New Gaming Machine

[learn2read]

Hey, im looking to buy a new gaming pc around the end of july. Im looking for most bang for the buck so if anyone can help me improve my current choice with less or almost equal money it would mean the world:

Motherboard- MSI P7N diamond
CPU- Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
VGU- Geforce 9800 GTX x2 in SLI
Memory- OCZ DDR2 Flex XLC PC2- 900 1gb x 2
Storage- Hitachi Deskstar P7K500 x2 (raid 0)
DVD- Plextor PX-810SA
PSU- Antec Truepower Quattro TPQ 850

i believe this totals to be about $2400
and i livin in japan (i think i can get most parts here)
Ive never overclocked in my life but i plan on trying it for the first time with this purchase.
BIggest Dilemmas-
1) intel core 2 duo e8500 VS quad q9300
2) Motherboard... msi? asus? pretty open for suggestion
3) Memory- OCZ? Corsair? most bang for buck

 

[Roguestar]

learn2read... the sticky

Also, wait for recommendations until the end of July.

And finally; RAID-0 has no place on a desktop PC.

 

[DSF]

Second the motion to ask again in July. In the meantime, read up on possible part choices.

SLI is not a bang-for-the-buck proposition, and neither is the E8500.

Edit: And when I say that th E8500 isn't good bang for the buck, I don't mean that you should go quad core. I mean that the bang for the buck is in the slightly slower dual cores like the E8400 and E7200. If overclocking is an option, the E7200 is easily the best bang for the buck in my opinion.

 

[sgrinavi]

New motherboard chipsets and graphics cards are due out in the next month (or so) and Intels price cuts and new CPUs will be out soon as well.

SLI can be a fun experiment, but unless you want to go for a budget SLI, pair of 9600GTs it is not cost effective.

RAID 0 is fast, but can be a real PIA when it crashes and burns, it is difficult to justify for a toy

Memory- will depend on the rest of the rig, for example you can get away with fairly low cost ddr2-800 ram for a rig with lower FSB, but if you step up to an x48 or a 790i board you'll need some spendy DDR3

Your PSU choice might be OK if you get it on sale