New i70 extreme build - by a layman

[Teague]

Been out of the IT industry for a long time and was hoping someone could critique this order I was about to place.

Motherboards
GA-EX58-EX Gigabyte GA-EX58 Extreme Socket 1366 Motherboard

Processors
i7-965 Intel Core i7 965 3.2Ghz Socket 1366 CPU

Memory
TR3X6G1600C8D Corsair XMS3 Dominator 6Gb PC12800 DDR3-1600 C8 Triple Chann..

Hard Drives
0A38005 Hitachi DeskStar 7K1000.B 160Gb 7200rpm SATA II HDD

Video Cards
GV-N295-18I-B Gigabyte nVidia GeForce GTX 295 1792Mb PCI Express [GV-N295-..

Computer Cases
CASE-VD5001BNA Thermaltake SwordM Black/Silver Case with Liquid Cooler [VD5..

Power Supplies
ODIN-1200P Gigabyte 1200W Odin Pro Power Supply

Sound Cards
SBXFI-XTME-A-PCI Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI Sound Card Reta..

Speaker Systems
AL-FX3022 Altec Lansing FX3022 2.2 Speaker System

Software
VULTIMATE64 Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit OEM

Monitors
G2400WT BenQ 24inch G2400WT Widescreen Black LCD Monitor


Any information around compatibility or better bang for the buck would be great.

And a quick side question, is there any reason to buy Vista Prof 64 bit over Vista Home 64 bit, regarding gaming performance?

 

[Why_Me]

With decent air cooling people have been hitting over 4.0GHz with the i7 920. Also with they way onboard sound has come along in the last few years, I would ditch the sound card for now. If your not happy with the onboard then go for the sound card. Memory wise you can save some money also and still reach 4.0. Vista ultimate doesn't really have much more going for it vs home premium edition.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160 <=== better pics / specs of that case and reviews.

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=CA-932KKN $120.36
Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Gaming Case (Black)

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=I7-920 $265.99 Free Ground Shipping
Intel Core i7 Processor i7-920 2.66GHz 8MB LGA1366 CPU, OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103056 $139.99
COOLER MASTER V10 Hybrid TEC RR-B2P-UV10-GP 120mm CPU Cooler - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186020 $6.99
ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231247 $94.99 Free Shipping*
G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319 $79.99 Free Shipping*
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136152 $22.99 Free Shipping*
LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X (CAV) DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488 $99.99 Free Shipping*
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders - OEM

 

[Proximon]

Why_Me has good advice here.

Are you planning to do 2 gtx295s? It's not great bang for the buck there, and a single is enough for pretty much anything. Two would be hard to cool, etc. On the other hand 3-way SLI with GTX 285 would be the best for bragging rights... but again that's running hot and you would do best to watercool them

Check out this combo deal with a very special PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.177160

That's an incredible deal on a top-notch brand new PSU, that only fits in 3 Antec cases (It's a non-standard size). It would be enough for any two GPUs, so for instance GTX 285 SLI.

 

[xthekidx]

Get vista Home premium, Business is useful for businesses, you get more features that you will actually use in home premium.

+1 for Why_Me's suggestions, although the V10 cooler is a bit overboard I think...if you are going to spend that much on a cooler then might as well get WC IMO. I would get this CPU Cooler, it will do almost as well for half the price:
http://www.heatsinkfactory.com/thermalright-ultra-120-extreme-1366-rt.html

Another good set of ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226030

Now on the PSU...Scrap the gigabyte and start over. Are you going to just use this one GPU for now? Honestly I don't see you needing anything more for 19x12 res so I would just stick with 1 GTX 295 and get this PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341011

If you will get 2 GTX 295's (only necessary if you upgrade to a 25x16 res monitor) then I would get this PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703012

 

[godfath3r]

yeah as others have said if u wana save a great deal of cash, get the i7 920 instead and buy a decent cooler and then overclock yourself. then maybe spread the cash saved over better components. for eg the psu people have suggested. and maybe swap the hdd for 2 x WD caviar blacks and set them up in RAID 0