I would like to receive some hardware recommendations/advice

Question

I am building a new computer, and I have to start from almost nothing due to bad or old hardware.
I am able to reuse the following:
2 SATA HDs (file storage drives)
2 IDE HDs (/ and /home -- although I'd rather switch to all SATA)
DVDRW
My case and power supply are decent brands/models, but the PS is noisy and the case has a few missing parts.
Here are the components that I am considering:
Antec 300 case
Corsair 520HX ps
Gigabyte GA-EP35C-DS3R motherboard (socket 775, 4xDDR2 slots - 8 GB, 2xDDR3
Intel E8400 processor
either the Zalman 9500 or OCZ Vendetta 2 heatsink/fan (Which thermal compound should I use?)
eVGA AKIMBO 8800 GT 512mb video card
either 2x1gb or 2x2gb ddr2-6400 ram (Which brand??? I'm looking at the OCZ model with the heatpipe and heatsinks)
(ideally) 2 SATA HDs for / and /home
2-3 120mm fans (two higher-CPM, low db for intake and one lower-CPM, low db for side exhaust)
I plan to run Arch 32 for the time being. It's not a big deal with Linux to make a backup of /etc and reinstall, so I will upgrade when Flash and Java are available as 64-bit binaries. Is it better to go with the 2x1gb or 2x2gb ram? I plan to use DDR3 in a couple years once that memory type is cheap enough. I realize that 32-bit OSes can only efficiently use ~3.5gb of ram, but I'd like to have as much as I can use -- especially when the price difference between 2gb and 4gb is very small.
I would wait for the Nehalem architecture to arrive and be around for six months, but I need a new computer now. I'm tired of dealing with constant freezes and crashes that are definitely due to a hardware problem. I also need this system to last a few years. I'll be really happy if I can get seven years out it like my old system (1999-2006). This new system was a free hand-me-down (for which I am grateful, of course), but it's dying...
I will use my system for the following:
Warsow, Nexuiz, Tremulous, Savage, Postal 2, Darwin....
Valve/id games
some other games through WINE/Cedega
small XMPP server (openfire)
3D modeling/rendering
image/video editing (nothing major like HD)
audio/video conversion/transcoding
VirtualBox for testing OSes and jailing WinXP for those two programs that aren't available for Linux
How does my hardware configuration sound? Is it happy with Linux? How are nVidia nForce motherboards? How well do they work with Linux? I'd prefer to not have to use binary blobs. I'm making one exception with the video card. I know that ATI drivers are getting better in that respect, but the 8800 GT kills everything else out there in terms of price, performance, and power usage.
Speaking of power usage, I want the system to be as efficient, cool, and quiet as possible. I don't plan to overclock, but I do know that the E8400 can easily to up to 4GHz on air.
I have heavily based the specifications on suggestions at mysuperpc.com (and its forums), so the system is mostly in the "sweet spot" of price vs performance.
Thanks in advance for any advice/suggestions/comments!

Answer 1

mrbug wrote:Antec 300 case
What's the Antec 300 case? You mean the Antec p183, which hasn't even come out yet? That would be nice to have... Or did I miss something?
mrbug wrote:either the Zalman 9500 or OCZ Vendetta 2 heatsink/fan (Which thermal compound should I use?)
Well the heatsink/fan you get depends on how quiet you want it to be. If you want it to be as quiet as possible, I would suggest Arctic Cooling Accerlero, then have a case fan blow the heat out. If noise isn't something you're worried about, Zalman is a great choice. For thermal compound, I use Arctic Silver 5. Other people may suggest something else. If you don't think having just a heatsink and a case fan to control airflow is enough, I would urge you to check out SilentPCReview (SPR), especially their forums.
mrbug wrote:Is it better to go with the 2x1gb or 2x2gb ram?
Well if you want 4 GB of RAM, you would do 2x2GB of RAM. If you want 2 GB you could have either 1x2GB of RAM or 2x1GB of RAM. It doesn't matter unless you're dual channeling. In that case, you want more sticks, each with less memory.
mrbug wrote:I'll be really happy if I can get seven years out it like my old system (1999-2006).
7 years without upgrades? That's asking for quite a lot. I think asking for more than 5 years without upgrades is a lot as it is. What I would really suggest is take it down a notch and upgrade certain components as time goes along. For example, one year you'll replace the graphics card, another year replace CPU, mobo and RAM, another year replace fans and heatsinks, another year replace the case. That way you don't need to splurge a bunch of money at one time building a whole new system, and your system will always be recent.
Anyway, sounds like more than anything, you should really check out SPR and maybe you want to have a sort of rolling update with your PC, which is what I do. The only time I'll be building a whole new PC from the ground up is when I need an additional machine.