http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811156062
RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WBP Black SECC STEEL ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply
95$


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] uad%2bcore
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor
220$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813127030
ABIT IP35 Pro LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
180$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231122
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
85$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814150253
XFX PVT88PYDE4 GeForce 8800GT Extreme 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
190$


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817189005
XCLIO GOODPOWER 500W 500W ATX Power Supply 115/ 230 V UL, CUL, TUV, CB, VDE, FIMKO, DEMKO, NEMKO, SEMKO
55$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827101131
Sony NEC Optiarc Black 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1615/B2s
18$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824254005
Hanns·G HW-191DPB Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 700:1 Built in Speakers
180$



price without vista or office: 1023 usd




http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6832116488
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English 1pk DSP OEI DVD
110$


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6832116459
Microsoft 79G-00916 Office Home and Student 2007 English US 1pk DSP OEI V2 MLK(no media, Lic only)
130$





total price: 1263 usd

I save about 500 dollars by building my own system instead of buying it from dell or hp.





the case says 500w and theres a pic of it with psu in it, so i assume it has 500w power. is this enough for my current config?

CASE : better value IMO :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811119137
PSU : Go with a Corsair VX 550W (and forget the XCLIO ) :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139004

CPU : Q6600 is a great choice.
MB : expensive motherboard : GA-EP35-DS3R or ASUS P5K-E might be better alternative (don't know what you need).

RAM : I'd recommend a 4GB (2 x 2GB) CORSAIR DHX C4 kit : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145194

VGA : You can get an 8800GTS for $170 if you don't mind it's ECS and the MIR. $230 for an XFX.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814134037
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814150267

You are missing a HDD and you should get a SATA DVDRW ($9 more for a 7191S model).
HDD : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136074
ODD : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827118004

If you're thinking about overclocking you might want to add an aftermarket CPU cooler :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233003

I think the cost will get a bit closer to HP/Dell.

1532, saved 200 dollars =/ but this my first build so i dont know. if you know nothing at all, how smoothly do first builds go?

I don't like the raidmax cases. I've used them and they are build rather cheap. Antec 900 is a good deal.

Go for a Q6600 or other quad core. Stay away from duo core. Quads are cheap enough today, and will soon be utilized as new software takes advantage all all cores.

The Motherboard is nice. Abit are my preference. Consider the X38 board but it's more expensive.

Change your PSU. It's the most important part of the build. Maybe an Antec modular. It has a 5 year warranty and great quality.

The 19" monitor is rather small. You might want to consider a 22" which is in the same price range. The Acer is cheap and nice as well. Most 22" LCDs are similar as they use the same panel so they are the same quality.

Your DVD Burner should be SATA. Consider the Pioneer although your NEC is very good.

As for a video card check Toms Hardware VGA Buyer's Guide. It'll tell you the best card for your price range. Hard to argue with that.

If you need a hard drive go for a Seagate Barracuda in the size you require. WD Raptor if you want blazing speed and Seagate for quality with a 5 year warranty.

As for the build it's pretty simple but not if you've never done it before. Here's a basic guide.

- Open and strip case.
- Install Power supply
- Open motherboard and place on anti static bag on box. Install RAM
- Scrape factory paste pad off heatsink using razor blade and clean with a little alcohol. Don't scratch the heatsink.
- Spread some good paste such as Arctic Silver using a razor blade. Just a thin coat on the CPU die. Insert CPU in board.
- Install Heat Sink and fan
- put mounting posts in case to match motherboard layout. Insert rear shield in case that was supplied with motherboard.
- Grab motherboard by the heat sink and insert in case careful not to scratch the board on the mounting posts as you slide the board back into the shield.
- screw it in using screws which heads are smaller then the silver grounding ring around the screw holes.
- Insert CD-ROM and Hard Drive
- attach all cables
- plug it in and cross your fingers
- if it works configure the BIOS and install windows.
- unplug and tidy up cables.

If it doesn't work remove battery and reset BIOS. If still no go remove board and install on motherboard box with static bag. plug everything in and power up for troubleshooting. Do not power up board on static bag as it will short your board. The static bag is electrically conductive. Use the bag only for assembly the board...not for powering it up when troubleshooting.

Takes about 30 minutes to build if all goes well and posts on the first try.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811119137
COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
85$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139004
CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 Power Supply 90 - 264 V UL, CUL, CE, CB, FCC Class B, TUV, CCC, C-tick
100$



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] uad%2bcore
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor
220$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813127030
ABIT IP35 Pro LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
180$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145194
CORSAIR XMS2 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
134$



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814150267
XFX PVT88GYDD4 GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
250$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136074
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
70$



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817189005
XCLIO GOODPOWER 500W 500W ATX Power Supply 115/ 230 V UL, CUL, TUV, CB, VDE, FIMKO, DEMKO, NEMKO, SEMKO
55$


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827101131
Sony NEC Optiarc Black 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1615/B2s
18$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824254005
Hanns·G HW-191DPB Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 700:1 Built in Speakers
180$




price without vista or office: 1292 usd

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6832116488
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English 1pk DSP OEI DVD
110$


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6832116459
Microsoft 79G-00916 Office Home and Student 2007 English US 1pk DSP OEI V2 MLK(no media, Lic only)
130$



total price: 1532 usd

I save about 200 dollars by building my own system instead of buying it from dell or hp.

does that look better =D?

