This is my first build attempt in 5 years so im a little behind the times. This is going to be a pure gaming rig. I would like to keep the price close to $1000. I put this together after reading through the The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition and bouncing around newegg for a few hours.
This is what im currently contemplating, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
1. To go dual core with the E8500 or a quad Q6600. I want to OC on air 4+ Ghz with the E8500 and 3.6 with the Q6600. Is this doable with the current gear I have picked out?
Firstly, The X48-DS4 runs Crossfire (ATI) not SLI (nvidia), so you will have to use ATI cards to run dual graphics. I notice you've already picked one out though, so you can always add another similar card at a later date (it need not be the exact same card like SLI, Crossfire is far more forgiving in that regard).
Personally I would go with the Quad core if you're keeping the PC for a while, it's not that far behind the dual in terms of current performance and will obliterate it when quad cores become more relevant. Getting to 3.6Ghz on that cooler though, is not going to be easy without ludicrous temperatures. I suggest something more along the lines of this combination:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233019 Additionally, if you have the extra, try for this CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115042 as it closes the gap between the Q6600 and E8500 significantly, and is easier to overclock if you know what you're doing (see the official thread on that for more details).
The rest of your build is alright, though I would recommend the following power supply instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139002 OCZ units have had strange anomalies in testing that give me concern over their build quality.
