A bunch of questions

[CeleryGoblin]

The moment I think I'm reay to order my PC, I hear something, or think of a question that makes me go through everything again.

Anyway...

The sole purpose of this computer is for gaming and internet surfing.

EDIT: I'm not overclocking.

My first question is about motherboards.

I'm looking at the Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe nForce4 SLI-x16 Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Dual Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, Dual PCI-E MB , and I heard that people have had problems with the Deluxe and I should go with the Premium. Is there anything I should be aware regarding the two boards?

RAM:

Is a "Heat Spreader" necessary?

Hard Drives:

I'm looking at 2 WD Raptor WD740GD 74.0GB 8M Cache Hard Drives, and there's a "Raid Configuration" section, and under that section are the options:

"Raid-0 [Data Striping] With 2X Hard Drives"

"Raid-1 [Data Mirroring] With 2X Hard Drives"

Which one should I choose?

Sound Card:

Out of the following, which one would give me the most bang for my buck?

3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard

Creative Lab Sound Blaster Audigy SE [+ $49]

Creative Lab Sound Blaster X-Fi ExtremeMusic [+ $117]

Creative Lab Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum [+ $180]

[External] Creative Lab Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro [+ $384]

Speaker System:

I'm currently looking at the Cintre RW-6510 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers + Subwoofer, does anyone have any experience with these, or should I consider something else?

CPU:

My #1 option is the [939-pin] AMD® Athlon-64 X2 3800+ CPU w/ Hyper Transport Technology. This seems like the perfect choice, because it's within my price range, and from what I've heard it's good. Should I stick with it?

Power Supply:

Is the PC Power & Cooling TURBO-COOL 850 Watt (950W Peak) Power Supply [SLI Ready] (yes, I know, WAY overkill. There are two reasons for this. One, because I've heard PCP&C is a very good brand, and two, because I want to have a PS that will handle any future upgrades I'll make for a long time.) quiet or loud?

Here are the rest of the computer parts:

Raidmax Ninja-918 ATX Mid-tower Case

Cold Cathode Neon Light

2048 MB [1024MB X2] DDR-400 PC3200 Memory Module Corsair-Value or Major Brand More Options

[PCI-Ecpress 16x] Nvidia Geforce 7800GT 256MB w/DVI + TV Out Video

ViewSonic VX922 Black/Silver 19" 2ms gray-to-gray (avg.); 2ms white-black-white (typ) LCD Monitor 270 cd/m2 650:1 0.294mm Pixel Pitch - Retail


I'm sure I'll have more questions in a week or so.

Thanks.

 

[003]

Raid 5 is the best. The AN832 is the current king of socket 939 motherboards. Heatspreaders are not necessary. The X-Fi XtremeMusic is the best, the only difference between that and the platinum is that the platinum comes with a front panel drive bay with headphone, mic and optical connections. the psu while overkill, is fine. How much are you willing to spend on the speakers? also, in march the 7900 series is coming out, you might want to wait for that.

edit:
oh yeah and I would get an opteron 165 or 170 cpu.

 

[boomstick666]

r u making a time machine? and nice hair cut on ur sig! (hope its really u)

anyway, wow to the PSU. if u r planning on making a comp w/ quad GPU and 12 HD, its good for that i guess... well this machine is for gaming and porn right?