Need help building a new gaming comp

[masteroc]

So here is the deal. My gaming computer, about 3 years old, broke. Since its around the christmas time i figuered id treat myself to a new one. Its been a while since i built a new computer so im a bit out of the loop on all the new and upcoming hardware. I need to keep it around 1k, and i want to be able to play current games and newer ones with good fps. For instance i was looking at crysis (which looks amazing) and i want to be able to play this at the higher, maybe not highest, level of detail. If would be great if you guys could give me your imput on what i should get. I was wondering if the pci express 2 was worth it over the x16. Also if sli of 2 cheaper cards was better than 1 expensive one. How much memory i should go for and if i should get one of the 10k hard drives, or a regular 7200. Remeber, im working with a budget here. Thanks!!

 

[Invisible]

how much can you reuse?
case, monitor, dvd-rw?
Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
ClubIT Product - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping Kentsfield 2.40GHz 8MB L2 LGA 775 Processor OEM HH80562PH0568M SLACR
Newegg.com - XFX PVT88PYDQ4 GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Newegg.com - PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 EPS12V EPS12V 610W Continuous @ 40°C Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, cUL, CE, CB, TUV - Retail
Newegg.com - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
Newegg.com - ABIT IP35 Pro LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Newegg.com - Tuniq Tower 120 P4 & K8 CPU Cooler - Retail
Newegg.com - ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound - Retail

 

[masteroc]

Opps, yea i have a DVD-Rom and an RW that i can reuse, and i already have a case for it.

 

[Invisible]

great, and the build i suggested comes in around 1000
if you need to cut a few $$ out of it get the regular ip35 instead of the pro, or get a 7200.10 drive instead of 7200.11

 

[masteroc]

what mb would you sugggest instead of the Abit if i wanted to have sli, id only use one card right now, but maybe i would upgrade later as the games become more demanding..or is that not a good idea?

Btw thanks for your quick reply!!

 

[masteroc]

Also i was thinking of using this memory:

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

so that i could get 4gb for about the same price as the crucial. But is crucial more reliable or better in some way that i would want it over the G. Skill?

 

[Invisible]

SLI is ideal usually for enthusiasts and high resolutions
it only gives a 25-40% performance increase for double the price
here's a good SLI mobo
Newegg.com - MSI P6N Diamond LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
it doesn't overclock as well as the ip35-pro but is still decent
also its more expensive

 

[masteroc]

im just worried that i wont be able to play newer games, also how would this set up do with crysis or COD 4 with resolution set on high?

 

[Invisible]

i'd say high or almost high on crysis with no AA
and you could probably almost max out CoD4

 

[masteroc]

Cool, thats really all i was aiming for with only spending about 1k.
Another thing, the card is for pci express 2.0 and the mb only has x16 on it. Will this be a problem or is it backwards compatible?