building first PC suggestions?

I will be using this PC for mostly gaming ( i only play World of Warcraft right now but going to start playing some more FPS games in the future) but i do plan on watching alot of movies also.

CPU: Either Core 2 Quad Q6600 or Core 2 Duo e6850

Video Card: EVGA Geforce 8800GT (2 of them) or 9800gx2

RAM: 2G or 4G... suggestions?

Hard Drive: 500G should be plenty but should i get 2 or just 1 hard drive?

motherboard: no clue which do get any suggestions?

Powersupply: no clue how much power im gonna need...

Speakers: logitech z-5500

Case: looking at the Apevia X-plorer with 800w PSU for 158$ but if you can suggest something better please do.

Sound card: suggestions?

Monitor: probably a 22-24 inch not sure yet.

OS: vista home premium

this was thrown together quite quickly still in the works but i want to get a base down before i start buying, my budget will hopefully come in under 2000$ if you have any suggestions on what to get or anything i should replace please tell me all suggestions are welcome.

Vista is a RAM hog and needs 4GB's of RAM to work well as a gaming rig. 2GB's is just to get it to work properly.Snaptrap

$2000 will get you an amazing PC if you build it yourself. If your buying a prebuilt you won't get neither as much for your money.

CPU: Either Core 2 Quad Q6600 or Core 2 Duo e6850

Video Card: EVGA Geforce 8800GT (2 of them) or 9800gx2

RAM: 2G or 4G... suggestions?

Hard Drive: 500G should be plenty but should i get 2 or just 1 hard drive?

motherboard: no clue which do get any suggestions?

Powersupply: no clue how much power im gonna need...

Speakers: logitech z-5500

Case: looking at the Apevia X-plorer with 800w PSU for 158$ but if you can suggest something better please do.

Sound card: suggestions?

Monitor: probably a 22-24 inch not sure yet.

OS: vista home premium

leslers

CPU: The Q6600 or E8400 would be the best choice but if you can find a Q9450 and have the money it is the better CPU.

Video Card: Since your have the money for a GX2 why not just SLI two 8800gts 512mb. This would beat either of the set-ups you mentioned and would only cost $400-$500 depending on the brand you bought.

RAM: 4GB for Vista

Hard Drive: Your choice but I had my old PC for 4 years and didn't even fill up a 320GB.

Motherboard: If you go with my suggestion of the 8800gts 512 (or 8800gt SLI) then get a 780i.

PSU: Don't use a PSU that comes with a case(especially since your talking about some power hungry graphics cards). They are normally really cheap and have a high fail rate. If you go SLI something like this

Case: Antec 900, P180, P182 or if you want a full tower look into a Thermaltake Armor

OS: Vista (make sure to get the 64-bit otherwise you won't be able to use all 4Gb of RAM)

alright thanks alot for the suggestions everyone... so as it stands its:

CPU: e8400 219$ or q6600 250$, is the extra 30$ worth it?

video card: 2 evga 8800GT's (189$ each so 378$)

motherboard: evga 780i 304$ (or i can get q6600 WITH a 780i for about 550$ is it worth it? also i see pretty big price differences between evga and xfx whats the difference between the 2?)

RAM:

case: still cant decide on one... will be ordering from tigerdirect.ca and i dont see any antecs which would be the best in about 150$ range?

hard drive:

OS: still undecided... im currently using XP but i dont OWN the os it just came with the system i feel like its downgrading to go out and buy xp when i can get vista.

PSU: could get a ultra x3 1000w psu with corsair twinx 4096mb ddr2 for 415$ but is that overkill?

the rest of the stuff i can do without until i get more money.

Definitely don't get that 1000w PSU. Look at something around 6-700watts, with atleast 2 6-pin connectors. You definitely shouldn't need to spend anything over $200.

The $30 extra for the quad core will only be worth it if you plan to use heavy CPU programs (like video editing/encoding) and multitasking. The E8400 will provide better performance in games.

found a pretty nice deal... worth it?

found a pretty nice deal... worth it?

Our Price: $529.97XFX nForce 680i LT SLI Motherboard - Qty: 1$182.99Intel C2D E8400 3.0GHz OEM - Qty: 1$219.97OCZ Platinum 2048MB PC6400 - Qty: 1$69.97Maxtor L01F300 300GB Hard Drive - Qty: 1$85.99Ultra E-Torque ATX Mid-Tower Case - Qty: 1$73.99PowerUp GEN-6802 800-Watt Power Supply - Qty: 1$121.99‡You Save $224.93

leslers

Looks pretty good, except for the PSU. I've never heard of "PowerUp" and the PSU is one of the last things you want to skimp on. Up to you...

I'd look at the 45nm CPUs. Either the Q9450 or E8400. And definitely get 2x 8800GTs over the GX2 if you're going to get an SLI mobo. Get atleast a 500w PSU, Corsair, OCZ, Thermaltake, and Antec are good brands. You don't need a sound card...Fignewton50

Well, he said he watches lots of movies so I'd say a soundcard would be a good idea. To make the most of those Z-5500s you'll definitely need a reasonable soundcard - a Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer should suffice, however I hear their vista drivers are horrible, so perhaps you should look into something like an Asus Xonar or Auzentech X-Plosion.

As for motherboards... if you're only looking for a single card solution then a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R should do quite nicely.

For ram I'd recommend some DDR2 Geil black dragon. 4GB is definitely a wise move if you're using Vista.

A Corsair HX620 would be ample for all your power needs, however I'm sure the 520w version would be fine even if you were going SLi but just to be on the safe side the more powerful one might be a wise choice...

Case asthetics are down to personal preference so you'll have to make your own mind up on that front. Perhaps look into the Antec 900 or P182, or even a Lian Li or Zalman if you want top quality.

And finally a video card... well I'd probably recommend a 8800GTS or 9800GX2; the latter if you're gaming at high resolutions.