New build

K!LL!@N

Hey,

I've been out of the building loop for over a year.
Moved to the US and have been using a laptop ever since.

I was able to play a few games on the laptop but it's starting to creak under the strain of anything newer.
The wife's machine is also playing up a bit so I was going to let her use the laptop and I'd build myself a new machine.

So, primarily it'll be a development machine as I work from home but in saying that you may as well consider it a gaming rig as that's where I'll be looking for the most performance.

I'll have a budget of about $1500 without monitor.
It's a complete build, I left anything that might have been of use back in Ireland.

I'm looking at going down the Quad core route.
What are the best chipsets at the moment?

Is an 8800GTS the best price/performance gpu?
Is there really that much of a jump between the GTS and the GTX?
Are ATI lagging behind these days in the performance stakes?

On the case front, I'm really looking for function over form without it being completely ugly.
I've always been fond of Antec cases/psus.
I've had my eye on the P180 but I hear that cabling it can be an issue.
I also saw the P190 which comes with two psus for a total of 1200w which seems like overkill.
Then there's the 900, which I've heard good things about.

I've been browsing around Newegg, are there any other online US stores I should be looking at?

Artic Silver still the thermal compound of choice?

Thoughts and feedback welcome!

Killian

K!LL!@N

Ok, doing a bit more reading this evening and it seems the new 2900PRO is giving the 8800GTS a run for it's money in the price/performance stakes.
Comes in around $280.

Killian