Making a new comp and would appreciate some advice

[Valen]

I'm planning on making a new computer to replace my old one. Any advice/sugestions/comments would be greatly apreciated. So far, this is what i am planning to get for it:

DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR MB
AMD Athalon 64 4800+ X2 (Toldeo core)
Thermaltake 680W ATX 12V 2.0 Plus Silent Pure Power PSU
OCZ PC-3200 Platinum Rev. 2 1GB (2x512mb) Dual Channel x2
eVga Geforce 7800 GTX 256mb
BenQ IDE DVD Burner w/ Lightscribe
Swiftech MCP650 12V 1/2" pump
Danger Den MAZE4 brass-topped GPU block
CPU block (not sure which one yet)
Black Ice Xtreme III radiator w/ 3 Panflo 120mm fans
Liani-Li V2000B or V2100B (or possibly Thermaltake Shark)
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300GB SATA 150 x4, in RAID 5
Windows XP Pro

Now for the questions:

1) For the radiator I was considering cutting a opening into the top of the case and mounting it internally there. I know this would occupy 2-4 of the 5.25" slots, but that would still leave 3 5.25"drive bays open, which is plenty for what i will be putting in.

---Q: Would this be a achievable mod for someone with minimal modng experience?

---Q: Would this be a good positioning of the radiator?

2) After reading several customer reviews saying that the V2000 & V2100 had bad airflow, i was considering cutting two square openings in the bottom front of eah side panel (right next to the existing 120mm fan) and scrweing on some filter/grills. My thinking was that this would increas airflow, even though these openings have no fan (due to the HDD bays directly behind them) sin ce the radiators 3 120mm fans, along with a 120mm exhaust fan in the back would suck enough air through them.

----Q: Same question as in Q1.1.

----Q: Would these two openeings actually improve airflow through the case?

3) Is this a good setup or should i change items on the list. Please keep in mind wth any suggested alterations that this setup is on the border of my budget for the system as is.

Again, any comments, advice, or suggestions, eithe in response to the above questions or about some aspect i did not consider would be greatly apreciated.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Okay I am not much of one to help on watercooling, but here is a few suggestions

Motherboard: Asus are not the best, they have reliability problems and are flaky for K8 motherboards. They are still got for intel based builds though.

SLI Motherboard w/ goodies:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136151

SLI Mohtherboard w/o goodies:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136157

Non SLI PCI-E Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152


Onto the ram, this looks like a gaming system, so your better off to get 2 gigs of non ecc PC3200 ram. It wont overclock as high though.

Video card: XFX is a bad manafactuer, try to get eVGA, Leadtek or BFG

 

[HAVOC]

You want a good case with great airflow that was made to fit most WATER COOLING SYSTEMS and has prefabbed holes for water cooling?

Take a look at the Thermaltale Shark.

 

[Valen]

Ty for the response, i have changed the list.

I had not thought off the shark, but the reason i was looking at the 2 lian li cases was that there size and the placement of the PSU would allow me (i think, could be wrong here) to install a triple fan radiator inside the case, which would, i think, make it look better as well as help move air through the case, helping with the components that are not being water cooled.

Also, is it worthwhile to spend the extra money to get pc-4000 or pc-4800 ram?

Lastly, is there any cpu water blocks out there designed for dual core cpus? Just about all of the cpu blocks i have looked at seemed to be designed to primarily cool the very center, where the cpu core would be on most chips, but the dual core ones would have there cores of to either side of this.