Your advice

sorry!

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R $130.00

CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 $289.99

Memory OCZ Platinum XTC rev.2 DDR2 PC-6400 (800 Mhz) 4 GB $79.99

Video ASUS EN8800GT/G/HTDP/512M GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit $299.99

Audio Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio VARPAK 7.1 $50.00

Optical Drive SAMSUNG SH-S203B $32.00

Hard Drive Western Digital 750GB (WD7500AAKS) $150.00

Case Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $120.00

Power Supply CORSAIR CMPSU-620HX ATX12V v2.2 $160.00

OS Microsoft Windows XP Prof. $199.99

Network adaptor D-Link DGE-560T 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express Gigabit $45.99

I really think a Quad and the video card are WAY overkill for what you're wanting to do. You can get 2Gb of Crucial Ballistix for $49.99 after MIR. I'd also hold off on the sound card, give on board a try. Most motherboards have the network adapter built in so I don't know why your buying one. Here's all the power supply you will need.

http://www.buy.com/prod/Corsair-VX [...] 52646.html

Pickup any 2XXX or 4XXX Cpu and have a blast.

Get an OEM copy of Windows XP its cheaper. OEM is a full version without all of the extra packaging and you don't get the "customer"NO" service" support either. You can get Pro as cheap as 119.99 at some places.

That Antec gaming rig can be gotten cheaper as well. I bought them on sale for 69.99 from www.frys.com. I am now seeing them with rebates that make them about that price too.

You will need to give a dollar amount you want to spend for everyone to give a more accurate list of items for you to consider. You don't need this level of hardware to do what you say you will be doing for now but if you can afford it, it definitely will last you for a much longer time before you have to upgrade again.

And yes, for little or no gaming go with something in the 100.00~150.00 price range on the video card.

You could go with a board that has onboard video unless you want dual monitor support.

You might want to wait until the Penryns are released. When they are released the Q6600 will go down in price. If you want to build it now just get a E21xx and OC it for the time being. And when the prices go down get the Q6600 or some thing better.

Do you need 750GB drive? If you do a lot of video I can see that, but photos don't take up that much room. Consider getting two 320GB drives, putting OS on one and data on the other. And then use the substantial extra space on the OS drive for backups.

Also, a basic requirement for any case I buy now will be eSata on the front to facilitate fast backups to external eSata devices and other eSata connections. Consider an Antec Sonata case that has this. It is about $130 but that includes an Earthwatts 500 PSU - which is a good unit and should provide more than enough for your requirements.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811129024

I agree with others that your video card is overkill and suggest stepping down to something like the 8600 GT for only about $100. If budget is no issue, you might want to get something better - but it would probably be overkill for the uses you describe. Read the following THG article about cards - and keep in mind that they are being ranked for gaming - you uses require little.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/1 [...] hics_card/

In case you have not already read them - you can also review comparative card performance for many different aps - including photo editing at THG here:

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html

At least try the onboard audio before buying a new card - chances are you won't need the card as others have said above.

Finally, if budget is not a significant issue (and you should already have substantial savings from the above suggestins), I would stay with the quad core as more applications will take advantage of the multiple cores and it saves an upgrade later. But it will be overkill for now for your basic tasks. Again you can consult THG charts with respect to your particular applications - but consider that software released in the future should make better use of multiple cores.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html

New Kid, I do a lot of video editing using the Pinnacle software and when rendering movies it uses all 4 cores. I have a E6850 in another unit and my quad renders much faster then the E6850.

So go quad!!!!