D34DC311 said:
holy crap $800,
i can build a system for $800 that is top of the line with monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers. and im not kidding man.
Define "Top of the Line".
I paid $250 for my Logitech Z-5500 speakers, and it's tough to find anything for that price which delivers what this system does.
Buying your operating system [which you want to do these days - XP pro with service pack 2 and regular updates is more than worth the price you pay for an OEM version of it, which most vendors only require you to buy a system component for building a new system - AKA the hard drive you are already going to buy] will cost $100-$150 for a legitimate/legal copy.
$100 for a 250gb hard drive.
$100 for a 17" CRT Monitor
$50 for an OEM Sound Blaster Audigy2 5.1 Sound Card
This brings your total to $600 and you still haven't even bought your motherboard, processor, memory, case/power supply or optical drive.
I just dropped $200 on 2 gigabytes of PC3200 [DDR400] dual channel memory, and it was NOT top of the line.
I also dropped $130 on a "top of the line" Antec P180 case, and it didn't even come with a power supply [which will cost you $50-100 for a good one that delivers great power and won't rattle your brain with fan noise].
I paid $90 for my wife's keyboard and mouse set alone.
Define "top of the line" again, because while the $50 OEM sound card I listed is great, "top of the line" in the general consumer/gamer category costs about $200.