haha, well thank you all very much for the advice and the help.
I know it's a bit of a jump but...I already purchased my rig. I've been researching components for the last several weeks, and I believe everything checks out. I decided to take the plunge with Ibuypower....so I'll definitely post some updates about my experiences with them.
So, after lots and lots and lots of price / product / performance / compatibility comparison, here are the specs of my new rig:
Case NZXT Lexa-S Mid Tower Gaming Case - Black w/ Blue Light
Processor AMD Phenom™ II X6 1055T Black Edition Six-Core CPU
Processor Cooling Asetek 550LC Liquid CPU Cooling System w/ 120mm
Radiator (AMD)
Memory 4 GB DDR3-1333 Memory Module - Corsair XMS3
Dominator w/DHX technology
Video Card XFX ATI Radeon HD 5770 - 1GB - Single Card
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P -- AMD 770 Chipset w/8-ch HD
Audio, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, 1 PCI-E MB
Power Supply 650 Watt -- Casegears ECO-Element 80 Plus Certificated
High Efficiency Power Supply - SLI Ready
Primary Hard Drive 320 GB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM,
3.0Gb/s - Single Drive
Optical Drive 24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW
Sound Card 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
The cpu was a $10 upgrade over the x4 965 so figured...why not.
My goal of this build was not only to catch me up to current technology, but also make it so that I would be secure with my system for another 5+ years (since it's been 5 years since I last got something.)
The prospect of a new computer is very exciting, but the part where you have to spend money really sucks, even though I got a good deal I think.
It's been amazing learning about all of this new computer technology...I had no idea this stuff was going on. Major was definitely right, picking the parts was definitely the hardest thing to do until I understood how the technology worked.