StevieRay

Thanks Mach...typo on my part...although I can see how some systems can get up to 14k! lol!

Bamboo...Yeah, the 8400 for price and power is it for now. The card will allow me to go up to a strong quad someday if need by...which is what I liked about it. I don't think I need to worry about ddr3 for a while. They havent stopped making new ddr2 yet.

Oh, my OS is Vista Ultimate 64, that I already have on hand. You are right, 4 gig is needed with the 64 bit system and all. Should I just double the order on the RAM or is there a better way to go on that?

I have some good recommendations on Thermal Paste but the names elude me now. But I was definately going aftermarket on that from what I have heard from nearly everyone that builds a system.

Not sure what to do about the Raptor...I will check out the 74g's. Will that be enough for Vista 64 and games?

Cooling: check this out for $45 ZAlman LED 110m 2 Ball

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118019

Long Bow, thanks. I will check out that cooler. And I will look out for the BFG GTS...Have not seen one yet. I like the EVGA customer service and the clock of 678 on the card I picked. You are very right about shipping. I am going to run the list against Zipzoomfly, newegg, tigerdirect and see what comes out best. If you or anyone has a recommendation of sites to check out, please let me know. I heard some good things about buy.com.

Lastly. Thank you again for all you input. Good to hear from others who have done what I am going to do, for the first time!

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Bamboo

One of the most expexsive things to ship is the case, which can cost up to $20 to ship.
Keep your eyes open on sites like Amazon.com and Buy.com, as well as newegg, since they all offer specials on free shipping. I bought my case from Buy.com because of the free shipping, even though the cause was like $5 cheaper on newegg. Ended up paying less overall with free shipping.

Read the fine print on the rebate form for the RAM. Some will let you order like 2-3 sets and be fine, while some will only let you buy one set per shipping address. Not a problem if you send it to work or a buddy, but I have seen the fine print say this is considered fraud.

And I think the 74 gig raptor is fine with OS and games. I have actually started putting some of the larger games on my 2nd larger media drive, and they still load super fast, since the raptor can worry about the os and background stuff, and the seagate can just load the game. Usually one of the 1st into a new map in BF2 PR, and that game is well known to need a fast harddrive if you want to load quickly.

For thermal paste, I posted a bunch of reviews links a couple of months ago, just search the forums. The new stuff from OCZ came out on top in pretty much all of them, and is the same price as the artic silver. Plus, no cure time.

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