[Bizarbus]

Case – COOLER MASTER CAVALIER 3 ($45 after rebate)

PSU – Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply ($83.99)

RAM – CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM ($164 after rebate)

GPU – eVGA 256-P2-N562-AX Geforce 7900GT 256MB ($237 after rebate)

Sound card – Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic Sound Card ($85 after rebate)

Processor – Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40 Ghz (Conroe)
Socket 775

Motherboard – Conroe compatible, socket 755 ????????????????? (???$250 or so?????)

Hard drive(s) – Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6L300R0 300GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache ($100)

Optical drive(s) – LITE-ON Black DVD Burner w/lightscribe ($39)
LITE-ON Black combo drive ($28)

Heatsink/fan – ???????????? (???$40???)

Approximate total - $1387.99

EXTRAS

Monitor - ??????????/
Speakers - ?????????
Keyboard/mouse - ??????????

I'm open to suggestions... especially wherever you see ???????????????????

I'm looking for that realm of "not-quite-top-of-the-line-so-it's-still-somewhat-affordable"

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CPU fan Zalman 7700-cu and price shopping or returned item.
Intel d775xbx rev 304 for stability and unusual intel overclocking support (I took a leap of faith on this). Overclockig supports higher than stated memory ddr2 speeds and Corsair reports DDR2 800 as most popular order.
Otherwise, you must consider Nvidea chipset boards for Sli support. A second 7900 video card would require Sli support, or a political peace deal for copywrite protected drivers compatable with Intel boards. Builders report return delays on defective Nvidea chipset boards, so go with a local return friendly supplier and pay for the survice. These boards are reported as very overclock friendly (and thus more capable of uninformed user produced disasters).

[mreed]

CPU fan Zalman 7700-cu and price shopping or returned item.
Intel d775xbx rev 304 for stability and unusual intel overclocking support (I took a leap of faith on this). Overclockig supports higher than stated memory ddr2 speeds and Corsair reports DDR2 800 as most popular order.
Otherwise, you must consider Nvidea chipset boards for Sli support. A second 7900 video card would require Sli support, or a political peace deal for copywrite protected drivers compatable with Intel boards. Builders report return delays on defective Nvidea chipset boards, so go with a local return friendly supplier and pay for the survice. These boards are reported as very overclock friendly (and thus more capable of uninformed user produced disasters).

[mreed]

CPU fan Zalman 7700-cu and price shopping or returned item.
Intel d775xbx rev 304 for stability and unusual intel overclocking support (I took a leap of faith on this). Overclockig supports higher than stated memory ddr2 speeds and Corsair reports DDR2 800 as most popular order.
Otherwise, you must consider Nvidea chipset boards for Sli support. A second 7900 video card would require Sli support, or a political peace deal for copywrite protected drivers compatable with Intel boards. Builders report return delays on defective Nvidea chipset boards, so go with a local return friendly supplier and pay for the survice. These boards are reported as very overclock friendly (and thus more capable of uninformed user produced disasters).

[zestron]

Wow, thats allmsot exactly what i'm buying in a few weeks.

[Bizarbus]

Thank you for the help. Here is an updated list.

Case – COOLER MASTER CAVALIER 3 CAV-T03-UW Silver Aluminum Bezel, SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811119075
$59.99

Motherboard - ABIT AW8D Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813127235
$174.99

CPU – Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40 Ghz
$316

PSU – Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply 115/230 V UL, TUV, CB, FCC CLASS B, CUL
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817103931
$89.99

GPU – XFX PV-T71G-UDE7 GeForce 7900 GT EXTREME (520MHz) 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814150139
$259.99 after rebate

RAM – CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit System Memory
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820145590
$158 after rebate

Sound card – Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16829102188
$81.99

Monitor – Acer AL2016W Silver & Black 20" 8ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 600:1
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16824009085
$269.99

Speakers – Logitech X-530 70 Watts 5.1 Speaker
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16836121118
$59.99

Mouse/Keyboard – Logitech G7 097855033710 Black 6 Buttons Tilt Wheel USB RF Laser Mouse
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16826104209
$59.99

Logitech G15 2-Tone 104 Normal Keys USB Wired Standard Keyboard
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16823126179
$68.99

Hard drive – Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822144701
$74.99 after rebate

Optical drives – LITE-ON Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 5X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache ATAPI/E-IDE 16X DVD±R DVD Burner W/ LightScribe and 5X DVD-RAM Write
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827106019
$32.99

LITE-ON Black 16X DVD-ROM 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM 1.5M Cache IDE Combo Drive
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827106992
$25.50

Fan/heatsink – ZALMAN CNPS7700-ALCU 120mm 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16835118114
$38.99

APPX TOTAL - $1772.38

[warriorscot]

Why the cav3 its getting a bit long in the tooth i would go for a newer 5 or 6 series case as they are better in terms of features and cooling, and they look good 6 series are nice.

I would be tempted to get a cheaper gfx card something to tide you over till you can get something better next year in a DX10 card.

[Bizarbus]

I think I'm going to go with this case instead...

Case – COOLER MASTER Centurion 532 RC-532-SKN1 Black Aluminum bezel, SECC chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811119094
$49.99 after rebate

anyway, any suggestions on a GPU? I have a tough time picking those out... I'd like to spend around $200 ish

[warriorscot]

I woiuld probably just try and get a cheaper version of the card you are getting or go down to the 7600, But the main difference in the 7900s is the kind of cooling they are using and thus the clockspeeds both of which you can change yourself, you can get an aftermarket gpu cooler to improve on the stock and then overclock the card to the faster speeds easily and you can put the new cooler on any new cards you get sa well usually.

Good choice on the case the 532 is a good case.

[Bizarbus]

Any chance you could recommend me a specific GPU from newegg? Like I said, I'm terrible at picking out video cards.

Thanks for all the help btw!

[warriorscot]

Not really newegg is disastorously slow for me, if you want a 7900GT just get the cheapest one on the list, 7600GT get whatever s in budget with good specs, really its more price than specs they all have to comply to the minimum spec for the 7900GTs just get whatever you can for as little as you can. You might try shopping around when its an item that costs that much you can sometimes save by getting it somewhere else even by cheaper shipping or a one time deal or a promotion.