Christmas Present.

[Shogun]

Don't forget things like the DVD burner/drive, any cables you need if the parts are OEM and double check what they do/don't come with, it sucks to get the entire components list then realise you need a cable to finish it that you can't get until the next day. Major kick in the teeth :P

If you've never put a PC together before you might want to research it first, and/or get a friend to help that has some experience with it

[jrox]

My Only Suggest For the Mobo....

1st the one you have chosen is not SLI compatible so if you were wanting duel graphics cards it would not work.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813188015

I would suggest that. By far a sick ass board also from a trusted company.

I don't agree with this. Unless you're running a 30in monitor at 2560x1600 SLI is a waste of money. Not to mention the fact that the nvidia 680i mobos aren't going to support the new intel 45nm processors (as of january) So you will be stuck with your Q6600 until you get a new mobo.

This GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L seems to be the rave among 1kish system builders.
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16813128059

if you look around at clubit.com zipzoomfly.com buy.com you can usually find one for about $86.

[murmur]

I have basic knowledge of doing it. And iam sure there are tutorials online that could show you. If not i could have my friend help.

I built my first computer at the beginning of the year, and If I can do it I'm sure you can. It's really simple once you know what you doing.

I ordered all of my parts from newegg.com and everything arrived in great condition. They have super fast shipping too. I love that site.

If you want to read up and learn tomshardware.com is an awesome resource. The forums there are great too.

[thinus]

I'll promote the other way just to be different

I built my previous machine myself, ordered all my parts from the cheapest sources (remember to include shipping costs).
Tip: make sure the processor comes with a fan or heat sink and if it is not pre-assembled that it comes with some thermal paste as well.

Some annoying things to watch for, your case and PSU, the PSU wires might not reach where you want to place your harddrives. The PCI-e cards can be very long and mounting your hard drives in the bottom most brackets in a midi tower case will avoid them being in line with the PCI-e card. But some PSUs will not have long enough wires to reach the bottom of the case.

My motherboard also came with really flimsy SATA cables that broke if you looked at them too hard. Fitting those flimsy cables and then putting in a PCI-e card and trying to avoid pushing against those cables in cramped space was more of a pain than it should have been.

My motherboard also didn't have the I/O shield bundled with it, the little metallic plate that goes at the back over the connecters. By the time I noticed I had already installed the motherboard and I wasn't going to disassemble the whole machine again so I could send the motherboard back. I tried to get a I/O shield out of the supplier but eventually had to give up.

-----------------------------

Last week I started looking for a new machine. I compared prices from lots of different companies. I used their websites to pick all the components I want in my machine and compared the prices. I picked a single company which had a competitive price, was close to me and a good reputation.

I ordered all the components from them, about $2000NZ and asked how much it would be to assemble it which turned out to be $40NZ. Now when spending $2000NZ it just doesn't make sense to me to go through the hassle of building the machine yourself when you can get it professionally done by people that do this for a living.

I ordered it about lunch time, asked them to build it for me and I picked up the machine the same afternoon. I went home, turned it on, checked the specs and then installed the O/S. If I had a problem I could just pop back to them the next day.

$40NZ well spent I think.

[Hippieman]

For a PSU(Powersupply), I'd recommend NorthQ. They're scilent, they're efficient and they're very VERY stable (which is a big "yey" when you're running the bigrigs you get nowadays).