Building a PC

You're making things complicated....

The Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L and the ASUS P5K SE both can support DDR2 RAM with speeds up to 1066MHz (or DDR2 1066, with an actual clock speed of 533MHz), but that's only useful if you plan to overclock the hell out of the processor. If you're not planning a major overclock, regardless of the processor you choose, you can settle for a set of DDR2 800 RAM. If you' re going to attempt, now or at some point in the future, overclocking the E8400 to speeds over 3.4GHz, you'll want DDR2 1000 or (if you could find it cheap) DDR2 1066.

The HDT-S1284 seems to be a revision to the HDT-S1283, so if you could get it (for around the same price as the Scythe Mugen/Infinity, if not cheaper) then go ahead.
 
Dude, the MBs cost about 90 dollars.
Good DDR2 800 Ram is really, really cheap right now.
If they suck, alone or in combination.....you can easily get something else and be out only 150 dollars or there abouts.
One thing you're going to learn about this hobby real fast.....we only rent this equipment. You will end up changing or replacing all these components as soon as the next best thing rolls around.
All our stuff has a shelf life of about 1 year, tops.
Excepting the 8800 GT/GTX/GTS which have grow old very gracefully. I mean the GTX is still the top dog and it's almost 24 months old.
My Q6600 G0 stepping was the shizzle about 6 months ago or so, it was very hard to get, now its getting deep discounts...... I could go on.

You just need to get out ther and buy the stuff and go for it. Cudos for thinking though, shows you're doing some reading......but you are making this into a novel.
 
I'm sorry for making such a drama out of this. You've all helped me an enormous amount, and I am very grateful.
 
One last question. How long does a CPU cooler stay with you? Since I am not going for the big overclock as it seems, wouldn't it be a bit of a waste to get a top notch CPU cooler, which will be outdated when I am buying my next CPU?
 
Most CPU coolers have various mounting brackets/systems that allow them to be used with most (of today's) motherboards. The deal with getting an aftermarket CPU cooler is that you're buying something that works better and/or runs quieter than the stock coolers you receive with your processor.

As to how long a CPU cooler lasts, I don't know. If you buy a heatsink that uses case fans for "removable" cooling, you could possibly use that same heatsink for several builds (and only have to replace the fan if/when it dies). As for coolers with built-in fans, they have the same approximate life span as most case fans, but (as always) YMMV.

Instead of posting another question, why don't you show us what your current build's going to look like?
 
Granted, good CPU coolers are rather expensive, but its up to you if you want their cooling ability along with their noise reduction. Instead of jumping to the next price level of CPU, you could get a good CPU cooler for usually much less, and just OC... and typically, the lower model CPU has the same OC threshold as the higher/pricier model (this is true for the Core2 series chips).
 
I've just ordered everything, got crazy from trying to make up my mind. This is what it looks like:
Case: CM 590 (Black)
Case fans: 2x Cooler Master Silent fan
PSU: Corsair TX650
Mobo: Asus P5K SE (I got it for quite a nice discount, it was the last one they had.)
CPU: Intel E8400
CPU Cooler: AC Freezer 7 Pro (Good enough for the small overclocks I might do. Not very future proof, didn't cost a lot.)
HD: Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB SATA-300, 32MB, 7200rpm
GFX: XFX GeForce 8800GTX 768MB
RAM: Kingston 4GB DDR2 (2x2GB) PC6400 800Mhz CL5 Dual Channel Kit
DVD Burner: Samsung SHS202J⁄BEBE 20x (Dual Layer, Black OEM
OS: Windows XP 64
Monitor: Samsung Syncmaster 226BW 22Inch Widescreen
That's the result. 996 euro's total. Around the same amount you would pay for it in dollars.
 
Well, I might not have proven to be very smart so far, but that is one thing that I had already checked. Got them all on my USB, ready for use. I had a copy of XP 64 lying around, figured it wouldn't be much worse than vista is, and it saves me like a hundred bucks.
 
Remember, 8800 GTX = DX 10 goodness.
Windows XP = no DX 10:(

Is that a big loss,I don't think so; so far I have not been impressed with DX10 save for Crysis.

Good luck with your purchases. I know you are excited. Just take your time when you put it together. If you need any suggestions or help; you know where to come.;)
 
I had a copy of XP 64 lying around, figured it wouldn't be much worse than vista is, and it saves me like a hundred bucks.

Its actually less supported than Vista 64-bit. I tried it when MS was giving them away for free after I got my Opteron 165, and I just had a bunch of stability issues. Went back to 32 bit and everything was great. So, let us know how it turns out.
 
Thanks Magoo, I sure am excited. I won't rush anything. :)
And engi, that's the least I owe you guys after all you've done. 5 pages of help, I haven't seen many *Help with my build* threads that have received so many replies.
Thanks, all of you!
 
I would recommend the Gigabyte EP35-DS3R, its a greatly priced board, all features you would want and OSX leopard runs great on the board
 
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