I wanted to get some assistance with building a gaming PC. I've done a lot of research, but it's nice to have some advice from someone experienced. I'm not looking to spend a lot of money, but I wanted to be able to play any Valve game with average settings, BF2, and hopefully some of the newer games like Crysis, and the new Unreal Tournament (Drooool). I also use Photoshop, Flash, and Dreamweaver (I'm sure this can handle all of that easily ^_^). This is what I was looking at getting: CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ... $280 MOBO: nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ... $155 MEMORY: CORSAIR XMS2 2GB 240-pin http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ... $108 HARD DRIVE: 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ... $70 VIDEO CARD: 2X http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ... $400 POWER SUPPLY: 700W Power Supply http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ... $140 CASE: 20" x 8" x 17" ATX Mid Tower Computer Case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ... $70 I'm going to be using Windows XP. I'm buying a new monitor later, and I have keyboards/mouses/speakers. Is the plural of mouse, mice? For PC terms? Please suggest any changes that will help me save money. Also, let me know if everything is compatible (I'm pretty sure it is). Thanks for any help, it's greatly appreciated :D

Dump the 2 video cards and spend 60$ more for 1 card that way outperforms the two. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ... Have the lambs stopped crying Clarice?

- The quad CPU is unnecessary. Go with a Core 2 Duo that runs at 1333MHz FSB. From Tom's Hardware: "the current quad core processor generation does provide the performance reserves that Intel promised. However, there are still many applications that do not yet take much advantage of more than two cores. Our conclusion is thus simple: if you can get a quad core of similar clock speed for only a little premium over the dual core, go for it; if not, stick to a reasonably priced dual core." http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ... - dump the nForce based motherboard & get a board based on the Intel P35 chipset. Read the reviews here: http://www.tomshardware.com/motherb... - for the most part, SLi configs are a waste of money. As "Custom Built" suggested, go with a single GOOD card. Of course, if you change to a P35 board, SLI won't be an option anyway. But I would suggest a cheaper 8800GTS rather than the GTX: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ... Notice the performance difference isn't all that much, but the price difference is: http://www23.tomshardware.com/graph... Also notice that your 8600GTS SLi config doesn't have framerates as good as either of the single cards listed above: http://www23.tomshardware.com/graph...

No-no on the 2x SLI 8600's. Grab an 8800 GTS 640mb for around $350, trust me the extra 320mb VRAM will be worth it. MSI P35 Platinum Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66ghz HiS Radeon 2900 Pro 512mb @ XT Crucial 2GB Dual-Channel 3dmark06 - 12165

The 320MB version of the 8800GTS consistently beats the 640MB version. Check the link in reponse # 2 (2nd from the bottom)

That looks true but on the DX10 games the extra VRAM will make a bigger difference in FPS, and with eye candy turned on. But seeing as the OP is only going for XP, then it is rather pointless to get the 640mb version. My new suggestion will be to grab the 320mb version, or wait for the cheaper 8800 GT to come out and overclock that. MSI P35 Platinum Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66ghz HiS Radeon 2900 Pro 512mb @ XT Crucial 2GB Dual-Channel 3dmark06 - 12165

So I'll switch to the Core 2 Duo 3.0 GHz CPU. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ... I think getting the 320mb vcard will be good for now, and I can get a second one in the future for DX10 games. Any suggestions on a better motherboard? I was thinking something like this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...