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I am thinking about building my own computer and am having trouble deciding what parts to buy
Anyone with tips or Suggestions they are much appreciated


Case: Tsunami VA3000BWA
Power: Thermaltake toughpower W0104RU OR Thermaltake toughpower W0117RU
Graphics: GeForce8800GTS Still not sure which brand is best
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-965P-DQ6
CPU:Intel Pentium D 960 Presler 3.6GHz
RAM:CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Hard drive: Seagate ST3500641SV 500gb or Seagate ST3750640AS 750gb
Sound card:any recommendations

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Go AMD rather than Intel - Save yourself some money- get a great system- and just get a motherboard with onboard audio- most MoBos have good enough sound for everyone with the only exception being recording artists and people who do a lot of music work etc - some mobos have better audio than what some of the decent priced audio cards provide.

Of course the AMD is purely based on personal preference- if you really think Intel is better for you- go with it.

Well good luck - i dont have time to check your entire system as is right now- hopefully someone else will check it soon (personally ive never built a computer that used 240 pin memory...)

As for video cards, I would go with something like the Nvidia GeForce 7800 simply because it's 450$ cheaper and yet will still run most all games made today. The 8800 may be incredulously, but think of how many games will even need that much power in a few years? It'll be a while before anything needs that much power, or can even make use of it. The processor and motherboard look okay, and Seagate hard drives have always worked well for me. The memory looks good, though in my opinion Crucial will always be the best. I don't know that much about powersupplys, nor sound cards though.

I have to disagree with DK on this - I think a videocard should be top of the line or close to it... Currently MANY games are now asking for a minimum of 256MBs - with a recomended 512 -- anything less - especially something that is still VGA when everyone is moving up to PCI Express- theres no point in getting a video card that is not PCI express and no reason to settle for a low end card when you can afford a high end card.

Yes Oblivion can run on a 256MB card -- but it doesnt look and run nearly as good as it does on a 512 or higher. That said, Oblivion raised the bar for games. Now you can suspect more and more games are going to require systems that could play Oblivion perfectly and better (Neverwinter Nights 2 had higher required and recommended specs than Oblivion)

If you play games- you are going to want the best you can afford- not settle for less to save 100 bucks.

Okay, so maybe a 512 might be better, but 768? Entirely overkill, especially when you can pay a few hundred dollars less for a 512 card.

Thanks for the advice. I am going to stick to the 8800 because I play a lot of games and want them to look great.
Graphics: GIGABYTE GV-NX88S640H-RH GeForce 8800GTS
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz
Power: Thermaltake toughpower W0117RU 750w

and one last thing. Is having a widescreen monitor any better than having a normal one. Know any good brands?

I can't really vouch for the monitor because I've never owned a widescreen, so I wouldn't know.

personaly i like intel chips, they run cooler and are stable. also if your going to play any old games, use an ati video card, nvidia ones produce jagies on older games... now i have never tried a dual core, but the 3.2(overclocked to 3.4) ghz with HT works great for me, and this ati x1300(256mb cache) runs realy good for anything i have tried to do, and wasn't too expensive... also, i would recommend a good sound card, unlike other people here, because even though this motherboard i have(and sevral i have used) have internal sound cards, there not very good, and can cause problems, especially with diffrent speaker setups, and 3d sound and such... iid go with a good soundblaster card, which also work great for old games and such... so ya...

now while my setups may not be top-of-the-line, im constantly running at 80% capacity on any system i have ever had, so it has to be heavy-duty...

why do i run so high capacity? because if its lower than that i run more programs and do more things to compensate :P

If you've got the money, I'd go for a Core 2 processor. They're more expensive, but the beat the AMD's in every category, including gaming, except movie making, which was very close. (it think, something to do with multi-media).

Thanks again for the info and right now I have money so Intel Core 2 it is.

there's no such thing as overkill on video cards! i have one with a GIG of dedicated memory, and a 750mhz dedicated Gpu.

As for your power supply, The Thermaltake toughpower is a pretty good series. I've had too many Power Supplies burn out when i overclocked the CPUs, GPUs, and all (Godknowshowmany) hard drives. Personally, i've gotten to the point where i've got power supplies for my hard drives, a power supply for the video card, a power supply for the mainboard, lord knows how much my power bill is chewed up by this...

Anyways, the lesson you should learn from my mistake is: Try not to think that One power supply will power everything. it won't. For the setup i'm seeing you suggesting, the power supplies you've suggested will work fine, unless you severely overclock everything... but i'm pretty sure the CPU will go through thermal breakdown before your power supplies blow.
As for the hard drive, go for the 500gb and save yourself some money. You can always add more later.

Be careful how much heat all the gear is going to generate though... you'll want to have a few fans and some ducting to focus the air... The way mine's setup, i have 4 forced air fans (They push air into the tower) on the case itself that cool the mainboard, memory, and hard drives; the power supplies have their own fans that came with `em, and the CPU and video cards are ducted (There's small ducts surrounding the heat sinks, that are open near the card, and the duct goes from the card, up with the heat sink, then ends in a vacuum fan (Sucks air out, not pushes it in). I find this works much better than a heatsink alone. I'll put a pic up of what i'm talking about later...

Other than this, it all looks good! hope you enjoy building your own as much as I did!

Computer's assembled and it works.
Thanks for all the help. One more question though, what is the best solution for a NAS/backup combo?