I had similar problems when I first got my 360. I was using the router that was supplied to me by my cable company. At first, I thought it was my 360 and took it back to GS using my 1 year PRP. I got the same issues with the new 360.

On a whim, I sent back the router to my cable company and went out and bought a router that was listed on the XBL compatibility list. I haven't had any issues since.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/connecttolive/xbox360/homenetworking/equipment.htm

edit: BTW, XBL worked fine with my cable company's router at first. It wasn't until after the Spring '07 update that I ran into problems.

See if this helps...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907536/

This rig will be running WinXP SP2 and will be replacing the 5 year old community PC in my household.

CASE - Apevia X-Cruiser

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811144151

HDD - Barracuda 320GB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148140

RAM - Corsair XMS2 (2 x 1GB)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145590

PSU - Cooler Master eXtreme 500W

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171018

Sound - Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102006

Mobo - MSI K9AG

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130119

CPU - Athlon 64 X2 5200+

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103759

GPU - Sapphire X1950Pro

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102061

This comes out to about $620.00 after all the MIR's and shipping costs.

What do you think? Any suggestions?

Which of these monitor / graphics card combos would be ideal for gaming? Price isn't too much of an issue, but I'd like to get best bang for the buck. I'm open to other suggestions as well.

The "Sli" ram is just a fancy heat spreader nothing more.fivex84

Yeah, about that... are we paying more for anything labelled "SLI Compatible"? If I'm pretty much set on going non-SLI, why should I be forced to pay more for something I'm not going to use?

The best thing to do next year when a new model is out is to just get the new model, not a 2nd 8800GTX. Performance is generally better, less heat, less expensive PSU, etc. The perpose of SLI is for people with 30" monitors who can't max games with the single best card, in cases of extreme resolutions you need more than one to max games.musclesforcier

Thanks for the info... I'll just build my rig and hope it lasts for a good 2-3 years without needing any major upgrades. Thanks again.

*edit... not sure why it only showed your quote, but i edited to show my comment again.

I'm building a rig w/ a Q6600 and 8800GTX. All will be enclosed within an Antec Nine Hundred. Games will be played on a 21.6" WS LCD @ 1680 x 1050.

Let's say that by this time next year, the higher demanding games will require me to either (a.) play at lower settings or (b.) upgrade my video card. I'd assume by this time that the next model nVidia cards should be out and the price of an 8800GTX should be lower than what it is now. Would I benefit or improve gameplay more by adding a 2nd 8800GTX in SLI or would it be best to purchase the latest model?

I ask for future-proofing purposes. If the best "bang for the buck" is to go SLI, then I should make sure that I purchase SLI compatible components now and not later (RAM, mobo,PSU, etc.). One of my main concerns was the PSU. I was looking at the OCZ 850W GameXStream. Newegg specs show this as nVidia SLI Certified, but the OCZ 850W PSU doesn't show up on this list: http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html

Your thoughts? Should I go with a PSU listed on that site?

Thanks!

If you are not running at very high rez it won't make a noticeable difference. I'd say keep it simple for now, just not worth it right now. Power consumption, heat, fitting two of these monsters in your case, air flow issues. Just not worth it right now.vfibsux

Wise words! The wifey thanks you... haha!

LOL... I was seriously about to post this same exact question!!

Like you, I'm new to the PC gamer world. My friends and I have all been console gamers for as long as I can remember. For us, I think the real heated FPS battles came with 007: Goldeneye on the N64. They've since grown to be somewhat casual gamers. A few, including myself, bought into the next gen systems and the rest haven't really cared much for it. Online or LAN isn't much of an option if we all aren't into it... but the occasional weekend nights of 2 vs 2 in Halo 3 should be more than enough fun.

I know it's not gonna happen, but it would have been sweet to show off my PC on a 32" LCD by playing a 4-way splitscreen deathmatch of CRYSIS or something. If this were possible, I'd definitely go with 2x8800GTX's in SLI!!