So, I have a general question about what order I should install stuff in.

So, upon delivery I should..........

1.  Inspect for shipping damage.

2/3/4.  Install mobo onto case? CPU and heat sink onto mobo? Power supply?

5.  optical drives

6.  RAM

7.  HDDs

8. Video card

I have no idea what order to do stuff in can someone shed some light?  Do I even need the artic 5 silver (I think I do but I don't know)?

Insanity! I've never heard about such heat failures in standard components unless you have someone retarded trying to do overclock or a very crappy built-in cooler. And that guy isn't even going for a high-end GPU or such.

That's talking about processors, of course. Hard disks always need some type of extra cooling, specially if you buy a Samsung one. You can fry an egg over their HDDs.

Power supply first, then mobo, then cpu, then heatsink, then ram, then install optical drives, then hard drives then video card. After installing everything, before plugging the power supply in, plug all the power connectors for all your components. Then power up the system, and when you hear that beutiful sound of your system posting, install new OS.

Whenever switching chipsets always do new install or your OS will be unstable. This is iregardless of which OS you have.

My suggestion is if you want a quiet/high performance computer you should go with one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.458431

Antec P183 Antec CP 850W PSU.

Do I also need any additional power cables to connect my components or should the PSU come with those?  I have SATA power cables for my optical drive and 2 HDDs.

Aww man that antec case seems really nice (I dislike the blue LED on the case's fan that I linked before).  Why must you guys make me more indecisive than I already am? ;)

Because you asked for it! In any case, why are you going for the higher end of the market? If you hate noise, why not stick with a 95W phenom II like the 945 and stick with a more reasonable power supply. It costs heaps of money to be at the top end of the market and yet you can max out Starcraft 2 on a an HD 5770!

Arg!  VGChartz lost my post so I will try to type this quickly.

Ok, I don't know jack, so I have no idea what is top of the line and not.

I want:

To play 4v4 in SC2.

Play Diablo 3 (though no one knows what this will require)

Run photoshop reasonably well.

Quiet.

Cheap (preferably, the above factors weigh in more heavily than cheap)

For reference (don't laugh, it was being e-wasted so I got it for free 3 years ago):

Intel pentium D 2.80 GHz

4 GB RAM

Geforce 8600GT.

I basically want a quiet NAS that I can play blizzard games on and stream blurays to my PS3 on.  That's about it.  I really don't know what I'm doing here :(

Hey man, looks like a pretty solid setup.  I won't comment on the hardware as it seems you've made up your mind (although that PSU is overkill =P), but I'll give ya a couple tips for testing components once you've got it up and running:

GPU: I doubt it will be an issue since you have one that I assume works as it should, but you can use Furmark to test if it will fail under load.  Just watch the temps and stop the program if they get too high.  If Furmark runs stable for 10 minutes you are most likely good.

For testing your CPU and RAM I use Prime 95. Again, watch the temps and start with a lower number of threads running (say 5) which should be sufficient to test the components anyways. Here is a forum discussing using Prime95 if you are interested.

Try to test your components early so you can RMA them if they are junk. There's nothing worse than not finding a fault in the hardware until a few months later, and having to deal with the manufacturers warranty, rather than a simple return/replacement.

Definitely build your own, so much better than the prebuilt junk the retailers flog.

Have fun =)

Edit: could also get CPUid's Hardware Monitor as well, pretty handy to keep an eye on how your PC is running.

Okie dokie then.

How about:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103809

AMD Phenom II 3.0 GHZ 95W (quieter) $130

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130290

MSI 870 Mobo $70

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.465859

Antec P183 with free DVD burner $154

Geforce GTX 460

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130570

$230

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341022

OCZ ATX 500W PSU $65 with $15 MIR

etc?