Already bought parts, looking for a "how I did for 500 bucks"

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Already purchased

BUDGET RANGE: 500ish

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: WoW, Media (vids, mp3's), Downloads, browsing in general youtube etc

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS, Hard drives, I have 2 250 gig sata maxtors I will use in either a raid 0 or 0+1 (am open to suggestions) also have an external mybook 1tb for storage. and have a pci wifi card

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg, thermaltake.com

PARTS PREFERENCES: I've already bought parts

OVERCLOCKING yes im going to overclock, probably to 3.6, I have heard that the phenom ii 550 can be overclocked stably (sometimes) to 3.8, I also intend to unlock the dormant cores (or at least attempt to) to make the processor a quad core

MONITOR RESOLUTION: I'm really not sure, I'll play with different resolutions, I have a Sharp 46" Aquos that I will be using for a monitor using the HDMI port on the video card, unless anyone has other suggestions (such as using the vga port or DVI)

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: This is my first SFF case design, and yeah I realize I kind of jumped into this headfirst... be gentle with comments please.

And on to the parts.
Case I went with a Thermaltake Lanbox Lite VF6000BWS I don't really need a window but I bought the case as a refurb from Thermaltake
Thermaltake Lanbox Lite VF6000BWS A couple scratches or a ding won't bother me as I have 2 kids and saving 20-40 bucks is more important than having a "spotless" case.

Power Supply I went with a mushkin 550200 550W ATX12V SLI Ready Modular Power Supply I've had good luck with Mushkin's in the past and feel comfortable using this power supply.

Motherboard I went kind of low end with a BIOSTAR TA785GE 128M AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard I know I scrimped here, but I wanted a board I could unlock the quad core in. What do you guys think?

Processor I went with an AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Processor Reason for going with this processor is to unlock it to a quad core. I realize I may have to go with a higher end cooler, anyone have any thoughts on a cooler that will fit in this case?

RAM I went with OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 Newegg had this on sale for 51.99 with free shipping, I think I did decently, any thoughts?

Video, I know this board has onboard vid, but since I play wow I wanted a little more oomph. so I went with SAPPHIRE 100256HDMI Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail Wow doesn't support crossfire so I think I'm good with this vid for awhile, plus it does HDMI which I'm anxious to play with. Any thoughts? (is this overclock friendly?)

Optical I went with a Plextor 24x Dual Layer DVD burner I have a ps3 so didn't really feel the need to go blu ray at this time. have nero, didn't need to get again so went oem

I am wondering whether to go with vista or xp and 32 or 64 bit, any thoughts either way?

I will probably add in a tv tuner at some point for dvr capability, will probably go with an adaptec avc-3610.

Any thoughts are appreciated

not great, that PSU is old and not good, it doesnt have active PFC. The cores on the phenom II series are generally knocked out for a reason, not just to make more of a certain part so you may or may not be able to stably unlock them and even if you do you may not be able to get a decent OC without significantly higher voltages. Unlocking is hit or miss anyway. WOW would also probably have appreciated a stronger graphics card especially at HD tv resolution.

It will combine the two 20amp rails into a single 40amp rail, which I think is a good feature.

Why is active PFC important?
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/116374-28-important

Overall you didn't do to bad. I give you an 80% (B-). You may have had better luck in unlocking the cores with an ASRock 785G board rather than going with that Biostar. Biostar is o.k, but if you want something cheap with good overclocking options and good BIOS support ASRock is the way to go. The voltages on the RAM are pretty high to reach its rated speed and timings so some good DDR2800 Ram would probably have been able to reach the same speed and timings with a lower voltage. Still, not bad for the price. The PSU is fine, just keep in mind it has 28A on the 12V rail. It's more than enough for your rig though. Anyway before buying a PSU it's always good to research it, or at least check out where it is as far as PSU Tiers

http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx

As for the case, unless you specifically want it as a Lan system, I probably would have gone with something else. Of course I prefer having a full ATX case with good ventelation, and while you can get a good one for around $50 it's the shipping that gets ya . Anyway overall good job.

+1 for the good explanation. Thanks.