Mobo in proposed build, any thoughts..?

[Stormheart]

Looking for opinions here, mostly on the motherboard choice, but everything?s game I guess. I?m planning on dropping some Benjamins this Thursday and ordering everything I need for my first rig. This will be my first build with the help of a friend who has built a number of rigs for himself and other friends, but I want to learn so he?s just going to guide me per say. I?m trying to end up with a system that will have all the current design advances ( PCI-E, Socket 939, nForce4, SLI etc ), and give me room for upgrades later on when more money is available. At that time I?m going to build a second one for my wife and some of these components will then go in her build as I upgrade mine ( from 6600GT to 6800GT, then dual cards utilizing SLI, dual core AMD processor, better ram, etc ). Her system will not require the horsepower mine will as she doesn?t game at all. So here?s what I planned on getting;

Thermaltake Xaser III V1000A Black Chassis: 1.0mm SECC Japan Steel; Front Panel: Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

ASPIRE ATX-AS520W BLACK ATX 520W Power Supply - Retail

MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Winchester Integrated into Chip FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3000BIBOX - Retail

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail

Leadtek PX6600GT TDH Geforce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card - Retail

Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 73GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM

LITE-ON SOHW-1673S Black IDE DVD Burner - Retail

SAMSUNG 915N-BK Black 19" 8ms LCD Monitor - Retail

Microsoft E85-03013 Windows XP Professional With Service Pack 2 - OEM

I chose the MSI mobo and the Leadtech card based on the reviews here on Anandtech.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2358&p=21

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2295&p=20

Also, one of the benefits the MSI mobo gives me is the halfway decent on-board sound from what I?ve read. When I do my wifes build I plan on adding an Audigy2 ZS card to mine. But here?s my concern about the chosen mobo, after spending countless hours the last few weeks trying to educate myself on everything, it?s seems to me by noticing other peoples builds that the majority have chose the Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe board. I need to know if I?m choosing the wrong mobo before I drop the cash. The three I was originally considering was the Asus, DFI, and the MSI one listed above. Yes I do plan on overclocking stuff, within reason I guess. When I do my wifes this fall I plan on upgrading mine with the following and using the replaced stuff in hers.

eVGA 256-P2-N376-AX Geforce 6800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card - Retail x2 later on

OCZ OCZ520ADJ ATX 520W Power Supply - Retail

CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model TWINX1024-3200XLPRO - Retail x2 later on

ViewSonic VP201B Black 20.1" 16ms LCD Monitor - Retail

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ ??

CREATIVE Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS GAMER Limited Edition 70SB035000013 8 (7.1) Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail

Klipsch PROMEDIA ULTRA 5.1 5.1 Speaker - Retail

Any advice or insight you guys have would be greatly appreciated, I?m very much a complete noob at this and more important than anything, want to end up with a solid system that works and kicks *ss.

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

Alright, u wanted advice...:
Dont go the SLI way. More power consumption, more heat, more noise, more software trouble with the drivers, no tv out while in SLI mode...theres a lot of trouble ur buying for a lot of money. I say: Buy urself a fast single slot card, like the X800XL and when u upgrade ur wifes comp she will be very happy to get ur X800XL and u will be even happier cuz u can buy a next gen single-slot card, i know that doesnt as sound "cool" as the SLI stuff but i predict u will happy . So next is, the board, cancel the SLI board and thus save some cash and get a DFI LANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D or MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum. Good boards, not too expensive, good sound...the bad: active chipset cooling. If u want a passive Northbridge Cooling theres only one choice and even a good one: Soltek K8T890. next, the....Winchester Core is good, but theres a new Core in town, its the Venice. Since the reviewers already praise it as the overclockers dream, its worth taking a look at it. SHould be available already in the stores, dunno how much more expensive it is in the beginning, but cant be much compared to the winnie, maybe 5 bucks? And, the 3000+ is good, but a 3500+ is better, lets see if we can save some cash on the other parts The PSU. 520W sounds great, and i dont want to start a discussion, how much Watt SLI and non-SLI really takes, imo its too much in both cases. A 420W PSU is enough. Take care to buy one that says ATX 2.0 standard and has a 24pin power connector, and the 12V Aux Connector (which indicates its the lates ATX 2.0 standard). U can buy a good quality brand 420W PSU for about 70$-80$. The memory is good, but i doubt it will overclock good. Id expect these Twinmos to be a lil better for oc but in the end, unless its pretested u never know how far u can overclock it: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820218062
As for the graphics cards: X800XL.
The raptor. A raptor is cool. Its fast. But its so damn expensive u can buy like 2 x 200GB drives for 1 74gb raptor, thats ridiculous. At least buy the small raptor, the 36gb. But my real advice is to buy a Hitachi 7k250, oder a Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 200GB for less than 100$.
The dvd burner is okay, my advice would have been the LG GSA-4163B or NEC ND-3540 and, if u like lightscribe, which means that the burner has another laser for printing on the CD/DVD - u can take the BenQ DW1625 or Philips DVDR16LSK.

think about, do some calculations pros and cons

 

[DPOverLord]

Will that ram help in future o/c a lot mroe than the CVS? Since its only a 20$ diff. It seems to make more sense