What I'm up to now -- please comment!

Ah, the thrills, perils, and pitfalls of building a custom PC. I've decided to stray away from the Mac for a while and see if I have what it takes to get into the rig-building scene.

As it stands now, I've got two systems in formation. One of them is gonna be my main 'puter, and the other, well, I don't know what I'll do with it yet.

System one is built inside an Antec Twelve Hundred case.... here's what it looks like. Newegg just got some a few weeks ago, they're newly released and the successor to the Nine Hundred.

Enough with the pictures, Google Images needs a break. Next is the motherboard.

I'm using an ASUS P5K-E. I figure I'm too poor for SLI, which, luckily enough, this board doesn't support. However, it does support crossfire... maybe I'll pick up a couple 4850s when they come out.

For my CPU, I'm using the tried-and-true Core 2 Quad Q6600. I think it's actually the most popular CPU on Newegg, and for good reason. In fact, it's only $10 more than the E8400!

To cool it, I'm using a Zerotherm Butterfly. In all honesty, I didn't give much thought to choosing a cooler. Overclocking isn't really going to give me any real-world performance benefits, anyway.

For my power supply, I'm using a snazzy black Ultra 650-watt. Not much to say about it, it seems to work well. Cheap too.

As far as RAM goes, I'm using 3GB of Corsair RAM. Not a bad brand, and it was only $45.

I found a nice pair of 120GB Seagate disks, which shall be RAIDified. Hoo-ray. At least I don't have to buy a Raptor.

For video, I'm rockin' an XFX 8600GT Alpha Dog Edition. Can you tell I don't play games?