Please Help

Hello,

I am new and this is my first post here. I have read a lot of your posts here in the forum and am quite amazed at how everyone here is so lighthearted and I would like to commend everyone and am happy to be among you all.

Secondly, I am in need of some help. I am in a bit of a dilemma since I need to build two computers (one for my gf and one for me). I have done research and would like to elaborate as to what it is here. If any of you have any suggestions/comments, please let me know.

Motherboard: ASUS- P4C800 Deluxe with the new 875 chipset
Processor: P4 2.4C 800FSB
RAM: Any suggestions? I was thinking of 1 gig dual ddr ram like 3200 or 3700. I heard that if you use two 512 chips, its slower than the 1 gig.
Video: ATI Radeon 9600 128MB DDR pro
Hard drive: a 120 gig hard drive (dont know much about RAID but if it would help to be faster, any suggestions would help).

I would prefer two hard drives than one and my friends have told me to get 2 hard drives instead but I was thinking that maybe raid would help me more (although I do not know much about it).

As for my case, I was thinking of getting a normal case with a 500W PSU and to cool it down with water cooling. Maybe if it is possible, link up both computers so one cooling supply would work. I plan on putting these two computers side by side and link them up so she and I could work together. Can you guys help me out with some valuable info?

Should I get the 2.6c processor? I heard the 2.4 is better on the posts and I have read a lot of posts stating that the p4p-800 deluxe is better with the 865pe chipset as opposed to the 875p chipset of the P4C800. Sorry for the long post and thanks for any help. Can you all recommend me a place to purchase all of this with a nice discount? Thank you everyone and I'm glad to be here.

for any raid questions look Here. It will answer alot of them. I will recomend RAID just because I tried it, and now every system I build has a raid 0 array in it.

check this out on the 2.4c SL6WR: http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=234668

looks like a winner. try to locate those chips for the best bet for overclocking.

for memory definately take advantage of the dual channel by using 2x512mb sticks. it will be a ton faster not to mention probably cheaper and more readily available than a single 1gb stick.

sounds like you are building a pretty powerful computer. are they going to game? if so i'd suggest moving up to the 9800 non pro. it is lightyears better than the 9600pro. you can sometimes find them for about 250-260. if not gaming the 9600pro's are great cards. i think they are around 165-175 for a decent brand.

i'd get a fortron 530W if you have your heart set on 500Ws of power. they are rock solid and only 75 bucks. i have one and its a great psu. otherwise i'd say a 400W sparkle or similar would be ample power. most of those are around 60-65.

good choice on the mobo. however raid performance is not as good since they use a different raid processor than if you went with an Abit IC7 or other company's board.

Thanks a lot. I do not know much about ABIT. How is it compared to the ASUS? I will definitely research more on RAID. As for the PSU, All I know is that it will power up my system and I will also be watercooled so I may need more power (I dont know if water cooling takes power from the PSU) but in any case, my knowledge of PSU is zilch. If I need only 400w PSU, why do I need 500? Can you guys tell me that? I will do light gaming. I will most likely put in a normal card first then upgrade in the near future. By the way, if anyone is in the LA vicinity and would like to help me out in this, feel free to contact me. LOL