Thanks for all the replies, its extremely helpful. I really appreciate it. Especially on the i7 thing, I'm not sure how I missed that.
My remaining questions:
1. SLI worth it or not? (I guess this is more a question for myself)
IMHO, buy the best single card you can get and go for that and forget SLI. It is simply IMHO not worth it.
2. DDR3? I read there were issues early on, but I was under the impression they had mostly been taken care of.
There were some issues early on with board/memory compatability, but those have pretty well been taken care of. The only issue with DDR3 is that it costs more but DDR2 performs almost as well for less money.
3. OS: I guess there's little choice at the moment and Vista 64 seems to be the only way to go.
YES!
With those in mind, how about this (same keyboard, mouse, monitor, burner, so I wont list that again) -
If you are comfortable with those, not anything else to worry about from what you listed.
ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813131359
Nothing wrong with that board, it seems to be the start of a very good series.
G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9T-6GBNQ - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231223
This memory should be fine unless I have overlooked something.
Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042
I like that case, so it should be fine from what I am familar with.
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
Nice Hard Drive.
Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202
Jump right in and give this baby a try if you want to be ahead of the game. I don't see any problems with going that way.
(Looking at two of these) MSI N260GTX-T2D896 OC GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127361
If this were my choice, I would skip the dual cards and go for a GTX 285 or GTX 295 and use a single card. When you consider the performance/cost ratio, that makes more sense to me.
OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply compatible with core i7 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16817341017
There is no way in heck a 600 watt OCZ (or any other 600 watt for that matter)
will pull either the two GTX 260 cards you have listed or the GTX 285 or GTX 295 that I suggested. You need to get real and get at least a Corsair 750 or better yet a Corsair 850 for this rig or you will have regrets on down the road.
If you want gaming performance and want to stay on top of the game, you have to have the power to pull it and there is no 600 watt that will meet your demands IMHO.
So this begins to top out my price range at around $1500.