Building First Gaming Pc, advice appreciated

[Sunshineman]

I've had a little bit of experience in the past building computers, but It's always nice to have some experienced advice. I'm trying to build a gaming computer, nothing super fancy, for around 800$. I've spent some time making sure everything is compatible, but chances are i probably missed something.

Case COOLER MASTER RC-690
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137

GPU 9800GTX+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143166

PSU PC Power & Cooling S75CF 750W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341011

Ram Corsair Dominator 4gb ddr2 1066
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145214

Motherboard ASUS P5Q Pro
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131299

CPU Core 2 Duo E8400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

Cpu Cooler Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 pro
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134

I built my system with some overclocking abilities, something I've played with in the last year. I also decided to grab a real cpu cooler, not only for overclocking but especially considering Intel tend to have crappy heatsinks. Any advice would be great.

 

[xthekidx]

That is a great start.

Great case. For a bit cheaper you could get the Antec 300 which is also good, if you are over budget. Microcenter has it for $45.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0283272

For your GPU, I would recommend going with a 4850, it is a better card for roughly the same price
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102802

That is a great PSU, it will allow for xfire with this gpu.

I would go with cheaper ram, but those dominators are good, however these would do just fine:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231173

That is a good Mobo, this one is a little better for the same price after MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358

Look for that CPU on Microcenter, they have it for $15 cheaper.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0299046

The cooler is decent, but I would recommend going with the Xigmatech S1283, its a little better and the same price, or you can get the Dark Knight version of the S1283 cooler, which comes with a backplate, which I highly recommend.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=S1283&x=0&y=0


You also need a DVD Drive, Hard drive, and OS:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136153
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488

So I think that puts you over budget, if you use the items I linked it puts you at $892 before MIR, unless you already have a hard drive, OS and dvd drives...Look at this build I made on Newegg for about $800. The PSU that I have here is a little limiting in that you can't add another GPU, but it will run that system fine.
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=8901465

 

[Sunshineman]

Thanks a bunch for the input. Only questions I really have are involving the ram and GPU. First off I was under the impression the Radeon 4850 was only better in high antialiasing situations? Also, if i choose to run on a 32bit system where only 4gs of memory can be used, isnt the 1gb of memory on the graphics card unneccesary? In regards to the ram, wouldn't switching down to DDR2 800 give me less leeway when overclocking (although the money saved is very tempting). I think ill take your advice on the cpu cooler, but i already have a DVD drive, Hard drive and OS so those dont need to be included in my budget.

 

[sammo505]

No your system mem and your video mem are 2 different ball parks, they don't share the ram and XP will recognize it. And 1 gig is still kind of useless today, a GPU with 512mb should be fine. And as far as the ram I would stick with 1066 because it can effect your OC limits I made that mistake myself.

 

[xthekidx]

For the ram, you need to look at the voltages. If the 800 ram is at 2.2v, then yes your overclocking opportunities are limited, but at 1.8v you still have some leeway and you can push that memory farther than the stock settings.

The 4850 is better even without the AA, the 9800GTX+ is overpriced IMO. If you are only going with 32bit os, then just go with the 512 version, but I would recommend a 64bit OS, it will allow for much higher performance and is the same price as the 32bit OS. The 1gb is useful for high AA.

 

[huron]

+1 to all of the above suggestions from xthekidx.