Recommendations on my new PC system please ...

[AsteriaStardust]

You gurus,

If anyone can review my new system specification and comment on it, it will be really appreciated:

1. CPU
a. Intel Conroe E6600 (Already bought this)
2. Motherboard
a. ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe
i. The problem is our local store (Calgary Canada - MemoryExpress) do not have this board yet
ii. They don’t have DFI LP Intel 975X chipset based board either
b. Any other recommendation is welcome. But one thing for sure is that I want to have SLI or CrossFire at least for my future gaming upgrades
3. Memory
a. OCZ 2GB PC2-6400 Gold Gamer extreme XTC Edition (2x1GB)
b. Or Mushkin XP2-6400 Xtreme Performance Black Series DDR2 SDRAM 2GB
4. HDD
a. Maxtor 300GB DiamondMax 10 7200RPM SATAII w/16MB Cache
5. Power Supply
a. OCZ 700W GameXStream Power Supply (Already bought this)
6. Sound
a. Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
7. Video
a. This is a trouble point. This totally depends on the mobo I can get
b. Currently I am considering BFG Geforce 7900 GT OC 256MB PCI-E card for SLI setup
c. Or Sapphire Radeon X1900 GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI-E card for CrossFire
8. Monitor
a. Samsung SyncMaster 215TW 21” Widescreen LCD
9. CD/DVD
a. LG Super Multi DVD Writer 16x16x10 DVD +/-RW Dual Layer
10. Case
a. Aspire X-Plorer Mid Tower w/Slide Window
b. Or NZXT Lexa Classic Series Aluminum Chassis

Couple of questions remains:

§ Is the OCZ Memory good enough for the Conroe E6600?
§ It seems like that the Conroe E6600 processor comes with a stock HSF assembled … Should I buy and apply 3rd party thermal paste or replace the HSF?
§ A lot of people said something about ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe mobo that it is not compatible, etc. Should I consider Intel 975X or Nvidia 590? Whichever I choose, I may have to wait for 1 ~ 2 weeks to get the mobo I think

By the way, I am a gamer (not hardcore) and would like to have pretty smooth running with Oblivion (or Gothic III).

Thank you all for your ideas.

 

[INeedCache]

I do believe the OCZ memory is problematic in Asus boards. I'd opt for the Mushkin here due to that, otherwise I like OCZ memory better than Mushkin. I'd opt for the 320gb Seagate ST3320620A that uses perpendicular recording technology. Better warranty, too. However, I have nothing against this Maxtor drive, it is a good one. Many here will tell you Maxtor drives suck, and that is not true. They did a few years ago with the 9 series, but the 10s are good. I think LG Super Multi drives are good. Between those two cases, I'd take the NZXT. I'm not too big on C2D systems right now due to lack of choice and high price of motherboards. I'll let someone else comment on the board.