Rate/Help me on my proposed build

So I've been mulling it over now.. I think the video cards are down to the 8800GT's or 9600GT's in SLI. Which ones are better I have no clue, so hopefully someone has an answer..

And the case. I've narrowed it down. Either the Lian Li PC-60B Plus II or Silverstone KL01.

Now that the shop I buy from has the Q9450 for order, should I wait for it? There's no heatsink or cooler, which would add to the over $100 premium compared to the Q6600. Is the difference that good?
 
8800GT's perform slightly better than 9600GT's. I've heard that the 9600's scale better in SLI though, but I don't know by how much. I could be wrong.
 
SLI = overkill
8gb = overkill
Q6600... why? get a yorkfield for another hundred bucks instead of wasting your money on the unimportant stuff.
OCZ... get the reapers with the heatpipes... so sweet! 4gb is plenty.
ASUS... decent brand, i prefer gigabyte over anything though.
Hitachi 1gb drive, i'd go with a 7200.11 seagate they're supposed to be the best.
Optical Drive go with a Lite-On
Nice case... Lian-Li quality pwnz
OS? i'd run a 32-bit xp pro, dual booted with a 64-bit server 08
get an awesome psu from seasonic, pcp&c or corsair... my recommendation would be the corsair 620hx
 
I really am thinking about a Yorkfield.. but the case is a matter I'm still completely unsettled on. Lian-Li or Silverstone. Hm..
 
So our old computer died somehow, and seeing as it's a P4 with a 9200SE, we're not in a huge rush to fix it. So I'm in need of a PC, and I'm wondering what you guys think of this.

Motherboard: Asus P5N-D. Dunno if this is a great board, but that'll probably change.
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600. This is probably going unchanged.
RAM: 2x OCZ 4GB PC2-6400 SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel DDR2 Kit (2 x 2GB). Yeah, 8GB of RAM. I'm thinking it might be overkill.
Video Card: 2x XFX GeForce 9600 GT 512MB PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDTV-Out. I don't know if these in SLI will be better or worse than a pair of 8800GT's.
Hard Drive: Hitachi 1TB Deskstar 7K1000 SATA II w/ 32MB Cache. Love the Cache size.
DVD Drive: LG Super Multi Security DVD Writer 20x20x12x, SATA w/ Lightscribe, Black (OEM). Cheap, fast, and Lightscribe in case I ever use it.
Case: Lian Li PC-G50B Aluminum Mid Tower, Black. Looks nice and has a 120mm fan.
OS: Some 64-bit version of Windows for all that RAM. (Which one??)

So there we have it. Minus OS, Case, and Mobo it's less than $1200 which I think is good for 8GB of RAM, a Q6600, and 9-series in SLI.

Now the main questions:
Which version of Windows?
Is the motherboard good? (There's so many with so many different chipsets I just don't know which type are best)
What's better, 9600 GT's in SLI or 8800GT's in SLI?
Is there a better case for about the same money that looks similar?


Check my Signature for my Build. It is a great build. I will answer your question more directly.

Mobo. Never seen yours but the one I used is ok. There are better but mine was a good price.
Processor is good but for my next build I am waiting for 45nm Quad cores. Also don't listen to anybody saying dual core is better for gaming. Currently UT3 is only game I know of that optimizes for quad core (which is also the main game I play). So there not lieing when they say dual core is better but almost all games coming out later this year and next year are going to be optimized for quad core.
4GB of RAM is plenty. I would get 4 GB of good RAM over 8GB of not so good RAM. You can choose 4x1GB or 2x2GB but either way it doesn't really matter because like someone else said, when you need 8GB of RAM, DDR3 will be mainstream.
Video card. I would go with 2x8800GT's if you really wanted SLI. But then you need to spend more money on a good SLI mobo. I would go with 1 8800GTS 512MB(G92 core), I run max settings on UT3 and get max frames(UT3 maxes out at 62FPS) without fluctuating. Either get that card, or you can go for the Radeon HD3870x2 or Nvidia 9800GTX2(both use a single slot so you save money on mobo and both are SLI built in to 1 card and have excellent performance)
Hard Drive. I would go with 2 500GB Seagate 7200.11 Drives with 32MB cache. They are cheaper and if you ever need to wipe a drive you can just transfer files to one of the hard drives and format the empty one.
OS. Go with Vista Home Premium 64 bit edition. With SP1 it is a great OS and uses DirectX 10.

EDIT:: Forgot to add to get a aftermarket cooler. It does not have to be the best or most expensive one. The Zalman one is very good, But it extends the life of your CPU and makes it easier to overclock.
 
What do you think about a CoolIT PURE? Seems like a decent and silent cooler for the price.
 
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