System almost complete, need further advice.

[ohlmsjm]

I have recently purchased the following:

Thermaltake VA3000 Case (120mm fan on the front, back, and 90mm side fan)
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum Motherboard
Antec Trueblue 480w PSU
OCZ EL Revision 2 PC3200 2x512mb
NEC 1.44mb Floppy
Western Digital 36GB 10k RPM Raptor SATA
NEC ND-3500A DVD+ CD-RW
Leadtek Geforce 6800GT
Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS


Now what I am curious to know is the following:
1. CPU? CPU? CPU? I would really like to get a hold of an Athlon 64 FX-53 primarily because I do not overclock and I don't plan to build again for at least 3 years, but is the $800 price tag worth it? Is it worth it for 3 years or more of performance?
2. Heat sink and Fan requets for the chosen CPU? Are standard retail HSF good enough to keep the system cool and stable when not oc'ing? Are there any recommendations that would compliment my setup thus far?
3. Monitor! LCD or CRT? Yes I am a gamer and I do media editing (photoshop, flash, etc) but with the constant rumors of ghosting on the LCD's, is it worth it to move to that technology yet? If so, any recommendations on an LCD of choice for gamers?
4. Finally, are there any foreseeable issues here to the trained eye that I should be aware of when building this system? Drivers, bios versions, compatability issues, heat/temp issues, performance issues?

Thanks tremendously!

 

[Regs]

If you have the cash, by all means get the FX. The reason is because the 6800GT would actually be CPU limited in most games so the faster the CPU the better.

As for LCD and CRT - If you are not willing to spend 500-800 dollars on a LCD, I don't think they are worth it. I'm sure many will recommend the 2001P from dell or the ViewSonic VP912B.

 

[ohlmsjm]

Thanks Regs.

How's the setup look so far? I plan to add an additional 120-250gigs in hard drive space, but I'm still leary on the hsf combo for the cpu since I don't plan to overclock I am under the assumption that the stock hsf should suffice.

Any thoughts?

 

[Regs]

The A64's run very cool. Mine runs around 42c Idle to 50-55c load with a stock HSF. These CPUs can run up to at least 70c if you wanted them to.