Advice on my new build and advice on OS and Monitor

[ogiso_akpolokpolo]

Hello All,
First of all I'd really like to thank Rob for this great site and the excellent advice and guidance provided. I spent many evenings reading through the forums and learning from the experiences of others here. I wanted a new PC that I could use for heavy number crunching (adaptive filtering research in matlab, dsp system design etc). I also tend to watch a lot of movies/dvds (but not TV) so I wanted a system that would help with this.

I originally planned to build my very first PC myself, but several business trips to Europe and a new high pressure project mean that this is no longer possible for me time-wise.

After several days of reading through the forums and checking out reviews on newegg I came up with the following parts list:

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8400
INTEL STANDARD PROCESSOR COOLING FAN
ASUS P5B SE LGA 775 MOTHERBOARD
Crucial Ballistix 4GB (4 X 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA2 7200rpm 16MB
SAMSUNG 20X DVD-RW DUAL LAYER W/LIGHTSCRIBE
nVidia GeForce 9600GT 512MB DVI/TV-OUT PCI-Express Video Card
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 24-bit PCI Sound Card
THERMALTAKE ALUMINUM TSUNAMI CASE - BLACK
THERMALTAKE 600 WATT POWER SUPPLY
Logitech Wireless Keyboard EX110 W/Wireless MOUSE

This list is shared as a newegg public wishlist at
http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=6038694

I also found a company (ALLPCZONE at http://www.computerlx.com)
with very good reviews on www.pricewatch.com that do custom builds for people. The overall cost they quoted me including shipping came to $1200, only ~$170 more than it would have cost to buy the parts myself from Newegg.

I'd really appreciate comments/advice on the build.
I'm also trying to decide on a display to get. I intend to get a high-end dvd player to hook up to the monitor when watching DVDs.
So far the Dell ultrasharp 2408WFP looks very promising (Dell is offering this for $599 at the moment with free shipping from Dell). I'd appreciate any comments from members familiar with this monitor and any recommendations for equally/good better monitors that are similarly-priced or cheaper.

I'm also considering running linux on the system (perharps 64bit Ubuntu) and running windows through a simulator. I'm still researching hardware compatibility so any advice/warnings will be appreciated.
Dual booting linux and windows is another option I'm considering but I'm not sure if this will give me too many headaches.

[RickyTick]

For number crunching, a Quad core would be a better option. Take a look at the Q6600.

That P965 motherboard is a bit dated. The P35 might be better suited for you needs. Something like this is a little more expensive, but not much.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131189

Other than that, it looks fine.

I don't have any experience with ALLPCZONE, but if they can build a pc with the components you listed and offer a warranty, then it sounds like a good deal.

The Dell 2408WFP is one of the best 24 inch monitors you can buy, and that price is excellent.

[ogiso_akpolokpolo]

Thanks RickyTick!
Looking at the system again, I think I'd be better off not adding the particular sound blaster sound card I have. It doesn't seem to be very future proof and some reviews I just read claim the sound quality was not noticeably better than that provided by some onboard sound cards.

Thanks for the advice on the MOBO. How about this one (the asus P5k-E which is very similar to the Asus P5KSE you suggested but with a few more bells and whistles):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131225

I've read some comments by people saying that the P5K-SE/P5KSE gave them trouble with longer graphics cards (like the 9600gt i have chosen for my system). Accordng to them due to the layout of the pfkse, longer graphics cards installed on thos mobos end up blocking up to 4 of the SATA connectors.

Could you also point me to some benchmarks that show the Q6600 outperforming the E8400 in number crunching tasks?
Thanks again!

[RickyTick]

Several members here have had issues lately with the Asus boards. Another option would be the Gigabyte GA P35 boards, or the Abit IP35. Both excellent choices.

For a comparison I've linked to Tom's Hardware. Using Deep Fritz 10 as the benchmark, you can see the quad core is much better. Deep Fritz is a Chess program which is cpu demanding for numbers and calculations.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=1096&model2=871&chart=439

[ogiso_akpolokpolo]

Thanks again for the advice Rickytick!

[RickyTick]

Glad I could help out.