Need advice for a Direct X 10 build

[Astarias]

Well, I posted a few days ago about a build based off of Wiz's overclocking guide. I wanted to save some money and stay within a pretty strict budget. Well all of that has changed and I have officially said to hell with the budget

Here is the system I put together. Please critique it, rip it apart tell me things to add/subtract. I am open to suggestion. I got rid of my budget but I still don't want to waste money.

Here are the things that I am stuck on...The Artic Cooler 7, the 6400, the 8800GTX and the 680i. All other items are fair game.

Case
APEVIA MX-PLEASURE-AL Silver Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case ATX 500W dual fan w/ automatic fan speed control Power Supply - Retail $119.99

Mobo
EVGA 122-CK-NF68-AR LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $249.99

CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail $222.00

CPU Cooler
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail $59.99

Memory
x2 CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail $560.00

GPU
EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail $569.99

PSU
Antec True Power Trio TP3-650 ATX12V 650W Power Supply with Three 12V Rails 100 - 240 V UL, CUL, FCC, TUV, CE, C-tick, CCC, CB - Retail $129.99

Hard Drive(s)
x2
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $299.98

Optical Drive
SAMSUNG Black 18X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 18X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE DVD Burner With LightScribe Technology - OEM $32.49

Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 70SB073A00000 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail $69.99

Operating System
Microsoft Windows Vista 32-Bit Home Premium for System Builders Single Pack DVD - OEM $119.99

Thermal Paste
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM $4.99

The grand total of this system with shipping from Newegg is $2480.97.

I want to say that I plan on overclocking this system as much as I can, both the ram and cpu. I wont be touching the video card for obvious reasons. As I am new to overclocking I would appreciate any suggestions as to what speeds I can expect, how to go about doing this intelligently, etc.

Note also that I am intending this to be a complete build down to the last screw. As some of the parts listed are OEM I know that certain things are missing but I am not knowledgeable enough to know what is needed. Any help in that department would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks everyone for your time and for sharing your expertise.

 

[MikeGR7]

Very nice system. I would only change some minor thing like: Drop the Artic Silver 5 and take Artic Ceramic. Also take a tuniq tower or Zalman 9700 instead of the listed cooler.
Also consider taking one 500g hdd for data and a WD Raptor 74GB ADFD for your OS and Games. But everything will work fine as is. Just my 2 cents.

 

[alcattle]

just little picky things. You made a nice start by finding Tom's, check out the o/c articles/section.
I would change those hard drive sizes also, you need 1 TB of storage? I am thinking along same lines as above with one 500 gb and two raptors in raid0 for booting and loading. The rest is great in my eyes, not sure I could go for $550 for RAM :?
Whoops, I did not notice you had 4 GB of RAM. Good RAM costs a little more, I guess. I usually get what is on sale.

 

[Astarias]

Thanks for the tips guys!

I changed the artic out for the ceramic. Does look much better.

I looked into the raptor change and while it does look like a very fast, good drive, it seems the consensus on Tom's forums that running two larger sata drives like I have seems to be better. If I am reading that wrong I don't mind being corrected.

The Zalman 9700 was actually my first choice and I would still like to use it. However, the reviews on Newegg state that there is a problem fitting it if you run a Core Duo 2 and a 680i. They do say that it is a easy job of cutting the base down to fit but I don't even feel remotely confident enough in my skills to do that.

Anyone have any other suggestions that I should change?

Also could someone please look over my system and tell me if I have everything that I need to put the system together and run it out of box. Taking into account that some items are OEM and such...

I really appreciate everyones quick response and yes, Alcattle, I am happy that I found this forum. It is decreasing my time getting up to speed tremendously.

 

[clue69less]

The Zalman 9700 was actually my first choice and I would still like to use it. However, the reviews on Newegg state that there is a problem fitting it if you run a Core Duo 2 and a 680i. They do say that it is a easy job of cutting the base down to fit but I don't even feel remotely confident enough in my skills to do that.

One guy did the mod with an Exacto knife so it might be pretty trivial to do. Have you looked on the evga forum to see the specifics? You might want to look at the Thermalright Ultra 120 to see if it has the same mobo clearance issues. It can be had for less than you're paying for the Arctic Freezer and is a better cooler if you plan to OC. Look around if you stick with the Freezer, I've seen it in the $30 range.