So the time's arrived for me to put everything together, as I've nearly got enough money. I've got around a week (probably) until I order everything, so I just wanted some feedback on the reliability of the components. Here's my build:

CASE: Gigabyte 3D Aurora 570

PSU: CoolerMaster iGreen 500w

DVD Drive: Pioneer DVD/RW Drive (sata)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600

HDD: Seagate 400Gb Sata 2

RAM: Corsair 2G (2x XMS2 1GB)

Mobo: Asus P5N-E SLI

OS: Vista Home Premium 32-bit OEM

Video Card: Gainward Nivida 8800GTX

I've got just a few questions.
Firstly, the case I'm getting has a small toolbox seated in the hdd cage, which I've heard prevents a bit of airflow. I'm plannin gon taking it out, so with it taken out, will I have enough system airflow? There's a single 120mm fan at the front drawing in, and two 120mm fans at the back drawing out. I'm just not sure about how much heat the quad core CPU will generate.
Secondly, with the memory, would it be worth an extra 30 dollars to get the next model up, with the 4-4-4-12 timings instead of 5-5-5-12?
Thanks for the time anyone takes to look at this topic.
Cheers, Jack.

You are going to wait until Intel drops the price of the Q6600 later this month?

About the memory going to 4-4-4 from 5-5-5 would normally be a small improvement at best. But with four cores to feed faster memory becomes more important. I would jump on the better memory, but you can do fine without it.

I would think the airflow is enough, but these are often very situational things, depending on the environment the machine is in.

Thanks for the reply Mr Alpha. As for the questions, yes I am going to wait for the price drops which are coming in a week or so. I couldn't refuse a 50% drop on a quad core CPU. And the room which my computer sits in is usually quite cool, it never gets overly heated in here.
Also, is Gainward a good brand to go for in terms of GPU's? I could get the XFX version for about $60 less. Would it make much of a difference?

Both Gainward and XFX are good brands. The thing to look for are factory overclocks and price.

Remember that it might take a little while before Intel's price drops make it onto the retail shelfs.

How long do you think the drops will take? I was told they should almost coincide simultaneously with intels price drops?
Also, do you know much about OEM operating systems? Apparently it just comes with the CD and that's it, no box or anything, but thats what I'm after really.

Since you are using Vista, I suggest getting as much memory as you can afford. Your Vista experience will be so much better with it.

Do you think 2gb wont suffice? (also, I just got an email back from the online store I'm ordering from, and they said their prices will fall right on the 22nd! so happy about that)

Windows Vista is RAM hog, it will use alot of it. I have 4GB and I find about 50% is always in use in idle right after start-up. However, keep in mind that Vista uses RAM differently when compared to XP so I'm not sure if the OS would scale it back with only 2GB. Nevertheless, as a general rule with computers, get the most amount of RAM you can afford.

You probably have a lot of other stuff running, because I'm not using 2GB of RAM when idle. I'm at 34% of 2GB. Going for more than 2GB of memory really requires 64-bit version of Vista.

I've got 4 gB of RAM on a 32 bit Vista system (only 3.25 gB is recognized) - and am currently using 1.49 gB of it (46%). I don't take any steps to conserver my RAM and am loading and unloading stuff regularly and still have excellent performance. That's with 70 processes running. The work system (Home Premium) has 2 gB of RAM and works a bit more sluggishly. The wife's office laptop has Home Basic and 512 mB of RAM and it was sluggish until I "tweaked" it - now it runs just fine. My Toshiba M35 laptop has 1 gB of RAM with Vista Ultimate and runs just fine (with tweaks).

BTW - I don't use Aero, so it's disabled on my systems. Aero is enabled on the work system.

Thanks for the responses. So do you think it would be beneficial for me to grab an extra 1gb of memory for the PC?

Could be. Remember that you have to install memory in pairs to run it in dual channel mode. Also that on 32 bit Windows applications are limited to 2GB address space by default.

Well I don't think I'll need more right now, I think 2gb will do for a while at least. Then some time down the track I might get myself two 512 sticks. Who here uses Vista? How do you find it runs in comparison to XP at the moment under the same conditions?

So i think I'm ready to buy now. One more question before I do: With an OEM operating system, can I reformat and reinstall on the same mobo?

You should be able to, you may need to reactivate the OS though.

Thanks for everybody's help, in this thread and the other, I just purchased all my PC parts, thanks a lot.

Ahhhh, power power power, you're gonna need more power if you're running a quad core AND an SLi system with an 8800 card! I'd get at LEAST 700 watts.

I see it's too late you already bought the parts. Well, if you have to, you can always RMA the PSU and get a more powerful one. If nothing else, it'll give you good insurance for the future. I have a 700 watt PSU on my SLi system and have had no problems.

I'm not using SLI, just one 8800

So I've put everything together, but when it was done I faced a multitude of problems. Windows Setup crashing, over and over again, finally working, but freezing at the desktop, etc etc. Basically the pc just wasnt working. So at first I thought: CPU heatsink. Took it off, inspected the thermal compound, replaced it, same again... Then i tried different HDD/sata ports/cables, same again. Then I swapped around the memory sticks, out of dual channel mode, so they were simply working in side by side slots, and it worked fine. Vista installed beautifully and it was stable. Of course, vista only rated my memory at 4.6 as it wasn't working in dual channel mode. So i opened up the chassis and started changing the DIMM's into dual channel mode, in every combination possible. No go. Then I went into the bios, and noticed that the memory timings were set to automatic. I over rided these settings and set the actual factory timings on the DIMM's and presto! Vista booted fine and has been stable for hours now with no errors.
My question is, why did this happen? Is the mobo not detecting memory speeds correctly? It's not a huge problem, but I would like to know why my expensive motherboard wouldn't auto detect my speeds properly.