First Build, First time overclocking - advice please

[jr2408]

This is going to be a first time build for me. I plan to do heavy multitasking and some games - esp flight sims.

I will be overclocking for the first time, hopefully to around 3ghz (e.g. beyond the level of the E6700).

I plan to upgrade to a more powerful graphics card when the DX10 cards are released - this choice is just a stop gap measure.

Can anyone give me some help in understanding:-

- Is E6600 the right choice? I originally planned to go for the E6700 but I am reading that it is not good value.
- Is this motherboard a good choice?
- Have I got my memory choice right?
- As a newbie to build & overclock (but pretty savvy with PC's and tech stuff in general) how difficult is it going to be for me to build & overclock and end up with a stable system?
- Will this cooler & case be good choices in terms of cooling and also keeping noise down?
- Will I notice the difference the Raptor makes, or should I substitute it for a Seagate?
- Is it worth getting a sound card to reduce CPU cycles?

Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN)

Gigabyte GA_965P_DQ6 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-058-GI)

Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) (MY-108-CS)

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) (HS-017-AR)

EVGA GeForce 7600 GT KO 256MB GDDR3 HDTV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-005-EA)

Western Digital Raptor 150GB WD1500ADFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-069-WD)

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-078-SE)

Coolermaster Wave Master - Black (No PSU) (CA-047-CM)

Antec NeoHE 550W Modular ATX2.0 PSU (CA-046-AN)

Mitsumi FA 404M 7in1 USB 2.0 Floppy & Media Drive - Black (HD-002-MI)

NEC ND4571 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Silver) - OEM (CD-032-NE)

Your help appreciated!

 

[engiNURD]

The E6600 is the best value, and can OC to 3.5Ghz easily. I'd suggest a 975X based board, namely the Asus P5W DH Deluxe. The 975X boards seem to be the best fit for the E6600 as far as overclocking goes. The RAM is good, but overpriced. See if you can find a deal on Crucial Ballistix 2GB DDR2-800 in the UK (I know ZZF has em for $206USD AR); or some G.Skill RAM will work just as well with that board. Overclocking isn't difficult, just time consuming, tedious, and slow (the process, hehe. If you want raptor performance without the price tag, go for a RAID0 array as the boot drive. Though, alone, the seagate 7200.10 models are fast. Sound card is up to you... you'll save at most 10 fps in-game, though I'm not sure about flight sims, hehe. There are more quiet cases out there than the wavemaster, like the antec P180, sonata ii, P150, and SOLO. When installing XP, make sure you don't plug in the card reader portion of the Mitsumi drive, unless you want to reassign drive letters later. I havent read any reviews on that NEC model, but the ND-3550A is solid. That PSU is nice, but if you want silence, you could go for a seasonic.