You have 2 power supplies listed. Keep the corsair from your choices. The money saved can upgrade your monitor to an Acer 22". I'd switch the WD to a Seagate hard drive. And probably a 500GB or 750GB since it's like $15 more.

The case is your choice but there are some nice onse out there. Antec 900. Silverstone makes a beautiful case. I like their HTPC cases with remote.

Your DVD is IDE. Consider a more modern SATA model.

You'll save compared to DELL or HP. You'll also have a way faster/better computer. Better quality. And better warranty. RAM = lifetime. Monitor = 3 years. Hard drive from seagate is 5 years. Antec Power Supply = 5 years. Abit has the best warranty service in the market and it's 3 years. Video card should be 3 years. That sure beats 1 year on an HP.

^Agreed.

i dont understand gondo - the corsair is more expensive than the other one. and ill switch to antec 900 since a lot of ppl have been telling me that =D

and ill try getting a SATA model.

as for the 19", i think thats big enough, unless there are issues with resolution or something....

oooh....you were saying dont use the corsair =D got it

No - I think he is saying keep the Corsair as it is a much better PSU.

You could save $25 by getting the EVGA 8800GTS video card - I prefer EVGA to XFX anyway.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130325

Ive have a XFX it works fine, thats just rocky voicing his/her personal opinion. Also keep the corsair, its the much better buy, you want reliability, if your going to save money, save it in the processor area, or the case area, the psu is the lifeblood of your system, a crappy power supply will do in your entire system if you do something wrong.

Seriously. Between Corsair VX and the XCLIO PSU. If you want to have this computer for say 2-3 yars at least Corsair is the way to go. If you want to save some change go with XCLIO (I would rather drink tap water and eat dry bread for 1 year to save the difference if I had to).

EVGA/XFX makes no difference (by reputation). Go with what's cheaper.
ECS is a different animal (they have a bad reputation).

DVDRW : I listed the NEC AD-7191S (SATA drive) in my first post under ODD (stands for optical disk drive).
HDD : Larger usually is better. For best value and performance go with WD6400AAKS. With Seagate make sure it's a 7200.11 series drive.

First builds tend to go okey. Mind the instructions and don't force anything. Gentle and smart beats caveman tactics 100% in first build statistics.
Good luck.

Save yourself on the office program dude. I work for a school district, we just put Open Office on about 29-30 new Dells. It's free, free updates, does what you want it to do. Save your money. I've got MS Office XP at home don't even use it b/c I like Open office. Also, they are supposed to release a new version later this year of Open Office, I believe anyway, according to what that said, it's gonna support all the new Microsoft Office File types. So save a little green. If you like.

ok so here is the new configuration. Im getting the corsair psu, how do i tell if it will support my system? and will the system stay cool? (i wont overclock since i dont know how and dont know what it is)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] ntec%2b900
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
85$



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] uad%2bcore
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor
220$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813127030
ABIT IP35 Pro LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
180$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145194
CORSAIR XMS2 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
134$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130325
EVGA 512-P3-N841-AR GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

250$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822148288
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
99$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139004
CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 Power Supply 90 - 264 V UL, CUL, CE, CB, FCC Class B, TUV, CCC, C-tick
99$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827101131
Sony NEC Optiarc Black 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1615/B2s
18$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824254005
Hanns·G HW-191DPB Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 700:1 Built in Speakers
180$

price without vista or office: 1265 usd

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6832116488
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English 1pk DSP OEI DVD
110$


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6832116459
Microsoft 79G-00916 Office Home and Student 2007 English US 1pk DSP OEI V2 MLK(no media, Lic only)
130$

total price: 1505 usd

I save about 200 dollars by building my own system instead of buying it from dell or hp.



thanks all =D

also, in addition to reviewing above, an someone clarify what "latency" and "Sli" is?

Latency is used to describle the speed of the ram and SLI stands for Scalable Link Interface, which basically is two or more SLI enabled Nvidia cards on one motherboard. SLI can only be used on motherboards with nForce chipsets for example 750i or 780i or even 790i. The ATI equivalent of SLI is Crossfire which is basically the same thing, but can only be used on Intel chipsets.

oh and is everything above compatible with each other?

in my setup i mean