Tribes was the first game I played, and I was surprised that I wasn't half as bad as I thought I'd be. I blame all those deaths on admiring the scenery .

I believe gaming is what they call the 45 min. you slip in before you have to start dinner. And the occasional hour or 2 when you're fiance falls asleep and you stay up later then you should .

No problem Hat, I'd just never heard of IDE before. I guess it was a little before my time :wink:. Thanks for the guide Gambit, it was actually one of the 2 that I had bookmarked to read. With the second drive now setup, last fan connected, and all of my cable management finalized I can say that I t...

Just want to clarify, is an IDE the same as a HDD?

Oh ok great! Brother in-law started rambling on about RAID setups and that's something I know nothing about.

Well, I got everything assembled and running today :). Booted right up the first go. Haven't done much except download necessary things like adobe and flash etc. Fan's are pretty quiet even with the tower sitting 3 ft to my right on the desk. Only (tiny) negative thing so far is the stock cpu cooler...

I will do, Thanks Ice. Scary thought just occurred to me.. Are my parts going to be damaged sitting on my porch awaiting for me to arrive home from work? The porch is covered so any potential precipitation shouldn't hit my packages, but it's the freezing temperatures that concern me. Everything is e...

This game is already at the top of the list of games I plan on downloading and playing. Once i'm all setup, i'm sure you'll catch me on.

The parts that kept going out of stock as I tried to add them to the cart finally are in stock. Ordered everything this morning. Waiting eagerly for everything to arrive . Thank you all for the help and suggestions!

Btw Gambit. Thanks for the good read on monitors, I decided to go with this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6824236288

Grrr, couple of the pieces are out of stock. Waiting (im)patiently. If I was to just buy 8 gb RAM to start, it's as simple as buying the exact same type of RAM in another 8gb stick to drop in later right?

Uh Oh! It didn't take AMD long to advertise that radeon's "4gb means 4gb"

Thanks for the tips, and suggestion; Monitors are one thing I know next to nothing about.

Well by saving some money and getting the 290 over the geforce, It shouldn't be an issue adding another 8gb of ram. I've read quite a few reviews about the 290 running on the hotter side, and also artifacting and/or screen tearing. The heat shouldn't be much of an issue I'd assume if I have the card...

Was thinking something similar to this for my screen: http://www.amazon.com/Acer-S220HQL-Abd-21-5-Inch-Widescreen/dp/B005LJWJSG Based on your example, do you think it would be more practical to go with this card?: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127774&nm_mc=AFC-C8Juncti...