I am building my first computer and here are the parts I am interested in:

Case
$129.99
ABS Aplus ABS-CS-EL Diablo Black 0.8mm SECC ATX Full Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/.....6811215006

Motherboard
$219.99
XFX MB-N780-ISH9 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/.....rce%20780i

Power supply
$129.99
ABS Tagan ITZ Series ITZ800-V2 800W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/.....6817814006

Processor
$189.99
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/.....6819115036

CPU Fan
$53.99
ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/.....6835118019

DVD/CD Drive
$27.99
SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 22X DVD-R 16X DVD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe
http://www.newegg.com/Product/.....6827151173

Harddrive
$41.99
Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/.....6822136075

Memory
$68.99
A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/.....6820211188

All together is is around 900. I already have a 19 inch LCD I can use and an 8800 GT video card.

Thanks for any advice.

I will eventually get 2 more 8800GT's and get a bigger harddrive, but at the moment, the 900 price tag drained my wallet,lol.

Thanks for the comment.

whs,
Where exactly did you see in the reviews that venting was a problem? From what I read, this case is great.

Let me know,
Justin

Civics, I like that case! A 250 mm and a 360 mm fan should be able to move a lot of air and quietly, too. However, I'm not sure that the Zalman CNPS9700 LED cooler is a good match. I recently did a build with this cooler and was not really happy with it. First of all, it's a MASSIVE cooler with fins standing up quite high off of the motherboard. There was almost no spare headroom in an Antec P182 case with no side intake fan. In your build, you might find that the 360 mm side fan is too close, or even touching, the Zalman. Also, that big heatsink from the Zalman sticking up the way it does is blocking the case airflow. With the 3 graphics cards that you are considering, most of your heat will be coming from them and exhausting air from the case is your top priority. Since there has been no talk of overclocking, I would suggest that you would be fine with the standard Core2 boxed fan. Intel is providing a much better fansink in the box than they used to. The lower profile fan will allow those ginormous case fans to do their work.

Take the money from that fan and shore up something else. Like whs, I think that you should get a bigger HD even in a sub-$1000 PC. If you have to buy more HDs later, that means more power drain, more heat and more noise.

Justin: when you start overclocking, everything changes. As for the Zalman cooler, I got the idea to use it from Tom's Hardware Group (THG) and their new 2008 Reference System. After seeing how much room it took up in the case, I realized that it's a good cooler for THG because they are running their systems on a bench, not in a case. After seeing it in a case, I believe that the downside of blocking case airflow outweighs the benefit of it's CPU cooling ability. I wish I could tell you that I have first hand experience with some other low-profile cooler that is about as good, but I can't. If you do get a recommendation for another cooler, I'd be interested to hear it. Opinions vary greatly about cooling. For me, I would rather have a 360 mm case intake fan than a 110 mm CPU fan.

I was a little surprised to hear you say that you would overclock this setup to the max. I don't see XFX touting that motherboard as an overclocker's board and I don't see EPP profiles on those A-data DIMMs. Given the overclocking capabilities of the Wolfdale as demonstrated by THG, I think the CPU will be the last thing to give out. Long before that, I would expect the NB/SB to fail as the FSB is raised and/or the memory will fail (at a 1:1 ratio).

ScottW:

As for the motherboard not being acclaimed as an overclocker's board, I have read many articles describing that it is indeed great for overclocking. That is one of the reasons I got the board. As for the memory, well I mostly am considering it because it is cheap and I don't have the money for good ram yet. When I said I will be overclocking this box, I meant in the future. As for the side fan being too close to the zalman, I have done some more research with pictures etc. and I believe it will not be a problem. I have seen many reviews saying the case was enormous. I realize the cpu fan is the size of a softball, but I don't think it will be so big that I will have to take the side fan off. We will see...

Whs:
Thanks for posting that comment. I missed that review. So it seems the case fans do not have a lot of rpm.... Good thing I am getting the zalman, which has been touted to reduce temps on the motherboard, the memory and the whole case because of the way it is made.

Thanks guys,
Justin