Hi All,

I posted once before, I took your comments, I accepted some, and now I am days away from executing my purchase plans. Most prices below are from NewEgg, but I will shop for lower prices once I start my build.

Lian Li PC-V1100 Plus II PURCHASED!

CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX $109.99

Thermalright Ultra-120 $54.99

ASUS Rampage Formula $289.00

Intel Q9550 $549.99

SAPPHIRE 100243L Radeon HD 4870 $284.99

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB $209.99

CORSAIR XMS2 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) $109.00

ACER - P243WAid 24" $379.99

Blu-Ray Player (Recommendations?) ~170

CD/Dvd Writer (Recommendations?) ~50


I really value your thoughts and opinions as I am completely new to this. I plan to hook it up to a 42" lcd, and use the blu-ray player for movies. Any issues I should be aware of? Will I be able to use my tv's speakers to play sound or will I need a separate sound system? I will run Vista 64-bit, and I plan to use photoshop for RAW editing. I know all this might be overkill, but I'm cool with that -- I want to blow up the occasional alien or two when I have some downtime.

I've read that my case doesn't have much clearance space for a large CPU heatsink -- anyone have any idea whether the one listed above would work? I also have read that my case has issues fitting PSUs, but I think the corsair 650TX works fine with this case. Any input/experience with this case?

Is there anything else I am missing? I went with the corsair PSU and the rampage formula/ddr2 memory b/c I listened to Tom's Hardware posters like you. I was originally going to go with the ASUS P5E3/ddr3 memory and an Antec PSU, but ya'll convinced me. Keep the comments coming please! I really appreciate it since I want to make sure I get the most bang for my buck!

Go with the Xigmatek S1283 it's $27 after rebate and it's a clone of the cooler you have. It runs a 1 or 2 degrees Celsius warmer. Definitely worth the price drop. Everything else is fine. I reccomend LG drives. They have a 22X DVD burner /w Lightscribe for $28 I think. They also have a Blu-ray DL burner that reads both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD for around $200 I think. Look them up on NewEgg.