My Build To Be...

[novie]

thinking of taking the plunge on my first build despite what seems to be the somewhat awkward state of things for vista, and for dx10. the goal of the build is a box that will be ready for vista in the coming months, and will be used, roughly in this order, for:
1. trading, with two monitors, possibly adding a third down the road if i see a need
2. media playback (audio, video, tv). will use a tv tuner in the short term if its not as impractical as it looks at first glance. will want to hook this box up to an hdtv set within a year. is the s-video out that is on most cards worthless for hd? also, will a future dx10 play nice with the card i have listed below? (not thinking sli, just coexistence for extra display out).
3. the obligatory MS office progs, and occasional adobe cs/quark xpress type use. guess ill throw in voip here as well. not planning on doing any gaming that needs frame rates, i bust out civ4 every now and then, thats about it.

ive lurked and searched this board for a bit and tried to take previous recs into account, still im a bit unclear on certain points. i have two mobos and cases listed. i guess ill need a board with 2 pcie x16 slots minimum, for the two lcd monitors and the hdtv/third monitor to come. the antec p180 case looks really nice, but i probably dont need a case that big as ill probably add only one additional HDD in the future, in addition to a next gen optical drive if theyre ever cheap enough to be worth purchasing lol. went with the samsung drive simply because its sata, i know the liteons are recommended. would like the psu to be efficient for my needs. also could use suggestions on a UPS and on lcd monitor stands. thought i would have found more build-your-own ideas for stands, but theyve been few and far between in my googlings. would like something that can be mounted from a coffee table level, raised/lowered and swiveled to be viewed from any side if thats not too crazy sounding, and of course be somewhat reasonably polished looking...

enough questions for now right... thanks for weighing in on this project!

everything listed below is sourced from newegg for simplicitys sake...

ITEM BRAND MODEL SUPPLIER PRICE SHIPPING TOTAL
CASE Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450Watt SmartPower 2.0 Power Supply - Retail $99.99 $15.99 $115.98
Antec Performance One P180B Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel for durability through the majority of chassis 1.0mm cold rolled steel around the 4 x HDD area ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail $124.99 $15.99
PSU $- $- $-
MoBO ASUS P5B Deluxe LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $176.99 $6.94 $183.93
ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $199.99 $6.94
CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail $221.00 $- $221.00
HDD Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3400620AS 400GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $119.99 $- $119.99
RAM G.SKILL 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory - Retail $219.99 $4.99 $224.98
OPTICAL 01 Samsung SAMSUNG Black 18X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 18X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner With LightScribe Technology - OEM $41.99 $41.99
OPTICAL 02 $- $- $-
OPTICAL 03 $- $- $-
SOUND CARD ? $- $-
VIDEO CARD EVGA 256-P2-N550 -T2 GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $99.99 $5.64 $105.63
FDD $- $- $-
KEYBOARD ? $50.00 $- $50.00
MOUSE ? $20.00 $- $20.00
MODEM $- $- $-
LAN $- $- $-
MONITOR BenQ FP222WH Black 22" 5ms DVI Widescreen HDMI LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 700:1 - Retail $299.99 $19.14 $319.13
SPEAKERS $- $- $-
OS Microsoft Vista $- $-
MISC 01 BenQ FP222WH Black 22" 5ms DVI Widescreen HDMI LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 700:1 - Retail $299.99 $19.14 $319.13
MISC 02 ? monitor stand $- $- $-
MISC 03 ? UPS $- $- $-
MISC 04 ? misc cabling $- $- $-
MISC 05 ? tv tuner card $- $- $-

[chuck4456]

My apologies. Both of my phones were ringing as I was examining your post. Quite an undertaking there.

[glc]

I would get the P5B Deluxe if you are planning on 2 independent video cards for 3 or more monitors. The Nvidia chipset boards for Intel processors just aren't that stable. You are overpaying for ram - if you aren't going to overclock, Corsair Value Select DDR2-667 wil be plenty good enough. The Sonata power supply doesn't have enough guts to drive 2 video cards, even though you won't be *using* it, you should get a SLI or Crossfire-certified power supply.

[novie]

Antec Performance One P180B Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel for durability through the majority of chassis 1.0mm cold rolled steel around the 4 x HDD area ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Model #: P180B
Item #: N82E16811129017
In Stock
$124.99 $124.99

ASUS P5B Deluxe LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Model #: P5B Deluxe
Item #: N82E16813131045
$176.99 $176.99

Update XFX PVT73GUGD3 GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail
Model #: PVT73GUGD3
Item #: N82E16814150182
$142.99 $142.99

Update Antec True Power Trio TP3-650 ATX12V 650W Power Supply with Three 12V Rails - Retail
Model #: TP3-650
Item #: N82E16817371001
$124.99 -$20.00 Instant $104.99

Update Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6400 - Retail
Model #: BX80557E6400
Item #: N82E16819115004
$221.00 $221.00

Update CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory Model VS2GBKIT667D2 - Retail
Model #: VS2GBKIT667D2
Item #: N82E16820145098
$159.99 $159.99

Update Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Model #: ST3320620AS
Item #: N82E16822148140
$89.99 $89.99

Update Logitech Cordless Desktop EX110 967561-0403 Black USB + PS/2 RF Wireless Standard Keyboard Mouse Included - Retail
Model #: 967561-0403
Item #: N82E16823126174
$29.99 $29.99

(2) BenQ FP222WH Black 22" 5ms DVI Widescreen HDMI LCD Monitor - Retail
Model #: FP222WH
Item #: N82E16824014139
$299.99 $599.98

Update SAMSUNG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write, LightScribe Technology Black SATA Model SH-S183L - OEM
Model #: SH-S183L
Item #: N82E16827151141
$41.99 $41.99
Subtotal: $1,692.90

changes and thoughts:
case is antec p180... might go all outand get the LIAN LI PC-B20B, gotta think about that a bit more.
beefed up the PSUto 650w so as to handle a second (dx10) graphics card down the road, the XCLIO GREATPOWER X14S4P4 650W ATX12V 650W Power Supply with modular cabling is tempting, hmm.
changed graphics card to to 7600gt as its listed as hdcp compliant, 7600gs isnt.
downgraded ram to ddr2 667 as recommended, i trust this is okay even though the mobo specs newegg lists say it uses 800.

[Alaron]

Looks solid to me. We usually recommend eVGA video cards. XFX doesn't have the same great reputation.

Choose between the Core 2 Duo 6300 or 6600. The larger cache on the 6600 is worth it, if you can swing the cash. Otherwise, the slight clock speed advantage that the 6400 has over the 6300 is not worth it.

Your Samsung drive doe not come with burning software. Thats why we recommend retail LiteOns, they have Nero Burning software.