Well I will be building a computer within 3-6 months and need some advice on what type of memory and graphics card I should use. Also on the matter of hard drives if I should RAID 1 to be sure I don't lose any of my data, comments?

My parts will consists of the following:
Case: XCLIO A380PLUS-BK
PSU: ENERMAX 1000W Power Supply
Motherboard: EVGA 122-CK-NF68-T1
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
HDD: Western Digital 500GB 7200RPM

For the RAM the mobo I have above supports DDR2 PC2-5300, DDR2 PC2-6400, DDR2 PC2-8500, DDR2 PC2-8000. I got this information from the crucial RAM adviser.
For the video card I would like a card that won't be outdated very soon but also be able to play most if not all current games and most future ones. I know DirectX 10 is a big factor, will games still be made for 9?
What I currently have there is just over $1000 and not really looking to go over 250 for the video card and somewhere around the same for the RAM.

Suggestions for any parts are really appreciated. This will be my first build but I will be doing it with a friend who has built 2 before.

You might aswell, bite the bullet and get a E6700, for $320. I just ordered it and it should be here within the next 2 days. As for the video card, just get a 7600GT, still good. But if you want directx 10, get a 8600GT, same as the 7600GT, but with directx 10. But the 8600GT cost about $200+; While the 7600GT cost $120. It can play almost all modern game with no problem. If not, go all out and get a 8800GTX or a 7900GT.

Everything else seems fine.

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Looks like that set up will do you just fine. I have an enermax PSU myself and it works great. I also have Crucial Technologies RAM and it has worked real good. And have a XFX Nvidia GeForce 7600GT and as Kam said it had no problems with any games i tried. Although i am not a big PC gamer i did test it out with Rainbow Six Vegas and had no problems.

Not a big FAN of that case, pun intended. Not that it will not do the job or anything. BUt that big fan in the front just doesn't do it for me. I am a plain jane sort of guy who likes basic black, square, cases.

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Ok well it came down to me to either the 7900GT or 8600GT.
I looked up the specs and the differences were as followed:
8600GT($149.99)-
Core clock 620MHz
Memory Clock 1600MHz
Memory Size 256MB
Memory Interface 128-bit
Memory Type GDDR3
DirectX 10
PixelPipelines ?

7900GT($224.99)-
Core clock 500MHz
Memory Clock 1530MHz
Memory Size 256MB
Memory Interface 256-bit
Memory Type GDDR3
DirectX 9
PixelPipelines 24

What would make or break it for me is whats in bolded for right now. Is a larger number for the core clock and memory clock better or worse? Also would looking into a crossfire/SLI ready video card be better for my mobo in using 2 cards (most likely buy the card later waiting for a price drop)?
Haha I wanted a case that I think looks cool, still might change it though

[quote=kambodianboi;43339]You might aswell, bite the bullet and get a E6700, for $320. I just ordered it and it should be here within the next 2 days. As for the video card, just get a 7600GT, still good. But if you want directx 10, get a 8600GT, same as the 7600GT, but with directx 10. But the 8600GT cost about $200+; While the 7600GT cost $120. It can play almost all modern game with no problem. If not, go all out and get a 8800GTX or a 7900GT.

Everything else seems fine.[/QUOTE

Hi dude
I would personally go for the 8600GT($149.99) and as kam had stated, get the card with direct 10, this should make the overall comp spec pretty future proof? i am not a specialist in any way, but the cheaper card, offer's much better feature's??/ let us know how the build goes dude

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personally,I'd wait on the DX10 card for a bit. There's not too much out there yet that uses it,and by the time the market is using DX10 to the point that you "need" a card that supports it...the 8800GT will be more than affordable. You could prolly afford 2 8800GTs at that point and run em in Sli on your board.....I mean 1k watts is well more than enough to run that gear.

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I can see what your saying but how long can it be till that $400 price tag goes down to like 200? Is there any kind of a timeline except for the rough estimates?
Thats what I am really leaning to right now. It is pretty future proof for LGA 775 socket since my board can handle a FSB of 1333Mhz a quad-core and up to 8GB of RAM.

well the video card I bought about a munth or two ago has already gone down about 40-60 bucks in price....so I say a 400 dollar card would hit about 200-250 in about 6 months

NOTE: I have a Nvidia 7950GT 512MB card

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