While I see where your coming from ILC, Im not a HUGE gamer. Ive been more than happy with my medicore laptop to play all the games I have been with the settings where I needed them. The games coming out I feel I will be playing for a while now and only need those to look impressive to me.
Wow… this is exactly why I don’t game on computers anymore.
Also, I don’t know who you think you are but memory overclocking isn’t really that hard and any idiot that can works his way through the bios should be able to. You make it sound like rocket science.
While it can be extrodinaly easy to overclock the speed of the memory, it does not make it faster, or increase bandwidth in most cases, and generally adds on to the average ‘overclockers’ massive systems instability.
Overclocking memory is all about tightening the appropriate timings to get the maximum bandwidth while preferably keeping it at 1:1 with the FSB to minimize strain on the NB on a intel system. Changing the divider to make the memory run ‘faster’ can often reduce bandwidth, and that will decrease system performance. Also, its very likely the average idiot will push the memory too far without giving the components the voltage they need to properly operate under these new settings. Its very difficult to make a system pass memtest98+ for 12+ hours, unless you dont overclock it, or know what youre doing.
I never said anything about rocket science, so im not sure where you got that from, you just need some general knowledge and experience, both of which most people dont have.
Get the stuff and mess around with it, it should be fast enough for your tastes for at least a year, and thats not bad.
Overclocking video cards is very easy if you dont want anything crazy, the 8800GT will overclock 20% with no mods, and you should have enough overhead to never have a problem.
ZOMGVTEK, your putting this build on a higher pedistle than it needs to be. It sounds like this is going to be his first build, and while he’s using the computer, he doesnt need (to do) everything your suggesting. And your also building with your wallet/knowledge, not his.
Building a computer and immediately oc’ing it is never a good idea. I would suggest getting this one out of the way. Play around with it, figure it out, mess with it a little, and then off it and build another one.
Now, as for the games you want to play, you should be fine. I would actually almost suggest getting 2x1gb ddr2 800 sticks instead of the 4, and put that money torwards something else. Especially in XP, the difference from 2-4gb of ram (or the 3.25ish that xp will address) is not worth the extra money.
If i were in your shoes, this is what i would build:
CPU: Q6600 N82E16819115017 (newegg pn) ~$190
While obviously not the fastest available, it is a very proven and capable processor at an awesome price point. Dont worry about changing this.
Motherboard: ASUS P5Q P45 N82E16813131295 ~$130
Same story. For this builds purposes, going any higher on a motherboard would be a waste for you. I would choose this one because of the better chipset (i have never liked NVIDIA’s chipset). This one also only has a single pcie slot, but you would be better off buying like a 4870x2 instead of adding a second card anyway.
GFX: MSI HD4850 N82E16814127359 ~160
Again, a very capable and proven card. Huge performance difference for the small price differance. You can also go with whatever is on sale/rebates/free games. I would stick with msi, visiontek, or asus though.
RAM: Corsair 2x1GB DDR2800 N82E16820145034 60$ with 30$ MIR
If you stick with XP, any more than 2gb is going to be a ‘waste’. Plus, you’ll still have the ability to max out the ram later of you choose to, and you’ll still be spending less or about the same as you would if you did it up front.
Then of course you have the case/psu/hdd’s/dvd drives. But your back in the same price point you originally posted, maybe a little less, while having IMHO a much more capable machine.
If your not oc’ing, going any higher on any of the components would be a waste of your money. I mean even with the stock components you can oc a little to play around with it, and in the future buy the extra parts if you want. Only thing i would make sure is whatever case you buy, it has at least 2x80mm or 1x90/120mm fans for in front of the hard drive bay.
Ok I changed what my first build was. MKE, what could utilize that 4gigs, or is no application really worth it?
Also, I am unsure whats wrong with this mobo, price seems good, and it can do SLI…what am I missing?
MKE- could you enlighten me with the big difference between the 4850 and the 8800GT?
4 Gigs seems like overkill unless you’re going to run vista 64. Also curious if you have thought about running vista in order to take advantage of direct x 10?
