Need help with gaming rig!

[mep916]

I'm planning on probably getting the Arctic Freezer Pro. I've heard it comes with the MX-2 paste already..so, if I buy that, I wouldn't need to buy the paste?

OK. Yeah, if it comes with MX-2 preapplied, then you don't necessarily need to buy a tube. I would anyway. It's good to have a tube lying around in case you need some.

And between Crucial Ballistix/Corsair/and the Patriot memories, which would you recommend?

I own the Ballistix and the Corsair Dominator. I like the Ballistix because of the LEDs, but I would recommend either.

They are all very close in price, and seem to be offering the same thing. The motherboard that I chose (the P35-DS3R) support memory list included the Crucial Ballistix and Corsair but not the Patriot, unless I missed something

Yes, that's right. I didn't see the Kingston RAM you selected. Get the Ballistix if you're sure the board will support it, or get the XMS2.

EDIT: Okay, so just read the RAID thread. Still a little bit blurry, lol. So just to clear it up, I should be able to configure RAID 1+5 with just that 1 HDD with a GA-P35-DS3R mobo, by creating multiple partitions within that 1 HDD? And that would give me some good fault tolerance? More confusing is though..would you recommend configuring RAID?

I believe you need additional hard drives --not partitions-- to configure a RAID setup. You want each hard drive to have the same storage capacity. If you're interested in this type of setup, buy two of these. For further information about RAID, read this Maximum PC article.