Virgin build, please check my list:

[Jam3s-Zer0]

Since your over budget i would-

1,go with an 7800gt in for gfx card as the prices will be going down very soon with the 7900's coming out.

2,Scrap the sound card as the mobo has fine onboard.

 

[Oblivious]

I was originally gonna get a 7800gt, and later buy a 2nd one for SLI. But I've decided I like the idea of having one x1900xt from the very beginning. It's just a beast of a video card, and the price isn't too outlandish.

As far as using onboard sound, I really like having a good soundcard to run my 7.1 surround speakers.

My main concern is that with a high end cpu, gpu and board, I don't want to go with any cheap parts elsewhere. I really want quality, and I'm willing to spend more to get it.

Besides, my wife has given me the green light to build this machine how I see fit and she hasn't put any spending limit on it. But, that doesn't mean I just have bags of money lying around either!

 

[SomeIranianKid]

ok two things i have to say you if your getting good OC ram you might as well get the opteron 165 and OC the living crap out of it and save yourself a bunch of money and do you really need a 150 gig 10k hdd i mean the price to performance ratio isn't that great but then again its up to you about that raptors its just im not a big fan of them

 

[Millenniumtiger]

since you are going with ATI for GFX, you don't need to spend the extra money on a SLI motherboard.

 

[nylax4]

Get a DFI Lanparty and wait for the 7900's

 

[Millenniumtiger]

also, if you are going with that big of a raptor, then your backup HD doesn't need to be that big

 

[Oblivious]

you might as well get the opteron 165 and OC the living crap out of it

I considered the Opterons, but AMD does not honor the warranty if they aren't used in a server. I've heard nothing but good things about them otherwise though.

since you are going with ATI for GFX, you don't need to spend the extra money on a SLI motherboard.

I just love that motherboard, but I really do need to look at more since I've abandoned the SLI gpu's. I've yet to see a crossfire board that I like as much though. I highly doubt I'll need to buy a second video card anyway. One x1900xt is already overkill.

Is there a clearcut choice for best motherboard for a single gpu (non sli/crossfire) setup out there?

also, if you are going with that big of a raptor, then your backup HD doesn't need to be that big

I already have nearly that much space with my current HDD setup, and I'm 80% full. Besides, the difference in price between an 80gb and a 250gb is only around $40-45 these days. I'll be buying the second drive after my build, and I might even get a second raptor, but not for any pointless RAID configuration. It depends on how much I like the first one.

And thanks for all the input, btw.

 

[Oblivious]

Woot! I Finally built it!

I finished my build a couple of days ago. Thanks to anyone here for any help/advice given.

I ended up going with:

case: NZXT Lexa
cpu: Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo
motherboard: Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
ram: 2gb Corsair XMS pc3200 (2-3-3-6) (w/ activity led's)
videocard: Evga GeForce 7900gt CO (500/1500) (x2 eventually)
soundcard: SoundBlaster X-Fi Platinum
hdd 1: Western Digital Raptor 150gb (10,000rpm, 16mb cache)
hdd 2: Seagate 300gb Barracuda (7,200rpm, 16mb cache)
psu: OCZ Powerstream 600w
monitor: Samsung 930BF 4ms 19" LCD
speakers: Creative Inspire p7800 7.1 surround
optical drive 1: Sony dru710 DL dvd burner
optical drive 2: HP dvd640 DL dvd burner w/ lightscribe
floppy drive: Koutech 3.5 Drive w/ multi card reader
mouse/keyboard: Logitech LX 700 wireless desktop
misc: Belkin SurgeMaster under monitor power center
misc: Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste (on cpu and gpu)
misc: Round IDE cables for optical and floppy drives
misc: 5.25" external storage bin

This rig just screams! I love it! BF2 at max settings runs at 80-100 FPS, and Oblivion runs very smooth at max settings (dunno FPS command). Windows loads in ~10 seconds, shuts down in ~5 seconds. Finally I can stop envying everyone else's specs and enjoy my own high end machine!

The only issue I had was my X-Fi soundcard doesn't seem to like my setup. It has constant static (idle or in use) in all modes. I tried switching pci slots as well as re-installing drivers. I've since found out that this seems to be a fairly common problem with the X-Fi series cards and nForce chipsets. I'm annoyed to say the least.

I threw in an old 5.1 Audigy card for the time being. I think I'll get an Audigy2 ZS or an Audigy4 as soon as I RMA the X-Fi card.

Anyways, thanks again.

 

[Waphlez]

I say RMA that one and just get the X-Fi Xtreme Music. You probably got a bad card and it happens; at least it isn't a vital component.

 

[Oblivious]

I say RMA that one and just get the X-Fi Xtreme Music. You probably got a bad card and it happens; at least it isn't a vital component.

I got that card about a month ago, prior to being ready to build. So, I got antsy and tried it in my old pc. It worked fine in that pc, so I'm assuming it's not the card, but a compatibillity issue like I've read about.