply.DONT skimp on this.get a seasonic/corsair/silverstone psu.or search the net for any other good companies.dont buy unbranded/chinese psu.although they are rated for "500W" or higher,they actually cant give that much power for a long period of time.some psus tend to overheat and simply power off till they cool.so,get a good quality psu

same applies for the casing,nothing fancy(unless u want fancy),but make sure ur case has an inlet,one at the side for the cpu,one below for the mb and preferablyh one in front,for the hdd fan(if any).also make sure it has an outlet.preferably with an inbuilt 120mm fan,or alternately,atleast the provision to add a fan of your own.

ram,go for corsair,in my exsperience it is reliable,although any other brand might do as well.

for the os,go with xp 32bit for now,vista is buggy as hell,and in some cases has decreased performance for some games compared to xp.
ofcourse,if u need ot play DX-10 games,then u will need vista,but,id recommend against it.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Good system build. But I wouldn't consider SLI unless you have a monitor large enough for resolutions above 1600x1200, which is where you'd see the best performance improvement from SLI.

In addition, consider getting the 8800GTS rev. 2 when it's released, since you'd already be waiting for the CPU, so why not wait for a video card better than the 8800GT as well?

As for the sound card, the integrated sound will do fine, since you'll be having a multi-core CPU so it won't really affect performance that much. But if you want to get maximum performance out of the CPU, get the Sound Blaster Audigy SE. It's cheap and performs very well. The X-Fi is overrated IMO so avoid it unless you can afford to spend on it.

Regarding your mobo, try the Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 and the ASUS P5E. Both have support for 45nm CPUs and also have two PCI-E 2.0 slots for Crossfire.

Regarding the RAM, get any kit from Corsair, OCZ, Mushkin, Patriot, G.SKILL, GeiL, Buffalo, TwinMOS or pQI and you'll be fine. There's a G.SKILL 2GB kit available on Newegg for $49 and it's an excellent deal IMO.

Lastly, your system's power draw would be greatly increased by having SLI. So depending on whether you go SLI or not, you'd be looking at getting either the Corsair VX450 for the single card, or the VX550 for SLI.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[CobaltViper]

Well I think I'm going for one 8800 GT for the time being and when Nvidia releases their 9000 series I'll pick a card from that. As for the newegg deal, I live in Europe so Newegg doesn't ship here. I was thinking of getting 2 Corsair Twinx 2 GB strips, but maybe something else that's good will come along by then.
I also have a 21" CRT monitor so I could have resolution above 1600*1200 but I probably won't put it any higher then that, I'd rather have some more fps/AA.

 

[technicalfury42]

Do not settle for onboard sound. You can purchase a great soundcard from anywhere from 20 E - 60 E and it will be 100x better. I suggest an Antec 900 Case with the extra fans for the 2 8800 GT's you will be getting in order to cool them. Im an AMD man so I cant help you with memory/cpu or mobo. I'd go with a 750-800 watt power supply to ensure youre 8800 GT's have enough power. Other than that, I think it will be a great system. I'd go with Vista 32 bit if you havent decided operating system yet.

Given how Vista handles hardware accelerated sound, this is extremely ignorant. 750-800wat psu is ridiculous overkill from someone that obviously hasn't taken the time to total 12v amperages across the parts involved. Your random recommendation of Vista32 makes no sense for someone that has full 64-bit driver support. I'm simply baffled by this advice.

Currently, SLI is a waste of money, especially on a 21" CRT.