trying to build a decent *** kicking system on a budget, just thought i'd run it by you guys. i haven't kept up with pc gaming lately.

intel q6600 quad core 2.4ghz
4gb gskill ddr800 (i haven't heard of the brand but newegg has it rated mostly 5star)
nvidia 9800gt
seagate 500gb
silverstone 500w 2x12v

and some acer 20" acer monitor that does 1680x1050 for $150

sounds decent - will be dual booting vista x64 and leopard (which should explain some of the choices in parts - it all works with leopard.)

advice?

oh and the mobo is a gigabyte something or another with an intel chipset that also works with leopard

Gskill RAM is trash, don't get it.

Don't get Gigabyte either, it's also trash.

they have pretty good reviews! what would you recommend instead?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128337

actually ram seems to be double the price it was yesterday - so nevermind. but the mobo still is a ?

What? G. Skill is a great overclocking brand and Gigabyte boards haven't given me any issues in the 7+ years I have put them in computers.

the 2 machines i built for myself a couple years ago still work great and they have gigabyte boards as well.

Gigabyte has always been terrible, you're just lucky. They're practically Biostar. They STILL ship motherboards with the recalled capacitors on them (you know, the ones that pop at the slightest glance). I've seen more dead Gigabyte boards than I've seen any other board combined.

G.Skill is not an overclocking brand, are you kidding me? They get great reviews because they're dirt cheap, not because they're reliable or fast.

spend a little more and get the ATI HD4850 from all the other threads like this i've seen where the 9800[letters] comes up this is always recommended

running a computer very similar to those specs (8800gts instead of the 9800gt, on an abit ip35 pro mobo). haven't had a problem yet running a game on "high everything" except for FSX.