Allow me to open this guide with what I mean by cheap tricks of the trade.  It occured to me 3 years ago when I started to build my own computers that some of the really good independent Computer makers where actually telling you what parts they used when they put their top of the line computers together.  Instead of buying a DELL or an HP or a Gateway I could get a quality (name brand) part used in every component of my brand new P.C.!  Wait it gets better many of these new parts they were using for the motherboards Asus or Gigabyte or MSI came with 3 year warranties.  What I am trying to tell you is that you can build your own system (COMPUTER) with name brand quality parts without knowing anything about the buisness.  First thing is first go out and buy a P.C. World or C.P.U. Computer Power User magazine or even check out their websites or my personal favorite gotowww.toms.hardware.com  see what are the hot items out and see how the high end independent builders are making their systems. Dell just bought one of the largest independent Computer makers and Rebranded them as their high end computers.   When you but a motherboard get one with a 3 year warrenty and that goes for every item you are going to buy with this new computer  the great thing is that tech support is offered by each of the companies you will end up buying to build the computer for free from the independent manufacturer ASUS, MSI, GIGABYTE. The second best piece of advice I have is buy from a large reseller who doesn't have a difficult RMA process.  I would buy most of my items from gotowww.tigerdirect.com but I live in Florida and want to save the tax dollars so I buy from gotowww.newegg.com   I have never had a problem returning anything to this company they might be the best company to buy from outside the great state of Florida.  So the cheap trick of the trade if I over complicated for you is open computer magazines look and see what parts the independent companies are using for the expensive machines (you can call ans ask which brand) then just assemble the system yourself.  It is so easy to put a computer together you can build one for the 1st time in under 4 hours being anal and meticulous I can build one in 40 minutes without loading the operating system.  In closing it seems that Dell is sell a huge part of their refurbished inventory online on their website - hey if you are going to buy a Dell do the work a favor and don't pay full price.  Not much more to say, It does take some time to master these mini skills but once you have figured it out you really can tackle all sorts of new jobs.  The first thing I ever did was buy more memory for my computer and found out that it was really easy to do.  Have fun and read a few different guides on how to build the system.  In closing the technology is changing so rapidly that you need to understand what type of processor your mother board will use and you need to inquire if it will have bios upgrades to accept new processors when they come out.  As I am writing this review Intel has release these QUAD processors and I hear that more is to come if you have a duel core 6400 series your in the game if you have a duel core 950 series your playing with last years technology.  Have fun.  Mikey Greenwood