Building a gaming system around 1200$

[Muad'Dib_53]

I am new to this great forum but in the last 2 weeks I have read several threads as well as HC's reviews. I am building a new machine from scratch, for general use and decent gaming. I want something good for present use, and with good mid-long term upgrading potential. My budget is around 1200$, including a new operating system (still hesitate between XP Pro 32 or Vista Ultimate 64). I already have Samsung 2232BW and good headphones. I'll play mostly new games. Here's what I consider:

Case: Antec P182 ATX Black Mid Tower Case 4X5.25 1X3.5 6X3.5INT No PS Front USB Audio Firewire
PSU: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad CrossFire 750W ATX V2.2 EPS12 24PIN Active PFC
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Dual Core Processor LGA775 3.0GHZ Wolfdale 1333FSB 6MB Retail
CPU cooler: Arctic Cooling's Freezer 7 Pro
MOBO: ASUS P5Q Pro ATX LGA775 P45 DDR2 2PCI-E16 Crossfire 3PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 Sound GBLAN eSATA
RAM: OCZ Platinum XTC PC2-6400 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-800 CL5-4-4-15 DDR2 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 7200 RPM
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-203N DVD Burner
Video Card: Visiontek Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI-E 2XDVI-I Video
Sound Card: ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-E
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Edition 64BIT DVD OEM

On NCIX, this adds up to 1582$, without taxes.
I'd like to diminish that amount a bit, to something like 1200 before taxes.
I would extremely appreciate your wise advices. Oh, I do not plan to do overclocking in the short term.
Thanks!

[Computergeek]

i would suggest using the price matching opition on this site before doing anything...

[Muad'Dib_53]

Here is the pricing detail (on NCIX) of my tentative gaming rig:


Case: Antec P182 ATX Black Mid Tower Case 4X5.25 1X3.5 6X3.5INT No PS Front USB Audio Firewire $128
PSU: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad CrossFire 750W ATX V2.2 EPS12 24PIN Active PFC $150
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Dual Core Processor LGA775 3.0GHZ Wolfdale 1333FSB 6MB Retail $170
CPU cooler: Arctic Cooling's Freezer 7 Pro $27
MOBO: ASUS P5Q Pro ATX LGA775 P45 DDR2 2PCI-E16 Crossfire 3PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 Sound GBLAN eSATA $156
RAM: OCZ Platinum XTC PC2-6400 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-800 CL5-4-4-15 DDR2 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit $120
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 7200 RPM
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-203N DVD Burner $35
Video Card: VisiontekRadeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 PCI-E Video Card 205$
Sound Card: ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-E $90
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Edition 64BIT DVD OEM $216

Total: 1362$ before tax



Video Card: A HD4850 would be enough in the short term, and I could add another one in Crossfire sometime next year.

Case: Should I go for a CM 690? There seems to be a significant price difference between the Antec P182 (128$) and the CM 690 (80$)

Should I go for a cheaper, or less powerful PSU? And what about RAM?

And do you see any incompatibilities?

Thanks!

[Thespork]

You seem to be using non-sale prices from NCIX. For example the mobo you've chosen is 138.88 on sale at NCIX, and DC. And like Computergeek said, you should use the price compare search engine on this site to find the best deal, and have NCIX price match it. You can often save around $7 per item, which adds up.

[ineedaname]

Definitely don't go for the freezer pro 7.... its a piece of garbage compared 2 other coolers nowadays.

The seagate 7200.11 is cheaper (at least in toronto), faster, has double cache and 5 year warranty.
Also I wouldn't get the OCZ's cuz they tend 2 use cheaper IC's for the 6400's.