Refer to…
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=13
The only reason 4gb would be worth it is if your running vista 64bit. I know it doesnt make a whole lot of sense, but with 32bit, you won’t notice any (not enough of a) performance difference from the 2gb to 3gb (or 4gb in vista 32) but w/ the 64bit desktop it does make everything in general run smoother/quicker. I would also say if you want xp, dont get xp64bit. hardware support is extremely poor, and you will almost always have problems with new software/hardware. 4GB in xp 32bit will not give you but maybe 5-10% performance gains, which will equal about 1-3fps in a game, if that.
As for the mobo- again i’ve just never been a fan of the nForce chipsets, and prefer intels. For the intel chipsets, usually no extra drivers are needed outside of windows for raid setups, and from the one i’ve used in the past, it seemed to really limit the performance of the computer, and again i had driver issues. I have been using intel chipsets since the 975x was released a while ago, and have never had a single issue with raid setups, drivers, etc. That is 100% personal preference on my part. The one your looking at does seem to be a good choice, but keep in mind it can only do SLi, not crossfire.
The 8800GT is the last generation graphics card, the 4850 is the new generation. Thats the easiest way to explain it. Other than that, read this review: PowerColor HD4850 Review - Overclockers Club It compares it to the 8800gt and newer cards. might be a good read just to give you a second look at graphics card performance differenaces. Sometimes the 4850 is a little bit behind the 8800gt, other times its way out in front. Again, me not being a fan of Nvidia products, i’m going to recommend the ati alternative 
Plus those were done w/ beta drivers, and performance has gone up a little bit since then.
Now, the new specs you have up in the 1st post should be more than enough for what your trying to run, plus as you said does give you room for expansion in the future. I would still say not to worry about 4gb in xp, but other than that what you have already chosen will work for you. lol, dont take my ignorance towards nvidia products to mean they are crap. The last nvidia products i bought were, iirc, an nforce2 motherboard and a geforce 6800 card. So it’s been a while
Thanks MKE, i appreciate the other views on things. So far I love my nvidia card, and I have no clue about the mobo but others seem to really like it so im going to give it a try.
I have also updated ram, harddrive, and my mobo to alternates suggested by you guys, I appreciate all the input ive been getting so far.
I actually just purchased that video card the other day. Also picked up 4 gigs of memory as well. It should get here later this week, im hoping by thursday. how is it running for you?
if u wanna go amd and save urself a couple of bucks u can get this cuz its a mobo of awsomeness
eh, im not so sure about AMD, but I will consider it.
If your going quad, go intel. AMD’s performance chips right now dont compare. Now if this were a budget system, AMD would be the best.
As for what you currently have listed, only problem is going to be your hdd. I think (hope lol) you wanted this one:
The one you linked to was UATA (slower IDE) the one i linked to is cheaper, and is SATAII. Other than that you should have a lot of fun with that build 
i def wouldnt go amd quad cuz they arent quite up to par yet but a few of their dual core processors are pretty soild price to performance wise
I attempted to force him into getting two of those, or at least a single 640… He really liked the ‘cheap’ 500gb POS…
Not sure what he decided to do though, might have already got stuff, no idea.
And, no, you will not.
INTEL FOR LIFE (until they suck… again…)
definitely get this hard drive. I have the 250gig version in my computer, and it runs like a champ. no problems whatsoever and its pretty fast.
The 250 has nothing to do with why this HD is good… It is a single 320gb platter which is based off the newer perpendicular recording, so its quite fast for a cheap HD. Seeks are still poor, but 4 in AID 0 give you some good transfer speeds.
If you dont plan on running RAID on it, rock the 640 which is two of the 320 gb platters, and is just as zippy.
Lol, was just saying I have the hard drive and I like it
for the small price difference you are better off going with the 8800 GTS not the GT. My rig is running flawless, just search for my FS post if it is still around. I am just going to keep it as I am playing beta for War hammer right now and will prolly be a addict again soon. PM me your email if you want me to forward you my build from newegg to your email. You could spend about 200 bucks more and get a way better system.
Also do not cheap on a case. Do not go nuts but look for a nicely designed case that breaths, I got my coolmaster for I think 85 bucks and it has been running great. Also I am running Xp 64 with my 4 gigs and it was recongized and up to speed on the first try