Well, if you are don't like spending too much, you can try cutting a few things to bring the cost down.
If I may suggest a few things, don't buy everything at one time. Watercooling set can wait until you are more comfortable with your computer rather than doing everything at the same time and ended up losing everything (because of improper set up).
It is true that new quad-core processor is coming out but that does not mean you have to get it to be able to play the latest games. Sure everyone wants the latest and the best but unfortunately sometimes our money couldn't keep up.
That being said, the build in my sig would be more than sufficient to play all the latest games in high settings if not semi-high. Otherwise, if you rather stick to your build then I would say couple of things need to be improved, namely:
- the RAM, DDR2-800 rams are fine. Get the one with 4-4-4-12 timing is you need performance. Example:
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820145034
- SLI is not really needed. Performance gain is not that much but if you really want it that is fine.
- Intel Q6600 is fine for now and it should last you for 3-4 years I believe. As I said just now, you don't have to have the new quad core. They would also be quite expensive when they come out.
- Get Arctic Silver 5 rather than that thermal paste you listed in your build.
- For sound card, Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer would do just fine.
- For the OS, I would say just get the OEM version. The difference between OEM and retail is just the fact that retail will get you both 32-bit and 64-bit version of the OS. Nothing more, nothing less (retail got the pretty box too, I guess if you really wanna say
). And looking at the fact that you only buying 2GB of RAM get the 32-bit OS then.
- I didn't see an optical drive listed other than the ASUS DVD-ROM. You are better off with a DVD burner I would say and one is enough unless you want to burn a DVD while playing games at the same time.
- As for the watercooling setup, I would say hold off to that until you got all your parts assembled and working nicely. I understand that you need to dis-assemble it again when you need to install the watercooling setup and I am sure you want to skip the hassle.
- For the raptor, I leave it up to you. People can get into an all out debate about the price vs. performance of raptor and it will end up confusing you. So which ever you like.
You could use my rig in the sig for reference. It cost about roughly $1700 w/o MIR and the accessories like Physics card and keyboard and mouse.
Hope this helps you.
Cheers, mate!
P.S. compare the prices between newegg and clubit because sometimes one would be cheaper than the other when shipping is taken into account.
P.S.S. Sorry for the extremely long post