^ solid build. Both shortstuff and I went AMD for the processor, at your budget it's the best bang/buck. Shortstuff went with a superior graphic card with a single socket AM2+ motherboard and a faster processor. This should give you a basic plan to put your build together. For an operating system go with either Vista Home Premium 64 bit or download Windows7 RC 64 bit.
Shortstuff, should i go with your recommendation on the Sapphire brand video card or go with XFX? XFX has a better warranty? Thanks guys, appreciate it.
last question about video card, this is a huge card, don't recommend any of the geforce cards compared to this one? I hear this 4870 takes up alot of space.
The 4870 is actually 1" smaller than comparable Nvidia cards (9.5" vs 10.5" ). I would stick with the 4870 1GB card. It offers amazing price/performance due to the recent price drops.