I've been running essentially the same system for a bit over two years (kinda fell out of PC enthusiast mode). The wife wants a new desktop for her home office so I'm going to give her mine so my new system will have to be the whole thing, case and all. Additionally, I'll probably want to put as much of the best ram that the old system will take. She will want to add additional monitors so I'll unlink the cards from SLI (she day trades and writes code for a trading platform - not a gamer at all).

I've been reading these boards again to refamiliarize and want to get some more direction so I can hone the research a bit more. Flame away if these "what should I buy" posts are annoying

The old system: AMD x2 4200 socket 939, Audigy 2, x2 7800GT SLI, 2 GB PC 3200 Corsair 2-3-3-6 (4x512), MSI KN8 Neo4 Platinum, 2 WD 160 GB SATA (will probably leave RAID 0 and stripe them)

The new: looking at a core2 duo or quad on 45 nm, one or two 8800 gt (or 9800?), will probably get two SATA drives to run in raid 0, not sure about the mobo or other specs. I'd like to get the new system done in the 1400 to 1500 range.

Your help is VERY MUCH appreciated!

[edit] I do some 2D apps but want to run a DX10 gaming setup and 4gb ram also so I'll be most likely running Vista 64.

Dumb questions? I guess it keeps me honest enough to do the legwork myself. Playing around on some of the build-your-own sites gives me the lay of the current landscape a bit better.

TKD TKD,
I tried to stay close.... Single vs Dual 9800s, you didn't say anything about speakers or monitor, so heres the chassis:
http://tinyurl.com/5bbkdk

Gerritt

Thanks Gerritt. That's better for the money than what I put together. I just meant the box. The monitor, keyboard, speakers, etc are all ok for now. The main concern was not bottlenecking the system which is always something I wind up doing since it tends to be an ongoing upgrade rather than a freshly built system.

I plan on reading a bit more on the C2 duo/quad cost-benefit and the single 9800 series vs. 8800 in SLI. Thanks again for the recommendation.

No problem.
In the supplied configuration there were some compromises made.

I chose a dual vs quad core because the state of OSs and Software right now, and for most software over the coming year or so seem to favor a fast dual core over a slower quad core configuration. The dual core Wolfdale at 3GHz+ on the 45nm process seems to be the better bang for the buck as compared to a quad at or about 2.2-2.5Ghz on the 65nm process that are in the same price range.

I chose the single 9800GTX over a pair of 8800GTSs in SLI for much the same reason. Both operate of fo the G92 GPU but the memory clocks on the 9800 series seem to be higher than those on the 8800 series. Cost of a single 9800 $330. Cost of dual 8800s $460 (after mail in rebate). Now that is a difference in cost of about %35 (off the top of my head), but the actual performance increase of a SLI configuration over that of a single card in normal or even gaming operation typically doesn't come close to the %35.

I chose the ASUS Striker II Formula because I've had good experiences with the ASUS MBs overall, it has the support of the 780i chipset, supports PCI-E 2.0 and has excellent VWM and heat management. It also includes 7.1 audio on the MB/Riser, and support for 3 way SLI for future expandability.

I chose the Thermaltake TP 650W for overall reliability (though it has taken some recent hits so test thouroughly) and the modular cable design, even though the modular cable design may be a contributory factor in some of the issues people are having. People keep your contacts clean, high impedence in a power circuit can lead to unnecessary heartache.

I chose the Xaser VI chassis due to the mid-tower configuration with plenty of expansion room, rock solid construction, and excellent air flow options. I have a Xaser III, and suspect the Xaser VI will continue in the Thermaltake standard. Besides, its a wicked looking chassis.

The WD Caviar drives at 7200rpm are a good inexpensive and reletively reliable drive. I keep mine in either a RAID1 or RAID5 configuration as I've had some fail, though I've had failures of almost every single drive type of the years. Unless you're tweaking on the bleeding edge, the 10k+rpm drives aren't worth the extra cost....plus they have a 3 year warantee, and are good about giving a newer higher capacity drive in exchange.

OCZ 4GB of memory. OCZ makes a very good flexable product that you can tweak to your hearts content, or if you don't tweak, are about as stable as you can get. Plus they have excellent heat spreaders/sinks incorporated from the factory. 2x2 vs. 4x1 due to easy expandability in the future as well as reducing the system overhead of handling the 4 sticks if you don't need 8GB right now.

Lite-on CD/DVD. OK so I cut a corner here, you can add a Blu-ray in the future if you want... Even at that, I've had several Lite-on burners and they work fine, at least for a while, but at $30, whats a few extra seconds for a DVD burn. Also this unit supports Lightscribe title burning, which I've only had for a short while (1yr), I am finding it indespensable now.

I hope this helps explain the trade-offs and the specifications reached based upon them. None of the items specified should prove to be a bottleneck in the near future, and the system has some great expanability and upgradable features, so when the prices come down you're ready for it.
The only drawback to this system design is no DDR3 support, though there is little to drive the need for it right now, and DDR2 should still be supportable for the next couple of years.

Gerritt said:

DDR2 is so cheap right now you might as well get 8GB and max out now before it becomes "legacy" tech and goes up in price like DDR and SDRAM did after they fell from the mainstream, then you don't have to worry about "supporting" the RAM in the years to come since you are already using the max your platform can handle.

A worthwhile tip on the ram. I'll keep my eye on the prices and availability. For now I'll probably just get 2x2gb sticks to leave room.

Gerritt, thanks again. I was expecting general tips and "make sure you dont do this or that" kind of advice. I'm playing with what you gave me and will probably settle with that overall set up.

Well it looks like I'm going quad. I got a q9450 for $300 on eBay so I'll get that Asus Striker II mobo since it has everything I'll need for SLI (for later), 1066 ram, etc and put it in a Cooler Master 690 since it's on sale and I'm not too crazy for the look of the Xaser. The 9800 GTX cards are falling below $300 too, the BFG is 260 with a MIR.

Sounds good to me, just hook it all up to a nice PSU and you'll be all set. I think in the future you will be glad you went Quad, and they are decent overclockers too, so you could easily bump it up to around 3.2Ghz or so (as I did) and you got yourself a CPU that performs on par with the $1000 QX9770.

Yeah that looks like a reasonable target to start things off, Adam, thanks.

What I ended up with is:

cpu: q9450
gfx: 9800gtx
hd: x2 WD 640aaks (really liking these; fast, cool, quiet)
mem: Muskin pc8500 2x2gb
psu: corsair 650tx
case: cooler master 690
mobo: asus striker II formula
optical: x2 samsung SH-S203B

got it done for <1400 so I was able to hit the target budget and am very pleased with the system. I found the Striker II to be a bit fussy with hanging on POST and had to adjust the voltages to get the ram running at 1066 @ 1333 fsb. I installed Vista x64 and it runs well but the NTune software causes bsod so I'll have to get that sorted or use a different program to oc the gfx card.