If you want a good board, get the DFI Lanparty, swell board and can overclock as a bad boy.
Calzinger, alot of your information is wrong. XFX had a line of cards that were DOA when you got them, a large amount of them. I suspect someone f*cked up, but that was a little while ago, and even though it tarnished their rep, they arent DOA anymore. And XFX is one of the BEST cards you can get for OCing, and just regular stock use, they still rock. The OC on the BFG cards is a rip off. Ther BARELY up the clock speed, and dont even compensate for that with a better cooloer. It is just a marketing ploy, I would advise against the pre-OC'd BFG's.
a 7800 GTX will NOT beat out 2x 6800's in SLI, not in a million years! The 7800 is only SLIGHTLY better than the 6800, and you are paying several hundred for that card being only slightly better. You can easily overclock a 6800 to speeds far higher than the 7800. The 7800 siumply isnt worth it at this time, and wont be for a long time. I'm sure nVidia will come out with a card that is FAAAR superior to that one in a very short time. Instead of getting on 7800, get 2 6800's and SLI them and get some insane performance.
Yes, the San Diego came out after the Venice. They are the second newest, the Manchester being the newest, although I'm not sure how that core fairs. The San Diego 3700+ is a PERFECT choice, an absolute killer CPU, with some insane OC potential.
IMO:
A DFI Lanparty, the San Diego, the Rev 2's, the 2x6800Ultras, and you will have one damn super beast.
As for the HDD, get the raptors. They spin at 10000 RPM over the 7200 RPM normal drives run at, making seek time alot quicker.