im Planning on either building my own comp or ordering one. the specs i plan to buy are

CASE: HOT NEW! X-Discovery Mid-Tower Case 420W W/ WINDOW & LCD Temperature Display (Silver Color)CPU: (Sckt775)Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6600 CPU @ 2.4GHz 1066FSB 2x2MB L2 Cache EM64T
MOTHERBOARD: (Quad-Core Supports) Asus P5N-E nForce 650i SLI Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2 Mainboard
MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)1GB (2x512MB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
VIDEO CARD: NEW!!! NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB 16X PCI Express (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
VIDEO CARD 2: NONE
LCD Monitor: NONE
HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive (320GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
Data Hard Drive: NONE
Optical Drive: Sony Q170A 18x Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)


what i was wondering was the PSU, will 420 be enough? or will i need a bigger PSU? i plan on upgading in the future so i dont want to go to extravengent on the PSU price when i will probably do that later down the road when i get better hardware.

What CPU are you getting? I assume some sort of Core 2 Duo, based on your chipset choice. If its a high-end extreme model, or quad core, you might want to step it up just in case.

I am currently using an older thermaltake 420w PSU in my system, with 2 SATA-II HDDs(500gb & 250gb) and 1 DVD drive. I'm sure my 7800GT requires less juice than your 8800, but then again, the new Core 2 Duos are easy on power consumption, compared to AMD which I currently use.

You have relatively few devices, just 1 HDD and 1 DVD drive. So you are probably fine with a 420w PSU with that setup. But if you plan on adding another HDD or two in the future, i'd upgrade the PSU when that time comes.

420w? your hardware, but i wouldn't - if it was a decent PSU it would be tight, but a PSU thrown in with a case isn't amazing, i just wouldn't

Apart from that, not bad, although i cant see a point in that mobo (if you want SLi, then there are better 680i's for cheaper, if you dont then get the P5B-Deluxe or just go for a cheaper board)

Ive been hearing mix things about the 680i, i know its great and an improvement over the 650, but i also heard about some bios problems, (which might be resolved already) and reviews that seem to ponder if the 680 is worth the extra 100 or so dollars (us),and im also not a terribly crazy overclocking or one who messes with the bios really. As long as it works and it works well,(i might think about overclocking though )
i actually DONT want SLI, at least not now, ive read a few articles about it and dont see the worth in SLI just yet. but i want the option open.

Yeah and i do have few extra devices besides the neccessary, as for a harddrive, i have a firewire external which i plan to use for storage space (and my video editing) and my laptop hard drive space, This computer will mostly have games and some editing software. i dont think i will need the extra space internally just yet.

one thing i was planning on was triyng to keep the cost around a thousand (monitor seperately) this build is actual a configured build over at www.cyberpowerpc.com the infinity 7500, originally i planned to build my own, and i came across this computer review in a magazine. it had some really good specs for the price and was almost identical to what i was looking for (the 8800 gts video card, and 2.4 ghz cpu) for under a thousand. building these parts seperately on new egg came to around 1200-1400, so im still contemplating on how i should go about gettin this system running.
two of my biggest concerns has been with the motherboard and power supply. as this would be my first computer build and these are the two most unsure of areas for me (and the case and proper cooling, though i think i can understand most of that)

Always get the latest and greatest motherboard you can. It's the soul of your computer and needs to be decent. The PSU is the heart of your system and should be more than you need for now, so you can use it again when you upgrade. SLI is a gimmick and you're better off without it, single card solutions are much better compatibility wise. I'd also go for a Pioneer drive over the Sony. Sony haven't been getting good reviews lately becuase they're drives are sucking.

hm so can you point me to some good motherboards to look at? or what i should be looking for in a motherboard? most of the guides ive seen talk about gettin a motherboard thats compatible with the processor and ram and video card, and overclocking rather than going into specefics details. whether or not i want sli or not or have enough ports or open pci slots for all my devices. going by that the 650 seemed fine also based on reviews seemed fine, i wasnt sure if the 680i was worth the extra money since in terms of performance (from like the 2 reviews i read) are identical, besides the extra ports and some options. the PSU i deffinelity plan to upgrade in the future (unless i can find the money now) as i know prices will be coming down, and im not looking for al the greatest peices of equipment that require other great equipment just yet.
i am also trying to keep the system build around 1000 so thats also a factor.