New to building / need a good mobo

Hey all, this is my first thread here on the forums. Looks like you all have a pretty good knowledge, so I need some advice really. This is what my first build is sitting at:

Stuff I already bought:

CASE: Coolermaster 690
GPU: XFX 8600gt xxx edition
PSU: Seasonic 550w
CD/DVD: Lite-On 20x DVD+R
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200
MONITOR: Acer 20" AL2016WBbd
Other Stuff: AS5, lots of case fans.. keyboard and mouse.. yeah

Here is what I still need:

MOBO: ? - It needs to be SLI so I can upgrade eventually (I like the 780i or 680i ASUS boards)

MEMORY: ? - G-Skill looks good enough, but Ballistix Tracers are cool too (but spendy)

CPU: ? - Definitely want an Intel e8400 or an e6750 (no AMD)

Budget: Mobo - 200-300 / Memory - 40-70 / CPU - 160-220

So if anyone wants to help me make a decision, that would be great. I will take all input seriously. Also, I really want to do SLI sometime in the future, so that is a must. And, don't ask me to sell anything I already have, I am not a gamer (yet), so anything is great. Overclocking is also on my list, at least to 3.3-3.7 depending on what CPU I end up getting. A Zalman 9700 will do the job on that. So thanks, lets hear the suggestions.

evga/xfx/bfg 780i
get the 4gig kit gskill ddr2-1000 kit $114 at newegg.
Def the E8400 no question about it.
o pass on the zalman coolers go for the TT/BT/ultra120E coolers instead.

Thanks for your response, here is what I'm going to look at:

EVGA or XFX 780i Motherboard

Is there a difference between either company that I should know about? They both seem like reputable companies, but I want to be sure. I'm leaning more towards EVGA just because they make great video cards (although I have an XFX card..). Also, do these mobos have a good overclocking record? I heard somewhere that they are pretty good, but still can't make up my mind over the 680i chipsets.

GSKILL 1000 DDR2

I know the more memory the better, but is it really important to have 4 gigs of it? I'm only 16 and don't exactly have a lot of money, so I was wondering if I should just settle with some 800 and 2GB? Thanks

INTEL E8400

From what I have read about this CPU I should be seeing clocks of up to 4GHZ? Is that really possible with the system I'm building? It seems just way out of reach. I'm definitely not concerned about 4GHZ with my first build though, and I'm liking the E8400.

TUNIQ TOWER

Of all the coolers, I will admit, this one doesn't look very great, but neither do any of the others. But, I think a Tuniq will be a good asset to my system. Anyone else care to differ? Let me know.

Thanks for your help Evilsizer, hopefully I get at least one more reply as I'm going to buy most of this stuff over the next week or so. Thanks!

the memory is up to you really, i guess i just assumed you might be keeping this for some time.. if you play games like BF2 or newer ram helps with the load times i have read. the other plus with that ram is its 4gigs for $114, last summer i paid $250 for 2gig of ddr2-800 thats another reason why i suggested it. though i would say look at the gskills like in my sig..they run $69 for 2gigs at newegg atm.

the motherboard suggestion is that all 3 are OEM's meaning they dont make the boards. they are reference designs from NV no changes, another outsourced company makes the boards for nv, they then shipped of to them the OEM's. this then increases the amount of bugs people will report since all 3 boards will use the same bios. 680i = 780i with pcie 2.0 support as well as 45nm quad support unless that changed agian. 780i should oc a bit better then 680i but if your after ocing you want to look at P35/X38 boards though that mean no SLI.

Alright, I'll most likely end up with an EVGA mobo, but I can see it doesn't really matter who makes it.

The memory is going to be 2 gigs to start with, but I can upgrade all I want. I don't really plan on building another computer for at least a year. I guess if I can get the cash, I'll spring for the 4 gigs you suggested. Once again, thank-you Evilsizer, you helped me a lot!

yep NP