hello everyone adam here ltns okay so i am saving up to build the utimate gaming rig and i think i may have made the perfect one for me my budget was 1.5 grand and i narrowly made it so i am happy ... no corner cutting needed woot! anyways heres a list of the specs i did all my looking on newegg so if you want to see the specs theyre all there

motherboard: ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $134.99

processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Windsor 3.2GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor - Retail $169.99

cpu fan: ARCTIC COOLING ALPINE64 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail $9.99

ram: Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail $102.99

video cards:PNY VCG88512GXPB GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail $199.99

second video card: PNY VCG88512GXPB GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail $199.99

case: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail $119.99

Power supply unit: ZALMAN ZM750-HP ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V 750W Modular LED Heatpipe-Cooled SLI Power Supply 100 - 240 V cUL, CE, CB, FCC - Retail $159.99

sound card:Creative 53SB000003000 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Elite Pro Sound Card and HS-900 Headphone Bundle - Retail $129.99

hard drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3750330AS 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $129.99

second hard drive Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3750330AS 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $129.99

dvd cd drives: SAMSUNG Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 20X
DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe - OEM $30.99

second dvd drive: SAMSUNG Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 20X
DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe - OEM $30.99

card reader: Rosewill RCR-103 USB 2.0 Card Reader - Retail $16.49

usb card BELKIN Hi-Speed USB 2.0 5-Port PCI Card Model F5U220v1 - Retail $29.99

thermal grease: Arctic Silver ASTA-7G (2-PC-SET) Premium Silver Thermal Adhesive - OEM $10.99

and the grand total is $1477.35

if i can play crysis on full settings i will be a happy camper lol

Seconding smartmom's recommendations there.

Regarding the DVD-burners, you really only need 1 of them to be a full DVD-burning system. The other could be a cheaper DVD-ROM/CD-ROM combo unless you're going to be burning 2 disks at the same time.

Skip on the USB card add-in and get a powered USB hub if have an expansive list of USB products. This will also lessen the drain on your PSU's lifespan.

If you don't have it already, get XP 64-bit with SP3. I heavily recommend against running anything on Vista unless you run Vista Ultimate. The other alternative would be to run Windows Server 2008 on your machine instead. It has a much better performance than Vista while still allowing access to today's games.

What speakers are you using with your system? Old speakers on a new sound card are going to same as old speakers on an integrated sound card.

If there's still room left, you might look into getting a mouse with a high dpi rating to improve the accuracy of your mouse in games. It really makes a difference in some games. I play DoD:S and HellGate:London myself with the 18,000dpi Razer DeathAdder mouse. It makes a big difference over the OEM mouse in how accurate the computer reads the mouse movements and clicks.