Yet wait a bit longer dx 10.1 cards are to I think either be announced, or come november, meaning the 8800's will drop in price maybe soon, I got a 8800gts 320 mb for 279.99
- aim for the intel core 2 duo E6750, It is the best deal and awesome performance. It runs FSB 1333 200.00 - with this you need thermal compund, get arctic silver 5 for 5 bucks - Go for a well priced motherboard, ASUS and Gigabyte are great brands, I currently have the Gigabyte P35 DS3L motherboard, was only 100, most motherboards are more expensive because they have more unneeded additions. - ddr2 800 g.skill ram on newegg is great and the best price aswell. it was 80 - your going to want a case LOOKS ARE NOT FREAKEN EVERYTHING, I have a case was only 60 but has awesome airflow, paying 100 for a case is crap, buying cases online is quite difficult, also shipping is very expensive, find a local computer store. - go for sata, my 320gb sata hd was 75 - power supply's are difficult, buying online I do not recommend, if your computer wont start up, look to the power supply will be the #1 problem! I tried RMAing a faulty power supply I recieved from zipzoomfly, no success, no e-mail, I did it right too, never got the replacement, so I lost 60 bucks, I got it at a local store for 80, it was a ultra 600w power supply. 600w is plenty, 1,000w is a waste. Avoid low priced power supply's, recommended brands: ultra, silverstone, seagate, corsair, ect, avoid power supplys that may come with cases
so lets round, the price is roughly 900, depending on the sales
setting up the computer is a breeze, instructions come with your parts
I can post some example parts, I can give feedback on parts you may consider