New 2008 CPU build!!

[MaBanger]

Over the next 2 months I'm going to be putting together my second computer build. Only this time I'm going to spend a little more, play with water cooling, as well as overclocking. I'm mainly looking for advice as to anything I should change as well as any tips you should have. Maybe you guys have some suggestions on some changes, I'm trying to stick right around the $3,000 mark as I only buy a new pc once every 3 years. I use my computer to watch movies and play games.I'm kinda stumped on the graphics card. I would like to get 2x 8800GT or GTS but at the same time I want to wait for the 9 series to hit the shelves. I'm not sure what the release dates, models, specs, etc are going to be for the rest of the 9 series though. Maybe one of you could help me out with that. I'm still working out the details for the water cooling set up, but I've been reading quite a bit on it. Is there really going to be THAT much of a performance difference between Black Ice GT,Black Ice Extreme III, andThermoChill PA120.3? I'm planning on liquid cooling the CPU and 2 video cards. I will be using Swiftech MCP655 and SilenX 120mm Fans so far. Out of your experience does Vista 64 bit work better with 4 or 8Gb of RAM? Any thoughts on 64 vs 32 I should be aware of? Thanks!


Cooler Master RC-1100 Case
Silverstone ST1000 PSU I's like to have modular cables, and other suggestions would be nice.

2x Western Digital Raptor X 150Gb
Western Digital 500Gb
Lite-On Blu-ray player
Lite-On DVD Burner

Asus Striker II Formula
Intel Q6600 When are the 43nm quads coming out? I thought about the extreme but I'd have to change a lot of other stuff to bring the price down.
Geil Evo One 2x2Gb DDR-800 and overclock it to meet the system bus

Sound Blaster X-Fi Fati1ty or maybe the provided one?

Additional Comment:

Just bought the hard drive and also a MSI TV Tuner tonight, I probably won't be able to buy much more for a couple weeks as I'm currently building a new oak computer desk at the moment! Can't wait to get rid of the cardboard table I have now... lol

Additional Comment:

The good new is I got to order some more parts this week. I changed up some gear but all is good. I decided to go with an ASUS P5E, Xigmatek 120mm cpu cooler, 4Gb Corsair Dominator Ram, and some arctic silver 5 with remover and purifier. I also chose air cooling over water cooling for the time being. I got stuck with buying the ASUS P5E due to all the stores being sold out of the Maximus Formula and I really dont want to spend a whole bunch extra on the DDR3 ram. Tomorrow I'll be ordering the Cosmos S case and Silverstone DA800 PSU. Hopefully if all goes well and Intel releases the Q9450 soon I'll be buying that instead of the Q6600.

The bad news is that my old socket 939 set up died on me... Anyhow I toubleshooted it for awhile, swapping what parts I could in and out, but nothing worked. I decided it wasn't worth fixing and salvaged the good parts and got rid of the rest =( I'd say I've had it for about 3 years, no OC, but I'm fairly sure its the DFI SLI-DR motherboard that died on me. At least the new system will be assembled soon!

Does anyone know if the old Creative Audigy 2 ZS sound card is compatible with windows Vista 32 or 64 bit?

[PossumAwesome]

You build CPUs?

[Howler]

I think your going to break your 3000 dollar mark if your including the water blocks and the other water cooling szit.

[MaBanger]

So far, I've spent roughly $1300 with all the shipping. I just ordered the case, PSU, cathodes, and Vista today. I've downgraded some since my original build, which is good because its more money for bills etc... But yes after the project is completed I might be a little over $3000.

I've decided to wait a little while for the watercooling and raptors but it will definately be in the future. Anyhow, I still have yet to order the processor, graphics card, and blu-ray player. My final system build should look something like this.

Have:
-Asus P5E motherboard - $220
-Xigmatek CPU Cooler - $37
-4Gb Corsair Domintor 1066 Ram - $163
-500Gb WD Hard Drive - $100
-TV Tuner - $100
-Cosmos S Case - $250
-Silverstone DA800 - $220
-Arctic Silver and cathodes - $25
-Windows Vista 64bit - $100

Need to buy:
-Intel Q9450???
-Blu-ray drive - $150
-HD3870x2 - $440
Total: $1805 + processor and shipping.