if money were no object....

n order to make things easy, copy and paste the following template into your post and edit the examples to suit your needs:

Approximate Purchase Date: B4 Jan 2014

Budget Range: 2000ish rebates always helpfull, shopping online for best price.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Folding@Home, surfing the internet, watching movies, recording data cds/dvrs, household financing budgeting, home networking (up to 10 older machines -- Java and flash web based games Like FB's MyVegas, or EA's pogo.com --- but basicly NOT a gamer at ALL.

Are you buying a monitor: No--already own 2 (quan), samsung 20' syncmasters, would like most powerful and purposeful vid card [for gpu folding also] -- also dual vid card to run both monitors.

Parts to Upgrade: ALL -- very partial to SSDs, and best (and most) RAM available.

Do you need to buy OS: I have left over winXP (never used) w/ valid license, or would use Linux Mint Latest version. but have Win8 on my Samsung i7 laptop and am becoming partial to that.
Please note that if you're using an OEM license of Windows, you will need a new one when buying a new motherboard.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: google shopping/bing shopping for best price. Have used Newegg, MacMall, BuyDig, PriceWatch... in past -- NAME a part and I would shop for the best price via brand and model #

Location: Extreme South Centeral Wisconsin, between Rockford , IL and Madison, WI. (Chicago could be "handy")

Parts Preferences: by brand or type i7 intel, or best option w/ amd....

Overclocking: Yes - my old (first) system was overclocked at the factory.... so if there was plenty of overclocking documentation would not mind experimenting w/ such.

SLI or Crossfire:??? would need a tutorial here, LOL.

Your Monitor Resolution: reference above monitors.

Additional Comments: Firewire, I have a Umax 6400 scanner that still works well and the software to go w/ it. Which really bogs down my old system. Bling is nice I like blue Led Fans and noise is not a problem as am hearing impaired and machine will be isolated from the rest of the household. +R.A.I.D. 0,1,5, yup like that!! -- oh and LOTS of cooling!!

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Please don't laugh now, but my old system is an abs (1998 model) 450 PII w/ tekram 440BX MoBo overclock'd to .463 gig and maxed out ECC memory of 512. It is VERY hard for the old girl to EVEN handle a modern browser. And will no longer take Folding assignments. I want sleek, powerful, and fast; yet I see much on here about overbuying and would like some expert opinion/experience in a TOP LINE and FAST NON-Gaming System that is mostly gonna crunch Folding and do the internet. Perhaps an off the shelf box would be best... but would rather build my own as am still disappointed in the fact that the last Cadillac I test drove did NOT have a glove box light -- if ya get my drift.