Questions about building a gaming computer

[meat_helmet]

Raid and SCSI are two very different things. I suggest that before do anthing with them, you go and read up on them.

Raid is a method of combining muliple hard drives into an array of various configurations, SCSI is a server grade hard drive system, and it is extremely expensive. The R in that DS3R stands for raid, so no you wont need a raid card.

 

[baron5]

forgot he needed raid, you could also get the biostar I45 which supports raid, but either are good.

 

[BongWizard]

a nice lineup... i'd make just a few changes

Mobo - Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards -> the P45 chipset will give you better OCing, and, being the DS3R model, will give you onboard RAID support (0,1,5 and 10)... the one you've got listed now doesn't support RAID

GPU - Newegg.com - EVGA 512-P3-N873-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards or Newegg.com - HIS Hightech H485QT512P Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported IceQ4 Turbo Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards -> will give you so much better gaming than the 9800 GT... i'd especially recommend the HIS 4850... its got a sweet cooler on it, which is essential for an OCed 4850

PSU - Newegg.com - Antec EA650 650W ATX12V Ver.2.2 / EPS12V version 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Power Supplies -> just for a bit more power, which'll give you expandability and guarantee stability

other than those few minor upgrades, everything's lookin pretty nice... hope all goes well for you!

 

[Fat.Clown]

using stock cooler?
you can raid with regular SATA drives instead of SCSI
and it'd still be plenty fast