first of all i would like to thank this website and the following websites for all the help they have given me in building my pc. 2 months ago i knew almost nothing about hardware. now, 1000 posts later anf 10000 replies later, i have an extremely cheap and fast pc, that i have over clocked myself, and a wealth of knowledge that will serve me well as my major is electrical engineering.

episteme.arstechnica.com
www.computing.net
www.daniweb.com
forums.cnet.com
www.computerforum.com

secondly, i would like to suggest that others build the same pc i have made, because it is so cheap and so fast:

e7200 287 x 9.5
ga ep35 -ATTENTION! THIS BOARD DOES NOT LET U CHANGE VCORE. but as it so happens, with my flodded memory bandwith, my memory became the limiting reagent before my cpu did.
ocz hyperx 2x2 gb 287 at 1:2
8800gt - mine had a HUGE heat sink but i bought the last one on new egg :)
se16 640 gb
\this case and spu works great, hpc used to make power supplies for expensive servers: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811121002
and any cheap dvd burner

i should also mention that i found about 100 computer building forums, narrowed them down to 30 with the appropriate number of responses, and then these great sites were the most knowledgeable of the 30

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